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60 independent ideas for preschoolers [2006-10-30]
This is from the cathswap yahoo group, Gwen one of the mods wrote it:HTH :) For what it's worth, I've compiled my list of 60 activities for my
preschooler to do independently while I'm doing lessons with Heather and/or
Jared. (If you're not homeschooling but still have a preschooler at home,
this may help you get some just for you time...)
Rachel will be encouraged to participate with our lessons as she wants to
or is capable (like listening to stories during Language Arts or History;
she can certainly do art but I'm not going to force it and hopefully these
activities will keep her occupied and out of trouble.
Feel free to pass this on to anyone else whom you think may find this
helpful.
Preschooler Ideas for Younger PAVCS Siblings - 3 and up
Since I'm using all the provided curriculum boxes for the kids (from K12), I
decided to take the biggest box --the one that the art clay, plaster of
Paris, etc. came in, and designate it my three year old's school box. This
way her school box is just like her siblings'. This box will ONLY be used at
school time, and will only be used at the table. You can take any box and
decorate it and make it the special box...brought out only at certain
times and each time having something different in it.
Inside will be her own pencil box that will have a set of markers, (crayola
washable, naturally) a pair of Fiskars kid scissors, a box of crayons, a
pencil, a pen, and a glue stick. Each day I will put some papers in there
for her to either color, cut up, paste things on, or practice writing
(simple mazes and such for her to follow, etc.)
Each week I'll put one or two interesting books that she will enjoy looking
at. There will also be one or two special activities that will change from
day to day, made up of (mostly) educational toys and stuff that I currently
have on hand but has been put away for a while.... Each day there'll be
something different to do, either loose in the box or in a zipper top Ziploc
bag (the kind with the slider zipper is easier for the kids to manipulate
than the traditional ones).
The idea of this box is for her to entertain herself with little or no
guidance from me while I work with her older siblings. She will more than
likely be participating with us during some lessons (she likes to play
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with the phonics tiles, LOL) .
Here are some ideas for the activities. Some will be in a zippered bag, some
won't. I have 60 activities, so that I'll have enough for 2 per day per
month. At the end of the month I'll start over again. The key to the success
of these is to keep them a surprise and limit access to them so that the
novelty does NOT wear off. Some seemingly obvious things, like legos and
matchbox cars are missing from this list because they play with them almost
every day. I got the ideas for many of these activities from various
websites with preschoolers in mind. I do not have these in any particular
order. Obviously they need to be mixed up so there aren't a whole slew of
similar activities piggy backing day in and day out......Also, I'm not going
to insult your intelligence by reminding you about choking hazards, which
some of these activities may contain...use your common sense based upon your
child, and you'll be fine!...
1. sock match...several pairs of colorful infant socks that she's outgrown
in the bag to match up or just play with. If I know her she'll have them on
her hands and feet for half an hour.
2. dominoes...to build with and do who knows what with...
3. Discovery Toys Tinyville Magnets (these are magnets in shapes like
people, vehicles, animals, buildings, cloud, stars, moon, etc...) and the
magnetic white board
4. Play Doh, with geometric shaped cookie cutters
5. Play Doh with farm animal cookie cutters
6. Paint in a bag...put two colors of paint in a doubled Ziploc bag, seal it
with clear tape, and let her squish them to mix the colors. There will be a
couple of different color combinations
7. More magnets --from a magnet kit...lots of different plane figures and a
magnetic base to build upon
8. Blues Clues Cards there are nine sets of four cards, three clues that
go with one card. Got these at a dollar store that was going out of
business...got them for 50 cents! :-)
9. Mixies cards (11 sets of three different cards that form a
picture...these came from somebody's birthday party favor bag)
10. Puzzle Pairs (Discovery Toys two piece puzzles of things that go
together, like a sock and foot, sink and soap, etc)
11. Memory...for Rachel I'll probably only give her 24 cards at a time as
opposed to the full set of 72; this way I can get 3 activities from one
memory game and she won't be overwhelmed!
12. Animal Lotto..she can match up all the animals on the boards...
13. Spirit jigsaw puzzle...I printed out a horse picture colored to look
like Spirit and am gluing it to felt, then cutting it out in simple shapes
for her to put together. I will probably put a couple more like this in
there too.
14. Pattern blocks (mine are from K12; easily obtained from curriculum
suppliers for a few bucks)
15. Wooden Geometric Solids...these will keep her occupied for at least a
half hour; as with above, easily obtained from suppliers, often for under
$10 for a nice set of 12 hardwood blocks
16. Math linking cubes- these are the multi link cubes, not unifix cubes.
The multi link cubes are connectable all the way around, unlike unifix cubes
that only connect one way.
