Through this lesson, children develop an awareness for letter-sound recognition, as well as build their fine motor skills. On a piece of construction paper, print a block upper- and lowercase letter. Discuss the letter; its name, the sound that it makes, words that begin with the letter and have children trace the letters with their fingers. After discussing the letter, provide children with magazines, scissors and glue. Instruct them to look through the magazines for images of things that begin with the letter. Have them cut out the images and glue them onto the letters, forming a collage.
Reinforce color knowledge by sending kids on a hunt for different colored items. Assemble your students and review the different colors and their names. State the name of a specific color and instruct children to search for an item in the color you stated. After finding an item, students should return to the gathering spot and share what they have found. Continue the hunt, having children find a different colored item each time.
Sorting items based on specific attributes is an important pre-math skill that should be a part of the preschool curriculum. This activity teaches children the concept of sorting while reinforcing knowledge of shapes. Cut out a variety of different-sized shapes on different-colored construction paper. Discuss the different shapes, colors and sizes. Have children sort the items into different piles based on their shapes, color and size. For example, have them sort the shapes into piles of triangles, squares and circles. Next, have them sort the shapes into same-colored piles; red, blue and yellow, for instance. Lastly, have them sort the shapes based on size; small, medium and large.
Children should develop an understanding of number recognition and number order during the preschool years. This activity helps to promote both, while also promoting gross motor skill development. Write out the numbers one through 10 on large index cards and tape them to the ground so that they are mildly out of order--for example, 1, 3, 2, 4, 6, 5, 8, 7, 10, 9. Instead of using index cards, you could also write the numbers on pavement with sidewalk chalk. Have children hop on the numbers in the correct order and state the numbers as they hop on them.