Young children who are not used to sitting still for long periods of time in a classroom will reap greater benefits from an engaging environment where they can spend time at different activity stations learning about different subjects. Develop their decision-making skills by allowing them to choose which stations they want to visit. Teach subjects such as reading and counting by using manipulative learning aids (puzzles, blocks, puppets, models) where the children can touch, see and feel so they can take a more active role in learning. The teacher needs to evaluate how each student learns best (visually, orally, kinetically) and cater to those needs.
Allow your students the opportunity to tap into their creativity and express themselves through art projects. These can be focused on a theme such as science, wherein you have the children draw a mask of their favorite animal or make a flower out of pipe cleaners and let this lead into a lesson about that subject. Art projects also give opportunities for social development because children have to share materials, problem solve and learn to work well with others (especially at cleanup time).
Pre-K is an important time for socialization with peers as well as adults, so it is important to maximize the opportunities for children to learn social niceties such as following instructions and sharing. Show-and-tell and story time are both examples of activities that allow the students to learn how to interact and communicate within a group setting, which can often be a scary prospect.
When creating a developmentally appropriate curriculum for pre-K students, teachers should make an effort to cater to each student's individual subject area interests when possible. The fall 2005 issue of the Louisiana Agriculture Magazine recommends deriving their curriculum from what they know about their children’s interests, capabilities and cultural backgrounds. This strategy will help to engage the children and help them develop the necessary learning and comprehension skills on a subject they already enjoy. This can be difficult in larger classrooms, but making this effort will benefit both the teachers and the students.