17. Lincoln Logs
18. dry rice with a funnel, measuring cup, measuring spoon, and containers
19. Lacing beads with shoe laces (the long heavy duty ones from Glenn's old
workboots work really well)
20. Giant pegboard and rubber bands
21.Rubber stamps with farm animals
22. Rubber stamps with numbers
23. Discovery Toys Playful Patterns
24. Discover Toys AB Seas alphabet fishing game
25. Discovery Toys Itsy Bitsy Spider Game
26 Discovery Toys Bright Builders (being a former consultant has its
advantages!)
27. Stickers! Lots of STICKERS. Draw shapes on a piece of paper and give
lots of tiny stickers to fill in the shapes with. You could also write the
child's name on there to put stickers on each letter...so the name shows up
in stickers. the smaller the sticker the better as it takes more time to
fill them in.
28. Animal cards...you know those clubs where you get wildlife cards? Well
I picked up half a set at a yardsale and the kids love looking at the
pictures...that should keep her busy for 20 minutes
29. Mr and Mrs Potato Head Not sure if it's educational, but it should keep
her busy for a half hour, hopefully. LOL
30. Bucket of Goop (three parts cornstarch to one part water) in a small
empty oxyclean bucket with a scoop, funnel, graduated cylinder from K12, and
another container to pour the goop into. Messy and fun but easy to clean up.
31. Watercolor paints I miss those old Paint with water books where all
you had to do was have a paintbrush and water. The new ones come with a set
of watercolors attached, but in this case, I'd really like the books with
the pictures already colored and you just swipe it with a wet brush to
paint. Maybe lacking in creativity, but hey. After painting one picture
Rachel will probably have the paint set ruined by not rinsing out the
brush...my idea here is for her do to something WITHOUT guidance from
me...oh well...
32. Lacing cards. Using the shoe laces from the lacing beads. I'll cut out
shapes from light weight cardboard and cover with contact paper before
punching holes in it. Someone else suggested using old bleach bottles but
I'm afraid that cutting them up will ruin my scissors. LOL
33. Felt shapes and felt board...using cookie cutters and other things as
patterns, I'll make some little people and geometric shapes for her to play
with. I'll cover a piece of sturdy cardboard with felt.
Bananas for the Monkeys Original Author Unknown: Cut five monkey shapes out
of brown felt and fifteen banana shapes out of yellow felt. Number the
monkeys from 1 to 5 and place them on flannel board. Have the children
identify the number on each monkey and place that many bananas in front of
it.
34. Puppets in a Bag --yarn, facial features already cut out, a brown lunch
sack, and some glue...a puppet kit!
35. Glue, Yarn, and shapes...sorry, no creative name for this. I'll draw
some shapes on construction paper and give her a small (the tiny size)
bottle of Elmer's glue to squeeze onto the lines I drew (helps build small
motor coordination) and then she can put the yarn on the shapes. Other
times, do this with her name, or a house, or something similar. I buy the
tiny bottles once, then get the more economical bigger bottles to refill
with later as needed. I don't even buy Elmer's half the time.
36. Collage in a bag...rip out some magazine pages with interesting pictures
for her to cut out and paste on a piece of paper...maybe following a certain
theme...like one time have it all healthy foods...another time, families and
kids, animals, flowers, etc.
37. Bean Sort - Since she's pretty much beyond sticking a bean up her nose
and requiring Glenn to remove it with needle nose pliers, I figure this is
now a safe activity for her to do with only moderate supervision. (yes
that's what happened and I got rid of our Don't Spill The Beans Game after
Heather and I were traumatized by this. Rachel, interestingly, didn't care
too much one way or the other. Heather was much more mortified by the sight
of her daddy heading toward Rachel's nose with those pliers...I didn't look.
:) ) Lots of different beans in a bucket for her to measure, pour, sort, and
throw on the floor for me to vacuum up.
38. Eyedropper, small container of water, and a mini ice cube tray or
Styrofoam egg carton. If you're feeling adventurous, use colored water to
make it interesting. Demonstrate how to use the eyedropper both to fill and
empty the cups... Would also work well with mini muffin tins, I suppose...
39. Colored Pasta - color your own pasta, using wheels or any other pasta
that has large openings (easy to lace.) Use small amount of rubbing alcohol
and several drops of food coloring in an airtight container or Ziploc. Leave
the pasta in for a few minutes ; shaking it up or stirring a few times. Take
it out to dry in a single layer. . then provide laces to string them up. You
could provide some color or shape patterns on cards to duplicate.
40. Penny Count (source:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/3446/keeplittleones.html) I will make
a more compact version on a single sheet of paper, and use circles the same
size as the counting tokens (bingo chips) that came from PAVCS...match the
colors and number amounts! But I thought the whole idea was pretty neat:
Make a poster board showing cells of numbers. Example: Draw a square,
write 1 in it. Draw or tape down 1 penny in the square. Do the same with
each square...up to ten or twenty...your choice. I'd start with 10 first and
then draw two more squares at a time up to twenty as child gets better at
this skill.
2) Give your child a basket or plastic container of pennies and have him
match up pennies that you have put down with the picture in each square.
