Preschooler Activities
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Children are eager learners: they are interested in everything around them.
These easy-to-do activities encourage children's active learning and those
wonderful words of growing confidence, "I can do it!"
Think of these as starter activities to get your ideas going. There are
opportunities everywhere for teaching and learning. Take a little time to do a lot of good!
Sorting and Stacking
Teach classification skills with dinnerware. Ask your
child to match and stack dishes of similar sizes and shapes. Also have your
child sort flatware - forks with forks, spoons with spoons. This is like
recognizing the shapes of letters and numbers.
“Telephonitis”
Give your child practice in reading numbers left to right by
dialing a telephone. Make a list of telephone numbers your child can read - for
relatives, friends, the weather bureau - and have your child make a call or two.
Dress MeIncrease your child's vocabulary. Teach the name of each item of
clothing your child wears--shirt, blouse, sweater, sock, shoe--when your child
is dressing or undressing. Also teach the body parts--head, arm, knee, foot.
Then print the words on paper and ask your child to attach these papers to the
clothes in the closet or drawers. Make a pattern of your child lying on a large
sheet of paper. Tack it up. Ask your child to attach the words for the body
parts to the right locations.
And That's the End of the Story
Improve listening skills and imagination.
Read a story aloud to your child and stop before the end. Ask the child how the
story will turn out. Then finish the story and discuss the ending with the
child. Did it turn out the way you thought?
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Disappearing Letters
Promote creativity and build muscle control with a pail
of water and a brush. On a warm day, take your children outside to the driveway
or sidewalk and encourage them to write anything they wish. Talk about what
they've written.
Comic Strip Writing
Use comic strips to help with writing. Cut apart the
segments of a comic strip and ask your child to arrange them in order. Then ask
your child to fill in the words of the characters (orally or in writing).
Hidden Letters
Ask your child to look for letters of the alphabet on boxes and
cans of food and household supplies. For example, find five A's or three C's, or
any number of letters or combinations on cereal boxes, soup cans, bars of soap.
Start with easy-to-find letters and build up to harder-to-find ones. Then have
your children write the letters on paper or point out the letters on the boxes
and cans.
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Laundry Math
Sharpen skills by doing a necessary household job. Ask your
youngster to sort laundry--before or after washing. How many socks? How many
sheets? And you may find a lost sock as well.
Let 'Em Eat Shapes
Cut bread into different shapes - rectangles, triangles,
squares, circles. Make at least two of each shape. Ask your youngster to choose
a pair of similar shapes, then to put jam on the first piece, and to place the
second piece on top to make a sandwich. This is a snack plus a game to match
shapes.
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Ice Is Nice
Improve observation and questioning skills by freezing and
melting ice. Add water to an ice cube tray and set it in the freezer. Ask your
child how long it will take to freeze. For variety, use different levels of
water in different sections of the tray. Set ice cubes on a table. Ask your
child how long they will take to melt. Why do they melt? Place the ice cubes in
different areas of the room. Do they melt faster in some places than in others?
Why?
Float and Sink
Encourage hypothesizing (guessing). Use several
objects - soap, a dry sock, a bottle of shampoo, a wet sponge, an empty bottle.
Ask your child which objects will float when dropped into water in a sink or
bathtub. Then drop the objects in the water, one by one, to see what happens.
What Does It Take to Grow?
Teach cause-and-effect relationships. Use two
similar, healthy plants. Ask your child to water one plant and ignore the other
for a week or two, keeping both plants in the same place. At the end of that
time, ask your child to water the drooping plant. Then talk about what happened
and why. Plants usually perk up with water just as children perk up with good
words and smiles from parents.
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