Incorporate activities that promote literacy development in your program. Activities that encourage letter and letter-sound recognition provide children with the building blocks for reading and writing. Point to the letters of the alphabet while singing the alphabet song. Have children make collages of items that begin with specific letter sounds. Provide children with letter cards and encourage them to arrange the cards in alphabetical order. Play games, such as hunting for items that begin with specific letter sounds, or tossing beanbags onto letters and then naming the letter the beanbag lands on. Spray shaving cream on a table and allow children to practice writing the letters of the alphabet in it. Include any type of activity that allows children to examine letters and the sounds they make.
Another academic area to include in your childcare preschool curriculum is mathematics. At this age, children should begin to identify numbers and gain an understanding of one-to-one correspondence. Write numbers on cards, have children name the number and then place an amount of manipulatives that corresponds to the number on top of the card. For instance, on a card with the number 2 written on it, children may place two jelly beans. Write numbers on index cards, mix them up and have children arrange them in numerical order. In addition to number sense, children of this age should also begin to understand the pre-math skills of sorting and patterning. To promote an awareness of these skills, have children sort different colored or shaped items into piles based on their attributes, or show children how to create simple patterns using different colored candies or blocks.
Arts and crafts is an integral part of a preschool curriculum. Through arts and crafts, children learn how to express themselves, develop vocabulary, gain an appreciation for other's points-of-view, gain self esteem, learn how to follow directions and hone their fine motor skills. Provide children with a variety of materials, such as paints, markers, crayons, construction paper, glue, scissors and any other material you think is appropriate. Encourage them to use the materials to create their own works of art or guide them as they make specific craft projects. Discuss the names of colors and shapes and ask children what they are creating to help develop language skills. Display their projects around the space and allow them to proudly show off what they have created.
Offer children activities that encourage the development of their fine motor skills, as the small muscles of the hands are rapidly developing at this age and are needed for a variety of tasks, including writing, zippering and grabbing small objects. Set out lacing cards and encourage children to thread yarn through the holes in the cards. Have children sculpt items with modeling compound. Offer them pieces of scrap paper and allow them to tear the paper with their hands or cut it with scissors. Have them use tongs, clothespins or tweezers to pick up small items. Allow them to string beads onto strings.