Young children need to do activities that enhance their basic senses. Give them experiences that allow them to touch, taste, smell, see, and hear different things. Explore different textures, taste different foods, match smells such as spices, match objects that look alike and match different sounds. Categorize and grade items by their characteristics. For example, group together items that make loud sounds or put them in order from loudest to quietest.
Practical life activities are those that teach children how to be more independent. They can also develop important skills such as concentration and coordination or fine motor skills. Use items that are scaled to their size to practice pouring, stringing, spooning and serving. Teach them how to maintain a clean environment as they dust, polish and sweep. Allow preschoolers to help prepare their own meals and to serve themselves drinks out of a pitcher. Have them assist with laundry.
Books are very important for preschool age groups. Provide books for independent reading and exploration, including fiction, nonfiction, and picture dictionaries. Read books aloud to children. Do songs, finger plays and rhymes in small groups to teach children rhyming. Play alphabet and sounds games like "I Spy." Teach categorization techniques such as opposites, which one doesn't belong, and sorting to facilitate later reading comprehension. Give them notebooks in which they can draw and write and copy words.
Children can practice rote counting, which is simply rattling off numbers in order as high as they can. They should also practice one-to-one correspondence which is counting groups of objects. Introduce measurement by seeing how many paper clips laid out end-to-end are the same length as an object. Later introduce a simple ruler. Use a balance to introduce weights. Preschool children can also be introduced to simple fractions, money, and clocks.
Children learn best by doing, so science activities should allow the child to manipulate as he experiments. Let them plant seeds to participate in the plant life cycle. Include pets in the classroom to teach about animals and the animal kingdom. Track daily weather reports while learning about weather and seasons. Other favorite preschool science works include dinosaurs, food and nutrition, the human body, and water.
Teach children about land and water forms and let them make replicas using modeling clay and water. Introduce them to the continents and some countries. Do puzzle maps and trace them to make them on paper. Tie in landforms by identifying them on maps. "Visit" different countries around the world by exploring their culture.
Preschool art should be open-ended. This means that they are taught how to properly use the materials and are free to make their own creations. Children should have access to different types of paints, papers, markers, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, Play-Doh, clay, and glue. Also, expose them to art and artists over the centuries.
Preschool children are just leaving the egocentric stage. They literally believe the world revolves around them and have a hard time understanding others' points of view. Facilitate conversations between them and their peers as part of conflict resolution. Teach them to use "I" statements. For example, "I don't like it when you call me names. It hurt my feelings when you took away my toy." Set an example of embracing the strengths in each child. Expect them to use good manners.
Preschool children need to move to encourage their physical development. Do structured group activities such as dance and circle time games. Allow for free play in a gym or playground. Provide climbing apparatuses, swings, bikes, and balance beams.