Children love making things, and crafts allow them to have fun while learning educational objectives. Many classrooms have weekly nursery rhyme themes. Students can make puppets related to the nursery rhyme. To make puppets, cut out character shapes and then cut finger-sized holes from the bottom or glue them onto craft sticks. You could also make puppets from paper lunch bags or by stapling two paper plates together and cutting the bottom third off. Children can then decorate the puppets to match the theme. Pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners can also make masks. Buy and decorate plain masks or cut paper plates in half and attach yarn and decorate as necessary. Hats are easy to make, too. Cut rectangles of paper and staple them together to make a headband. Cut out and decorate different shaped "hats" and attach to the front of the band. All of these crafts work with nursery rhyme or storybook themes as well as holidays and special events.
Worksheets are quick and simple activities used to teach classroom objectives. In pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes, worksheets often involve cutting and pasting pictures, letters or numbers in the appropriate place, filling in a blank with the correct answer or drawing a line to connect items that are related. Children this age can also use worksheets to draw a picture that describes a story or write a sentence about a picture on the page. Worksheets are also useful for "busy work" to fill in gaps of time such as the brief period of time before lunch or other activity.
Games in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes allow children to have fun and move around while learning. Children this age can play hide-and-seek letters by finding letters the teacher has hidden around the room. Another game for teaching letters involves having students stand in a line with their backs to the teacher. The teacher tapes letters to the students' backs. The teacher then allows the children to move around and asks the students to find certain letters. Teachers can also ask children to find different shapes, colors or items that start with a certain letter somewhere in the room. Children this age also enjoy traditional games of musical chairs, I spy, bingo and charades. An appropriate version of charades would be to act out different animals or community helpers.
Children in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten are bursting with imagination. This provides an opportunity to teach a variety of learning objectives. Incorporate dress-up days into different learning themes such as Community Helper Day, Fairy Tale Day, Circus Day, Cowboy Day or Hero Day. Children can also learn about different musical instruments and then finish the lesson by having a marching band parade. "Centers" are common activities in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms that also encourage imaginative play through playing with cars, blocks and kitchen/home items.