Preschool Activities Help?

Question

I just got hired as a co-head preschool teacher for 4 and 5 year olds. I don't have much experience with planning things for this age. I need ideas of activities, crafts, games, lessons (especially good for this time of year) that would be great to do with them. They have such short attention spans and I am also having trouble with getting them to line up and things like that. Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated.

Answer 1

children love water play useing sand and water' ball games passing ,throwing ,kicking,throw a ball in to a hop

Answer 2

Couple of activities that little ones  like especially right now is pin  the nose on the pumpkin  , just cut out a large pumpkin out of poster board , add eyes and a mouth, then cut out black triangles of construction paper ( use tape folded over on the back ),  the kids take turns blindfolded trying to see who is closest to the right spot....

Works  good also for turkey pin the tail (make  pecks)..

Another favorite thing  is making marshmallow snowmen , you stack 3 large marshmallows together using alittle icing between each ( sort of like glue) then add pretzel sticks for arms, mini M&M's for eyes , mouth, nose  then use small gumdrops to make his hat....great thing about this project that the kids love too is you get to eat them when you are done.....

Good luck and have fun....

Answer 3

Here is a song for line up I love and it really gets the children into getting in line.....  Line Up! Line Up! Not on the ceiling, Not on the floor, Everyone Line Up at the Door!  Continue to sing until everyone is in line, works every time!!  This time of year is for Leaves, Apples, Columbus, Halloween, Fire Safety, the list goes on and on as far as lessons are concerned ~ the interest and ability of your children should determine what crafts and activities you choose to do with them.  Great games are Musical Chairs; Duck, Duck, Goose; I Spy; Music and Movement games are very popular with this age group.  Get a copy of the Soca Boys CD, spread them out and enjoy!  Many websites are out there to support your ideas, they are limited only by your imagination.  Remember to keep it simple, short and fun and it will be a success!  Good Luck!!

Answer 4

Go outside and find the prettiest leaf you can, then go inside and paint it and glue it to paper then hang it on tthe wall!

Answer 5

I've been teaching pre-schoolers in a variety of settings for about 10 years so when I read your questions I knew I had too many ideas to cram into one yahoo answer!  Now I'm the director for a The Little Gym,  which is an internationally franchised motor skills development program...(ok I won't do the whole pitch but if you're interested check out www.thelittlegym.com.)  BUT I taught plain old preschool for several years, and I had this amazing lesson plan book that I used all the time, but I gave to another teacher a while back, and now I don't remember what it was called!  Anyway, I was trying to look it up so I could tell you,  but while searching resources I came across several websites.  Here's one:  www.canteach.ca/index.html.  It's got a lot of cute ideas about everything you can possibly do with this age group, but there are also a ton of other resources on the web so I'm sure you'd be able to find lots of info just by perusing the internet.  I don't know if there's a way you could contact me directly via my yahoo answers profile, or if I could contact you, but if so, I'd be happy to share some of my own ideas and experiences with you as well.  Good luck!

ETA: 2 quick tips--Transitions from activity to activity should be clearly communicated and not too abrupt. Giving them a "warning" that an activity is going to end soon can make things a little smoother, ie "Ok, we're going to have free play for 4 more minutes and then it's time to clean up for lunch!"  They may not actually understand how long 4 minutes is but they'll at least know that free play isn't going to last too much longer.  Also, using certain signals (a specific clapping rhythm, for example) or especially songs can make transitions, cleaning up, and lining up a lot more pleasant.

And in terms of art--it should be "child directed."  The validity of a child's artistic creation should not be judged by adult eyes.  All creation is art, and art is about the process, not the product.  You can give ideas, suggestions and themes as a goal, but kids projects should NOT look like they were made by the teacher!

Answer 6

Work with glitter may be messy but kids love it,buy small pumpkins and decorate,start making personalzed x-mas cards,orniments,x-mas presents for parents,siblings, ect. Good luck!

Answer 7

we play a game when we are lining the kids up one person stands at the front and does actions for the children to copy like clapping above ur head, tapping ur shoulder etc while another person rounds up the others.

