Free preschool themed activities to try with your kids
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Free preschool themed activities to try with your kids: Apps & activities for education and entertainment
Parents of preschool-age children know keeping them busy with healthy, learning activities can be a daunting task. This is the age where they are learning basic human skills like potty training, playing with others, and feeding themselves.
Preschool minds are like sponges and you should make the most of it with free preschool themed activities to try with your kids! Things like singing, cutting strings of beads, Do-A-Dot printables and learning numbers are just some of things you can do with your kids for free!
Singing with them
Music and singing are natural to toddlers as they are exploring their voices and movement. One sure way to help them love music is to sing with them and around them. Children who hear parents singing develop a positive memory of it and have increased bonding with parents.
Here are some other tips:
- Let them make up songs. Sure, they are silly and make no sense but it helps their imaginations.
- Teach them simple songs like “The Wheels on the Bus” or “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Kids should only be working with two or three pitches and a simple melody will help them remember the words better.
- Use response songs. These are songs where the leader sings a phrase and the child will either repeat the phrase or provide some other backup sound in response. An example would be “Camptown Races” or “Old McDonald Had a Farm” where the child can sing the E-I-E-I-O part.
Cutting themed strings or beads together
The idea of cutting something may frighten some toddler parents, but these are activities suitable for two-year-olds through the preschool years. Many parents find that strings of beads work better than paper in that they are easier to cut and more fun and make for great free preschool themed activities to try with your kids. You may need to help your child with the scissors and also may need to hold the string. You can also pre-cut strings to smaller lengths of two or three inches so they are easier for your child to hold. Prepare a tray with two plastic bowls for the activity. One bowl is for the string of beads to cut. The other bowl is to hold them after cutting. You can use this activity as a counting exercise too. Introduce adding and subtracting too by having the child count the beads after adding or taking away some.
The learning doesn’t need to stop with the cutting. You and your child can use the beads to make an art picture or put them in a jar for a guessing game on how many are in there, which also teaches math skills.
Use free do-a-dot printables
Dot printables and dot markers are many moms’ go-to items when they want to come up with a quick activity. You can print out many free images from your computer. Preschoolers love it and it can keep them entertained for hours.
You will need to get a few things to do these activities but some things are likely around the house. You will need:
- Something to put underneath to avoid a mess like newspapers, a messy mat, or a project board.
- Printable Dot Art Sheets are a must but they are free online from several blog sites. Pinterest has many free options. Free printables come in animal shapes, geometric designs, and letters so you can combine other forms of learning with this craft.
- A box of Do-A-dot Markers will be the one thing you will need to buy. Moms say these are awesome products with wonderful colors. The price may be a little high but families can use them for years so it pays off in the long run.
Don’t limit them to paper art either. Let them try it out on paper plates and paper cups too!
Start teaching math
It’s never too early to introduce children to math. The preschool age is the perfect time for them to learn counting. There are several ways to accomplish this. One way to start is to tell them how old they are and hold up the number of fingers for their age. You show them how old they are by counting on your fingers, and then you ask them to do the same. At first, they might have trouble counting to their age on their fingers, but if you continue to encourage them and model the behavior, they will get the grasp of it soon enough.
You can also start by teaching them all the numbers that they need to learn to get ready for kindergarten. Once they have learned their numbers, you can teach them to start counting by having them count fun objects. Yet another way to help them learn to count is to have them count while doing some sort of activity. For example, you could have them hop across the room ten times. While they are hopping, have them count aloud. This is a great activity because it teaches them to count while also encouraging gross motor skills.
Teach them to tell time.
Get rid of the digital clocks and put an old-fashioned face clock in the house. It also helps if they have a basic clock face placard to practice. You can easily make one using construction paper, poster board, and glue. Just make sure the hands are easily movable. Teaching children to tell time on an analogue clock at a young age is one of the most important skills that you can teach them. This is because they will not always have access to a digital clock, and there are a lot of everyday terms that you must know how to read an analogue clock in order to understand. For example, the terms “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” only make sense if you know how to read an analogue clock. Likewise, the clock face is sometimes used to describe direction, as in “there’s a red car at 2:00.”
