Play a game. At circle time, ask preschoolers to close their eyes. Let one child walk around in classroom and see if his friends' eyes are closed. Ask children to describe what happens when you close your eyes, and compare this with when your eyes are open. Tell children to hold out their hands, either open or closed. Let children take turn walking around in the circle and decide if the hand is open or closed.
Solve problems. Let children act out different movements that mean open or close. Prompt preschoolers to open and close their mouth, nose, eyes and hands. Talk about how opposite words are different from other words. Opposites compare and contrast situations and objects. Something that is open is something that is not closed.
Teach preschoolers to sing nursery rhymes that include opposites, such as "Peas Porridge." Change the word in the song to include open and close. Look for other words that rhyme with open and close and include them in the song. Roping and sloping almost rhyme with open, and nose and toes rhyme with close.
Look for opposites in the preschool classroom. Play a version of the game "I Spy" and let children guess what you are looking at that is closed or opened. Things like a door or a window could be closed, and a book or a bag could be open.
Read out loud books that have opposites, such as Henrietta Stickland's "Dinosaur Roar" and Tad Hills' "What's Up, Duck?" Look at the pictures and search for things and objects that are open or closed.
Make a picture. Let preschoolers cut out pictures from magazines of things that are open and closed. Prompt them to look for boxes, cars and mouths. Help them to put the pictures in two categories and discuss the pictures with them. Glue things that are closed on one side of the paper and things that are open on the other. In advance, prepare a picture with clear examples of open and closed and use this to talk about the word pair.