Preschool Kindergarten Play Activities
In contrast to school-age children, preschoolers require play to learn about the world around them. Play activities help them to build analytical, creative, social and motor skills. When they play, young children figure out how to solve problems and form relationships with other children. As a result, a young child grows more confident. Preschool and kindergarten play activities encompass games that can be played in the classroom, the gym and outdoors.
-
Outdoor Games
-
Hand out six to eight hula hoops to the children, and show them the various ways to spin a hula hoop. Put it around your waist and swivel. Create loops with one arm. Spin a hula hoop on the ground. Encourage the children to mimic you. Play a game with different colored hoops placed on the ground. Call out instructions, such as "three children in the green hoop" or "put your hand in a yellow hoop." Arrange the hoops as an obstacle course and ask the children to race through the course without touching a hoop.
Gym Games
-
Show students pictures of a kangaroo and explain how it can jump extended distances. Place a long jump mat on the floor. Use a tape measure to mark 40 feet, which is the longest distance that a kangaroo can jump, on the floor. Have the students take turns jumping on the mat. Tell the children to pretend to be minnows or small fish that inhabit shallow waters. Direct them to swim through a net, which consists of two children standing in a zone in the middle of the gym. Direct the children to line up against the wall of the gym. On your signal, they must race across the gym and avoid the net. Instruct the two children, or the net, to tag as many minnows as possible without leaving the zone. Explain to the children that, once tagged, they become part of the net. However, tagged children can only use their arms to tag minnows.
-
Indoor Games
-
Have the children play "Poor Puddy Tat," where one child acts like a cat, meowing and making faces. Tell the other children that they have to pet the cat without laughing. The first child who laughs becomes the next puddy tat. Use the classic game of charades to encourage children to act out particular items, animals or actions. Show them how to use body language to communicate ideas to other children. Model different facial expressions and use your hands to express numbers and directions.
Arts and Crafts
-
Fill spray bottles with water and different colored tempera paints. Hang a large sheet of plastic or a white sheet on a fence, or use a clothesline. Ask the children to spray paint the sheet. Play music while they paint to enliven the atmosphere. Bring in pails of soil, rocks, toy trees and other types of vegetation and a piece of cardboard. Gather the children together to help you make a jungle environment on a cardboard base. Hand out chunks of playdough and ask the children to make animals. Explain that the animals can be of their own creation. Model an animal that is half bird, half giraffe, and call it a "birrafe."
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Todd Warnock/Lifesize/Getty Images