(Ex. In the 2 cell, he would put below your example 1, 2 pennies in a
one-to-one correspondence. Check him when he is done by having him count
each cell with you. Repetition is what teaches counting!
3) Eventually test your child by showing him only a number 3 printed on
a index card and have him lay down 3 pennies and say 3. You might even
write the word three along with the number 3 back in step one so that
the child is learning a sight vocabulary word along with the printed 3.
You would only do this if your child already knows the alphabet though. Then
you could hold up a card that says three and see if he can lay the correct
pennies down when seeing the word too.
41. Super ball or small car and a paper towel or Christmas paper tube. If
you feel creative you could make a marble run of sorts with a couple tubes
(see www.familyfun.com) I probably won't...she'll be happy enough with this.
Why get more complicated than you need to? I could also let her color it
with markers if she wanted.
42. Magnet and paperclips, washers, a nail, etc.
43. A large (big enough to climb in) box. 'Nuff said.
44. A giant piece of paper (or PAVCS posterboard) to color on...whatever
desired...just give the paper and markers and you're set.
45. Lots of colored pom poms and tweezers to sort them out...look for
tweezers that will be easy for little hands to manipulate, like the ones
that come with the game Bed Bugs...heck, look for the Bed Bugs game. LOL
46. Treasure Hunt: large pot or box filled with corn meal, oat meal, rice,
etc, with small treasures hidden inside...individually wrapped candy,
coins, Barbie shoes, game pieces, etc. Make a picture checklist with all the
items to find!
47. Colored Straws and scissors: nothing more to say. LOL straws are good
for scissor practice because one snip and you have instant results. Provide
Elmer's glue and paper and it's time to make a mosaic!
48. Discovery Toys Busy Bugs This can be duplicated with any manipulative,
but I just got the game off ebay for $10. Might be able to find something
similar in a homeschool catalog... kind of like the penny poster above, just
using something different to play with and put the problems on index cards
instead of the poster. You could use stuff around the house like coins,
counters, buttons, pasta...make up index cards with patterns to
duplicate/put simple problems on there: show items with number and number
word under it, or do a simple problem like 2+2= etc...... This activity will
be accompanied by a couple bug books and hopefully a neat bug video from the
library!
49. Sticks, chunks of moss, rocks, leaves...with small rubber animals or
dinosaurs...add some sand in a 9x13 baking pan...don't worry about sand on
the floor...that's what vacuum cleaners are for!!!!! On a nice day do all
your school work outside...heck, let the older kid SKIP schoolwork to do
this outside... :-)
50. Magnetic Treasure Hunt: like the treasure hunt (#46) above, only this
time use metal items and a magnet to attract them! Be sure your magnet isn't
too strong or your kid will get several treasures at once!
51. Memory 2 see activity 11
53 Memory 3 see activity 11
54. Checkers and a small purse/canvas bag.... Checkers are cool cause they
stack. If you can get more than two dozen, that's even better. Dollar stores
often have checker games.
55. Chess pieces. Get a cheap chess/checkers game or two at the dollar
store. Rachel likes to play with the pieces like they're alive. :-)
56. Magnetic Marbles I picked these up at a dollar store. Amazing the things
you find at these places! I know that they'll be interesting for at least
fifteen to twenty minutes...maybe more.
57. Popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue. Bob the builder at your service! Real
cool if you have colored sticks...or just color them with markers when done.
This is great for eye hand coordination and small motor building. You could
put the glue in a small plastic cup or on a paper plate and have child apply
it with a cotton swab to avoid excessive glue....
58. Rubber Stamps with letters
59. Viewmaster and reels --I'm trying to collect educational rather than
twaddle reels (cartoon characters = twaddle). I want to find reels of
animals and places that are real.
60. Farm Animals and Barn. Our barn was being abused (read: animals left all
over the house) plus we really don't have shelf space for the barn to be out
all the time. So I'll bring it out from time to time...maybe when nothing
else is working and Rachel is being a real pill.
I had one other activity but I forgot what it was. :-P I thought of it after
I shut the computer down for the night and made a note to add it here when I
got up in the morning. HA!
Hopefully we won't need two of these every day, making them last even
longer. Having them all ready in their bags will be handy too...
Other suggested ideas: set up a play store with empty food boxes; book and
tapes; educational videos, painting with water and a paintbrush, cleaning
windows, kitchen chair tunnels, puppet theater,
One thing I am going to try not to worry about is THE MESS with some of
these activities. Messes happen. Elmer's, crayola markers, and watercolors
wash off. Sand and rice vacuums up. (You'll note I didn't put finger paints
or tempera paint activities here...#1, that's not recommended without
supervision...because tempera stains...and #2...well, tempera stains. LOL
I've chosen things that will have a moderate clean up factor, if any. I may
even let Rachel use the vacuum hose to clean up any spills...the other two
will probably fight her for the privilege. LOL And when they're old enough
to actually handle the vacuum, it's no longer fun for them and they don't
want to do it!
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