Answer 8

4's & 5's need to 'do' in order to learn.  They love role playing, relay games, cutting and pasting, (controlled) glitter, short listening at storytime.  Songs that increase memorization of pertinent learning are preferred to just straight memorization.

It is helpful with them to teach them 'posted RULES' early on.  Lining up and cleaning up should be in those rules, along with showing respect for other children, and stressed at the beginning of each class.  The inevitable handful will also 'break' the rules just to see what the consequences are, so that should be spelled out ALSO.  School is NEW to them and what seems very rudimentary to us is all 'optional' to them because they've never been there before.

I know this doesn't give as much detail as you probably want, but these are the things I found to work best in my classes.

Answer 9

Positive reinforcement is an invaluable tool at this age! Help them get into a nice straight line, then make a big deal out of how well they did, then give them each a sticker or a hand stamp with promises of another the next time for everyone who can make a straight line. Kid's this age are easily board, so some quick easy games will help greatly. Kids this age love singing and most of the love to dance so you could invest in some Kid friendly music. Have the children stand or sit in a circle or in line across from one another have them toss Nerf balls back and fourth (one at a time) and call out a color or number when they have the ball before tossing it, they can call out animals or whatever you want. They also love making up plays for an audience so let them gather in small groups to "write" their own plays they can put on for each other. Take a piece of paper fold it accordian style let one child draw the head, another draw the body and so fourth when they are done unfold the paper and see what they've created. Take some coffee cans and paint them several different colors, then hide (in plain sight) pieces of ribbon, paper clips , colored paper, even crayons, then give the children (either one or a group) a color and have them find the items the same color as their can.

You can let them make clay out of flour water and oil for items they can make and keep add salt and the clay will dry out forming a hard treasure they can take home. There's always the old standbys macaroni necklaces and pictures too.

Answer 10

Oh boy do I remember those days...

For your line up problem, try the 'Following The Leader' song from Peter Pan, just  kind of change the words around (ex-- we're lineing up for outside (inside), for outside, for outside, we're lining up for outside so we can have some fun. To run, to play, to have a merry day...we're lineing up for outside and you can come along.

The Clean Up song from Barney (parents may hate the show but the songs work I swear) works wonders and you can add your own words.

For your other situation may I suggest a series of books called 'Teacher's Friend'. This is a series that is a Monthly book you can buy..each month has crafts ( appropriate to that month), educational learning ideas, snipits of history, cultural education. My Aunt turned me onto the books and they were a lifesaver (not to mention sanity).

There is also a series of books by Jill Frankel Hauser called 'Little Hands'... the different books deal with Science, Reading, Crafts..are leveled to different ages and are great. They can be found at your local bookstore in the children's section and sometimes you get lucky and find them in a thrift store.

There is also a craft book called ' Look what you can make with dozens of household items' it's a very thick book.

Before you buy anything, go to your local library and check the Teacher Resources in the children's section. This allows you to 'trial run' stuff before you buy anything and you can just make copies of the stuff you do like if you are short on cash.

<<< For years I had a spiral notebook(12 actually) stuffed full of age appropriate crafts, reciepes, ideas, games, etc and I would refer to them when I did my Lesson Planning..by the time I left  to homeschool, I had about 35 boxes stuffed FULL>>>

Congrats on your new job, remember to ask the Head Teacher for pointers and help, make the library, thrift stores and Dollar Trees your friends and just have fun.

Answer 11

My mom runs a small private school. One of the activities the  kids do is bead stringing. If you have the kids string the beads onto pipe cleaners they make great bracelets. This also helps improve fine motor skills..... Man I spent to much time with my mom LOL

Answer 12

There are some great websites to get ideas for projects, lessons etc........

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/index...

http://preschoolrainbow.org/index.htm

http://www.coloring.ws/holidays.htm

http://www.preschooleducation.com/

http://judyanddavid.com/Songbook/A.html

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/

http://www.preschoolexpress.com/theme_st...