Preschool is a child's first educational experience that readies him for the elementary-school years. In a preschool classroom, it's important that children learn their basic letters, numbers and colors before starting kindergarten. Engage their imagination and introduce them to academia through playing entertaining games. Teach basic lessons about shapes by having the kids make their own puzzles. Observe opposites with a game using common items in your classroom. Play dress-up games to identify and discuss people in your community.
"Who Am I?" Game
"Who Am I?" is a fun dress-up game that allows the children to pretend they are members of the community--police officers, teachers, firefighters and doctors. One child dresses up in the appropriate clothing and the other children guess who the child is mimicking. Then the children explain what the person does and why her job is important.
To prepare for playing this game, gather dress-up clothing from the local second-hand store, or purchase full dress-up outfits from an educational store. Many educational stores carry outfits for doctors, firefighters, chefs and other professionals.
Mix the clothing in a large bin or basket and randomly call one child to the front of the room to dress up. Whisper in his ear which job to dress for, such as a doctor or teacher. He then digs through the bin to find the appropriate clothing for the job.
Once the child is fully dressed ask the rest of the class to raise their hands to answer "Who Am I?". After the profession is correctly identified, ask the children questions about the job, such as, "why do we have firefighters?" and "what do firefighters do?". Randomly select the next student to dress up and continue the game.
Shape Puzzles
Do-it-yourself shape puzzle games teach children work with scissors and put puzzles together. Ask each child to bring from home a full-page picture from a magazine. Gather all the children's pictures and laminate each one.
Return the laminated picture to each child and then ask the kids to cut the picture into shapes in order to make a home-made puzzle.
Once the puzzles are created, collect them and place each one in an individual plastic bag with the child's name on the front.
Mix up the bags and pass them out to the students, but be sure no student gets his own puzzle. The fun comes from having to piece together other students' puzzles.
Opposite Game
Learning opposites is an important lesson in preschool. It's easy to create a game to teach the concept of opposites using real objects. While the children are at recess, gather items from the classroom to present to the class. Be sure that each item has an opposite object. For example, if you pick up a stuffed sunshine be sure you have a stuffed moon.
When the children return to the room, review what the word, "opposite" means, and tell them they're going to play a game using items in the room.
Hold up the first item and ask them to sit in their chairs using only their eyes to find the object's opposite. Tell them they are getting warmer or colder as they name items that are closer to or away from the opposite item.
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