Have the children remove their shoes and place them in a line on the floor. Mix up the order of the shoes while the preschoolers close their eyes. Call each child up to the pile of shoes to find their own pair. Keep the children engaged in this game by making enthusiastic phrases like, “Watch Jason! He has found a yellow shoe. Is it his? No, he put it back. He is picking up a blue sneaker. Yes, it’s his! Now he is looking for the matching shoe.” Have each child take a turn to find their shoes, returning to their seat and putting the shoes back on. Explain how everyone wears shoes, but some look different from others.
Make a chart with numerals that look somewhat alike. On the left of the page put the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 6. On the opposite side, next to number 1 put a 7, 5 next to 2, 8 next to 3 and 9 next to the 6. Tell the children these are numbers that look similar. Ask the children to recite the numbers to you. See if they notice the similarities. Challenge them with double and triple digits that they need to arrange in the correct order like 18 and 81 or 10 and 100.
Cut cardboard into 20 squares, all the same size. Glue gift wrap to the squares, a different pattern for each set of two. Invite the children to play a visual perception game. Arrange the cards face down on a table. Have one child turn over two cards, trying to find a match. If a match is made, the player keeps the cards. If there is no match, the cards are turned face down again. At the end of the game, have the children count their cards. The child with the most cards wins.
Bring out a set of toy cars and place two in the middle of the circle where the children are sitting. Start making comparisons by saying, “I see a red car and a blue car. The red car is bigger than the blue car. The blue car has two doors and the red car has four.” Continue talking about the similarities and differences of each car. Then bring out another car and add it to the two. Continue this activity as long as the children's attention span permits.