Play activities for preschoolers?

Question

Any interesting, fun play activities for preschoolers? Include the materials needed for each activity and oh I want it to be less structured... :) Thanks.

Answer 1

So glad you're looking for open-ended activities! Kids this age need a lot of unstructured activities. Put out a variety of materials like feather, seeds, pipe cleaners, drinking straws cut into small (1") lengths, small snippets of colored paper, etc. Teach the children how to use little dots of glue on a larger piece of paper and glue the assorted bits and pieces on to make collages. The short lengths of straws can also be strung on yarn to make necklaces. Cut the yarn into appropriate lengths and wrap a small piece of masking tape around one end. The tape the other end to the table to make it easier for the kids to string the straws or fruit loops. My kids have always enjoyed making "hats." One very simple hat they like to do is really more of a head band. Cut construction paper strip about 2 inches wide and staple them together to make a length long enough to wrap around their heads. (You'll want to cover the ends of the staples with a small piece of masking tape so it won't scratch skin or catch hair.) Then they can decorate it however they want: strips of crepe paper or construction paper, draw on it with crayons, snip little bits of paper to glue on (again, teach little dots of glue!) feathers. I LOVE the music and movement activities, and so do the kids! And a sand table or sand box with cups, buckets shovels, trucks, etc. is always fun. Oh, and don't forget to let them help you make play dough and then play with it!

Answer 2

Water play is good if you've got a tray. There are so many things you can do
1. Pouring - eg put in a toy tea set, spoons, cups, jugs, teacups
2. Toy animals, fish, reptiles etc
3. Make a big ice cube (massive) and add some toy polar bears etch and let them watch it melt during the session
4. Filling plastic bottles of different sizes - lids to put on and off
5. Straws to blow bubbles

Answer 3

Any Dr. Jean CD is great for educational songs. Music and movement is ALWAYS good. Craft wise: http://www.dltk-kids.com/ is GREAT. Easy materials that you can find around the house. www.abcteach.com is good too. For a list of all of these resources, visit
www.sitesforteachers.com and
www.songsforteachers.com

Answer 4

movement to music. Put on a cd (anything will do to begin with) and let them dance to it. The stronger the beat, the better the result. Try some ballet music too and world music

Answer 5

you could do a furit loop necklace. little kids always love thoes and you just need three chices of yarn and furit loops. It is easy and fun for them. neat you could bring paper and coulded pencials and have tehm practic writing there name in different coulers, or you could bring a book and read to them. Hope this helped if you nedd anymore Ideas you can email me at [e-mail]

Answer 6

Sing songs that have motions. These are also called finger songs or finger play. There are huge books and web sites dedicated to this topic.

Answer 7

Sing songs and use your body to act it out...things like "itsy bitsy spider", and "Little Bunny Foo Foo", etc.
That way the kids can all play together without having to fight over toys. And, they are always proud to be able to go home and show their parents...I know mine is!

Answer 8

Most table toys can be played with quietly. Here are some other activities: Set out various items for the children to sort with a muffin tin: Items to Sort (over the age of 3 for small items) boxes of scrap materials - cloth, velvet, silk satin, cut into uniform size and shape. Children can sort the material by color or texture. Many different Bells- cow bells, Christmas bells, children can sort based on color, size, sound. Buttons- Students can sort them based on the number holes they have, color, shape, size, shiny vs. dull. Textured Paper cut to uniform size - can be sorted based on texture or color Other Items: Shells, beads, beans, noodles, seeds, rocks, nature items, nuts, nails, screws, bolts, toys from the room, coins, blocks, stickers, pictures from magazines, books, socks, ribbons, pencils, dolls, stuffed animals, plastic animals, play cars Muffin Math Center Place pieces of paper numbered 1 through 6 in the bottom on a muffin tin. Supply the children with many similar objects to place in the tins. They will place one object in the "1" tin and two in the "2" and so on. The items you use can be theme based or items from your class such as toy animals, beads, blocks, counting chips, dry pasta. Place something to be measured in a dish pan, ie beads, rice, water, sand etc. and supply the children with measuring cups and various sized containers to experiment with. Supply the children with many different items to feel, smell and touch. Like pine tree branches, leaves, dirt, rice... you can find many items for any theme. Ocean Bottle: Clean out an empty plastic pop bottle. Add water, blue food coloring, and glitter, and maybe a few pebbles. Seal the bottle closed using a little hot glue, allow to completely dry before the children can play with it. Tip the bottle back and forth. roll the bottle on the floor. Sensory Fish: You need: Blue Hair Gel Ziplock Bag small Plastic fish Glitter Place the fish, glitter and gel into the baggie. Seal the bag, and then tape it shut. Let the children feel and play with the bag at a table. Observe closely so the bag is not punctured. Goop Mix 2 cups water with a little food coloring, add 6 cups of cornflour/cornstarch to make goop. Mixing Colored Water Materials: water, food coloring, plastic eyedroppers or pipettes, white plastic egg cartons Fill three of the spaced in your egg carton with water. Add a couple of drops of red to one, yellow to another and green to the last. Show the children how to use the eyedropper or the pipette to move the water from one spot to another. Let them experiment with mixing the colors.