Utilizing a "job center" in your preschool classroom helps teach children responsibility while developing fine motor skills and providing new learning opportunities. At the beginning of the year, create a job board with job titles such as "Line Leader", "Calendar Person" and "Equipment Manager". Children may at first not understand some job titles, but preschool kids catch on quickly and after a few rounds, they'll be overheard explaining to one another that the "Equipment Manager" has to gather all the balls and other equipment for playing and exploring outdoors. To ensure that each child gets a turn at various jobs, place each child's name on a craft stick and pull new craft sticks each week. Mark the back of the craft sticks with color coding, for example, a blue dot means they have served as "Line Leader", so you can keep track and be sure everyone rotates through each position.
Dramatic play is an important way for children to learn. Preschool children emulate the people and situations they see around them. They love to play teacher, office worker, and mom and dad. Most preschool classrooms have a variety of plastic toys used for dramatic play, such as fake food and utensils, baby strollers, and plastic construction tools. Incorporate safe, real-life items, such as empty, sealed food boxes, old cell phones, or regular phones, clipboards and calculators. Children will anxiously await their turn to use real-life items. These items can be incorporated into structured learning activities and be made available for free play.
Preschoolers enjoy feeling that they are a valuable part of the classroom by sharing their thoughts and ideas. Once a week, hold a class or town meeting. Gather on the carpet or another area where everyone can sit in a circle and see each other while the meeting is in session. Since preschoolers get very excited about sharing and have a hard time waiting their turn, you may want to use something like a "magic wand," which may be as simple as a paper towel tube with glitter and feathers on it, or a non-working microphone for each child to hold when it's his turn to speak. This indicates to others that it's someone else's turn, and that when they're holding the microphone it will be their turn to speak. Topics for discussion at class meetings can range from what they thought about a recent activity to telling them about what they'll be learning about next and asking for ideas on activities or books. Children have very creative minds and often come up with ideas even when they don't have a lot of knowledge on which to base them.