This center game promotes fine motor development in kindergarten students. Bowls are filled with cotton balls and placed on a flat surface across from empty bowls. To play, students use a pair of tweezers to transfer the cotton balls from the full bowl to the empty bowl. The first student to transfer all of the cotton balls to the empty bowl wins the game.
Reinforce knowledge of rhyming words with this center game. On one set of index cards draw pictures of different items, and a second set of index cards draw pictures of words that rhyme with the pictures on the first set of cards. Punch holes in the second set of cards and insert paper clips through the holes. Create fishing rods by tying a magnet to a length of yarn and tie the yarn to the end of a ruler. To play, place the paper clipped cards on the floor, face up. Students take turns drawing cards from the first set of index cards and fish for the card that rhymes with the card they've selected. For example, if a student draws a picture of a cat, he should fish for an image of a hat. The student who makes the most correct rhyming pairs wins.
Students match patterns in this non-competitive math center game. On one set of index cards draw different patterns -- triangle, square, triangle, square; and triangle, triangle, square, square, for example. On another set of cards, use letters to write patterns that match the shape patterns -- ABAB and AABBAABB. To play, students match the shape patterns with the correct letter patterns.
Students race to correctly match items to the letters they begin with. Print out the alphabet on sheets of paper and provide students with pictures of items that start with each letter of the alphabet. To play, students take an alphabet sheet and a set of alphabet pictures and sort through the pictures, laying them on top of the letters they begin with. For instance, a picture of an apple should be placed on the letter A, a picture of a ball should be placed on the letter B and so forth. The first child to match all of the pictures to the alphabet wins the game.