In addition to sight and hearing, this activity also utilizes the sense of touch. Give preschoolers a bucket of uncooked rice or barley and they'll play. Add measuring cups, plastic toy soldiers, and other small toys, and they'll play for hours. While some preschools have an existing rice station, you could also choose to have a preplanned activity using rice and measuring cups. Give each preschooler rice in a bucket, a few plastic cups, and an empty bucket. Have children count how many cups it takes to fill the empty bucket. Count out loud with them if the number goes above the number ten.
This activity involves touch as well as sight. Using poster board, cut out 26 rectangles, measuring approximately 4 by 6 inches. With a black marker, draw one of the letters of the alphabet on each paper, until you have each of the letters of the alphabet on one of the rectangles. Each week, starting with A, give the child an alphabet letter. Give her a small cup with uncooked beans in it. Have her guess how many beans she thinks covering the letter will take. Write the guess at the bottom of the paper. Draw glue over the letter you've drawn. Have her cover the glue with beans. Count the beans and see how close she came. By the end of 26 weeks the child will be able to estimate very closely how many beans she'll need to cover the letter.
This activity involves touch, sight and hearing. The penny is the lowliest of monetary denominations, but for preschoolers it represents real money so it's very exciting. Give a child a small cup of pennies and have him count out five pennies. Help him stack those five pennies. Now, have him count five more and stack those into a new stack. When he runs out of pennies, count the stacks. When this activity is done, you can mix in other coins and have him sort those into piles to learn grouping. The clink of the pennies is a delight to the chlld's sense of hearing.
This activity involves the senses of taste, touch, hearing and smell. Buy a package of vanilla pudding cups and paste food coloring. Dip a toothpick into one primary color of food coloring and place the toothpick into the pudding. Do this with each primary color -- blue, red, and yellow -- into a new pudding cup. Give the child a spoon for each color and have her mix each cup until the color is evenly distributed. For the blue pudding cup, add red food coloring on a toothpick. Have her stir with a new spoon and tell her that red and blue mixed makes purple. Similarly, add blue to the yellow to make green, and add red to the yellow to make orange. Allow her to taste and smell the pudding to see if there is a difference.