These concepts might be too advanced for a preschooler to understand, but familiarizing them with an analogue clock now will make it easier for them to understand these phrases when they are older.
Get children in nature.
Nature offers many ways to incorporate math skills. They can count leaves, rocks, and even pumpkins. You can also incorporate weights and measures into some of these family outings showing them what a one-pound pumpkin weighs versus a two-pound pumpkin. The options for outdoor activities that you can do with your preschoolers are endless. You can take them on nature walks where they can see the plants that naturally live in your area. If you are lucky, you might even have a chance to let them see some birds or maybe even a chipmunk.
Let them explore their natural talents
Now is the time to allow your children to explore their passions. This means letting them try out different instrument toys, like horns and miniature pianos, as well as art, crafts, and outdoor athletic activities.
How to encourage social-emotional learning
Just because your child is at home doesn’t mean they can’t learn positive social-emotional habits. Things like working with puppets to express feelings, thinking out loud exercises, reading a bedtime story, or working in the kitchen together can all help your child develop positive responses. This is also one of the reasons why it is so important for children to play and use their imaginations. Imaginative group play is one of the most critical activities for children to do, because it encourages their social ; emotional development.
Help them develop their motor skills
It is important to help your children develop both their fine and gross motor skills. Fine motor skills are the ability to make small motions with the small muscles in your hands, fingers, and wrists. Gross motor skills involve making wider motions with your limbs. There are lots of ways that you can develop your children’s fine motor skills. Some of these include arts and crafts projects that we have already discussed in this article. Other options include activities such as playing with Legos or other similar toys. When it comes to developing your children’s gross motor skills, you still have lots of options that you can use. One popular option is to construct a small balance beam on the floor. This teaches your children to walk along a thin line.
Other popular options are activities like sitting on the floor and spinning. This develops upper body strength. You can also provide tunnels for the children to crawl through or miniature strollers or shopping carts that they can push around the room.
Encourage them to play pretend
If you are looking for free preschool themed activities to try with your kids, you should have them play pretend. Childhood is a time of imagination and children learn about the world by playing. There are lots of fun things that children can do to play pretend. Your children can pretend to be police officers, fire fighters, doctors, teachers, nurses, and soldiers.
They can also pretend that they are superheroes, knights, or kings. There are lots of dress up games that your children can play, and lots of ways for them to get lost in a fantastical world of their imagination.
Teach your children how to clean
One of the most useful skills that you can teach your preschool aged children is to clean up after themselves and the homes that they live in. You can create activities that focus on teaching them basic skills and habits like picking up toys off the floor and organizing them properly. You can also teach them to use basic cleaning concepts such as sweeping crumbs off of a dirty floor, wiping down the surface of a table, or the gross motor movements that are needed to use a vacuum cleaner.
Start teaching your children about science
Another option for free preschool themed activities to try with your kids is to teach them basic concepts about science. One of the most popular preschool themed science activities is a classic activity that teaches them about whether objects will sink or float. To do this you fill a plastic bin with water and gather some items such as a wooden stick, a metal spoon, an eraser, a plastic toy, and anything else you have around that you want to play with. To do this, you just ask them whether they think each item that you picked will float or sink when you put it in the water. This is a great activity to use to introduce your children to the marvels of science. Other activities that you can do are things that teach them about the universe. You could teach them basic astronomy by having them draw the sun, the moon, and stars. While they do this, you can talk to them about what these things are.
Conclusion
Many activities exist that can help your preschool child grow in many ways. It may take a little planning on your part to do free preschool themed activities to try with your kids but it will create habits and memories that will last a lifetime.
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Preschoolers are at a high learning age and you can use free preschool themed activities to try with your kids to increase their learning and imagination! Click here for ideas!
