The years between 2 and 5 are so important for knowledge. This is the time when much of your child’s interests and temperament are being developed. They are also developing skills that they can use in school. So, that’s why we do preschool activities!
How does our weekly preschool schedule look? Below is how our preschool runs each week:
A LETTER OF THE WEEK ACTIVITY
ABCs
One of the first steps to learning to read is recognizing the letters of the alphabet. The children do daily activities using the alphabet.
Every week I do a different letter to craft with and explore. Here are some sources used:
A is for Apple. B is for Bear. C is for Crab. D is for Dinosaur. E is for Elephant. F is for foil. G is for Giraffe. H is for horse. I is for Inch. J is for jellyfish. K is for kangaroo. L is for Ladybug. M is for Mouse. N is for Night. O is for octopus. P is for Parrot. Q is for Queen. R is for rainbow. S is for Snake. T is for Train. U is for Under. V is for Volcano. W is for Watermelon. X is for xylophone. Y is for Yak. Z is for Zebra.
Sensory
Sensory is a big part of learning as well. Children learn with touch, sight and smell. You don’t need expensive teaching tools to teach your child!
Some activities we do:
- Practice writing in a salt tray.
- Play with gel bags to help kids practice tracing.
- Trace letters that were written with a highlighter.
FINE MOTOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT
An important skill kids need for Kindergarten require fine motor control. Different activities using fine motor skills will help your kids develop the finger “grasp” coordination that they will need as they begin writing.
We do some activities like these:
- Cut shapes along lines.
- Learning the “right way” to hold pencils.
PRESCHOOL MATH SKILLS
Did you know there is such a thing as preschool math? Early math will help kids learn math skills that will help them when they enter school.
Some math activities we do:
- Practice counting to 20 and recognize groups of items up to 10.
- Learning shapes.
- Counting backwards-this will help with subtraction later.
- Counting with fingers.
COLORS AND VOCABULARY
If your child isn’t speaking yet, teaching colors will help with this.
We speak about colors daily and do this:
- Play color games-ex: find something the color “red”
- Print colorful patterns.
LEARNING TO READ
Reading is a BIG part of our preschool! There are fun things to do to encourage reading.
- Read aloud daily.
- Teach kids to hold books and point to the words so they learn to follow from left to right.
- Comprehends a story and is able to re-tell it to another person.
- Beginning sounds. Find the letter that makes the sound at the beginning of a word.
- Encourage your kids to speak in full sentences, clearly.
LIFE SKILLS
Social skills are very,very important for a child’s development for school. Kids are encouraged to socialize through these techniques.
- Encouraged to express their feelings ( ex: “I am sad” or “I am sorry”).
- Quiet time and independent time.
- Clean up time at end of day.
- Practice waiting and taking turns.
- Follow multi-step instructions (ex: Wash your hands, get your lunch box and sit down to eat).
We also use ABCmouse.com – Early Learning Academy .
