Pinterest is full of ideas for ways to support learning at home. Feel free to check out some ideas we have saved, or simply type the theme and preschool in the search bar to find ideas of your own. Enjoy!
Beginning the Transition to Preschool
- Talk to your child about the experience. Encourage them by acknowledging their feelings and talking about it.
- Attend opportunities to meet the teachers and visit the school before the year starts.
- Incorporate a special tradition for First Day of School. Some ideas are: Going out to Breakfast, Taking a Special Picture, First Day Snack , Ready Confetti (click here for this really fun idea!) and so many more!
- Read a Book about Going to Preschool (click here for a book list)
- Prep yourself for the new beginning! Start making connections with other parents, plan a special day for you or with your younger children, etc.
All About Me
- Talk about your child's name. Create a name sign to hang in the room. Extend this by creating name signs for all members of the household.
- Explore your child's senses. Go on a nature walk and identify things they see, hear, smell, touch and taste (if it is safe).
- Make play dough and add a scent to it (vanilla, lemon, cinnamon, etc.)
- Cook with your child and let him smell and taste the spices.
- Discuss healthy foods and sometimes foods. Cut out food pictures from grocery adds and sort the food into categories.
- Have child draw a picture of himself by looking in a mirror. Talk about parts of the face.
Books:
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann
A Splendid Friend, Indeed by Suzanne Bloom
We Are All Alike...We Are All Different by the Cheltenham Elementary School Kindergarteners
Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis
Community Helpers
Books:
- Bring a local fire station or police station a special treat to show appreciation
- Visit the library for story time. Make the librarian a card.
- Develop a fire safety plan for your house and family.
- Decide a way to volunteer in the community to grow your child's sense of service and develop appreciation for those in the community.
- Use a "fire" hose to spray letters or numbers drawn on the house/sidewalk. Name each item that is sprayed.
Books:
Weather
Books:
- Keep a weather chart at home for 2 weeks. What observations can be made?
- Compare various weather patterns around the globe.
- Read about wild weather. Try to create your own tornado.
- Introduce the water cycle. Replicate the water cycle using boiling water and ice. Click here for the experiment.
- Keep a seasons journal. Go on walks throughout the year and write/draw observations for each walk. Consider the animals, plants, temperature, etc.
- Watch the clouds. What do you see?
Books:
Fall
Books:
Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
- Gather leaves to compare and contrast.
- Creatures are busy in the fall. Choose one or two to learn more about and try to find in the wild. For example, talk about squirrels, bears, birds, etc.
- Using a touch and see box, gather fall items and place one in at a time. Without looking, have your child touch the item, describe the item and guess the name of the item. Pull it out to see if it is correct.
- Visit an apple orchard or pumpkin patch. Plant a pumpkin seed and watch it grow!
Books:
Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
Dinosaurs
- Take your child to a museum or one of Colorado's amazing natural fossil beds. Hands-on direct experiences build the strongest neurological connections.
- On Saturday, February 9th, the Woodland Park Library is hosting the Dinosaur Resource Center. Click here for more information.
- Use a variety of measuring tools- your hands, rulers, yardsticks, your feet, your gait, etc. to measure a dinosaur! You can use string or yarn to represent the dinosaur's length.
- Talk about the different types of plants that existing during prehistoric times and compare them to those today.
- Build a dinosaur skeleton together.
- Compare the human body to a bird to a dinosaur. What is the same, different? Why?
- The tyrannosaurus footprint was approximately 3 1/2 feet long. Compare that to your footprint. How many people footprints can fit into one T-Rex footprint.
- Build a dinosaur out of different shapes and have your child tell you about his dinosaur.
- Make a dino-rama with a shoebox to demonstrate a scene that may have occured during the time of the dinosaurs.
Books:
Can I Have a Stegosaurus Mom? Can I, Please? by Lois G. Grambling- We like to pretend he has a dinosaur pet after reading this and talk about what he would do
National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Dinosaurs by Catherine D. Hughes and FrancoTempesta (One of my son's favorites- he is 4yrs old)
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague (This is a fun series)
Dinosaur A-Z: For kids who really love dinosaurs! by RogerPriddy
Dinosaur ROAR! by Paul Stickland and Henrietta Stickland- great for opposites
CHALK by Bill Thomson- fun wordless book
Websites of interest:
www.starfall.com - to help develop pre-literacy skills such as letters and sounds
www.helpkidzlearn.com - to help develop motor coordination with a mouse and keys
www.pbskids.org - learning games with familiar television characters
www.discoverykids.com -learning games associated with animals
www.enchantedlearning.com -print out and find activities for you and your child
www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com -a variety of charts to reinforce positive behavior
www.starfall.com - to help develop pre-literacy skills such as letters and sounds
www.helpkidzlearn.com - to help develop motor coordination with a mouse and keys
www.pbskids.org - learning games with familiar television characters
www.discoverykids.com -learning games associated with animals
www.enchantedlearning.com -print out and find activities for you and your child
www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com -a variety of charts to reinforce positive behavior