Preschoolers at such small age possess immense enthusiasm for learning and gaining knowledge. They develop motor, cognitive, language, emotional, social, and dexterity skills in this period.
Today, when homeschooling or online teaching is becoming a new normal, teaching preschool kids online can be pretty tasking. But there are ways to channelize their playful nature and curiosity to explore things if we make it into online activities.
There are various benefits to homeschooling preschool-aged children, and there are many ways to do it. But sometimes, you need a little help. So whether you’re looking for ideas for online preschool activities or want to find out what resources your child already has at home, this article is for you!
Online Preschool Activity Ideas
When we do preschool online, learners move through the process at their own pace. You can choose to explore activities at your own pace, or you can sit back with a cup of tea and watch.
There’s no right or wrong way to do it. As you’ll see later in this article, things can vary quite a bit from situation to situation.
So here we go! Following are some enjoyable online preschool activities:
Interactive Stories:
Kids love stories. They love them so much that they’ll sit still for hours and listen to them. And if you tell them a story, they’ll listen to it.
But online stories can get boring after a while, especially if there isn’t much interaction with the narrator.
So make the stories interactive and let the preschoolers come out with ideas by themselves. There are programs and apps that you can find online for help.
Teaching Crafts Online:
Kids love crafts. They love to make things with their hands. So if you want to teach them a few crafts, make sure that you do it online.
Whether it be coloring or playing with clay, have them do it online. It will keep them occupied for hours! all you need is to guide them with a few simple steps.
Online Play/Skit:
Preschool is not just about teaching children rhymes, colors, letters, sight words, etc. It’s also about developing the social environment, and online learning lacks it to a certain extent. So what can you as a teacher do?
Well, there’s no specific solution, but parents can influence/impact the child’s social skills. Parents can try plays, games, social experiences, etc.
Another great idea is to organize a dramatic play. You can script a play, assign characters to each student, and have an online play. Try to pick plays from short storybooks. You can also divide students into groups or organize competitions like fancy dress, read the rhyme, coloring, etc. Group activities are necessary for preschoolers.
Word Games:
In this activity, the child needs some newspapers or magazines. The Teacher displays a word, and the child needs to form the word. Suppose, create your name.
Here, parents are necessary because handing scissors to preschoolers is risky. You can also ask them to spell the word. Start with names, short words, and sight words, and then progress slowly.
Online word search is a great way to keep kids busy for hours and also help them learn certain words at the same time! This is a great way to incorporate vocabulary into an online learning environment. It’s also a good way to engage kids in creative activities whenever you’re online.
Music and Dance:
It’s normal to have dance lectures in preschool. Because kids learn from activities, things they see, the sound they hear, and what they feel.
Dance is an activity that builds confidence and keeps them relaxed and refreshed. So via online mode, you can take dance sessions based on alphabets, numbers, words, etc.
Online Brain Games and Puzzles:
All you need to do is get your hands on some good puzzles and start solving them online. It’s a great way to get kids thinking. But if you don’t want to get puzzles, you can always go to Khan Academy and search for “brain games.” There are tons of brain games there, and they’re all free!
Learning Basics:
In this activity, you can teach kids about animals, colors in the rainbow, fairy tales, weather, community helpers, etc. You can provide or request printouts of specific images.
Now, if you are teaching animals, provide the parents with a pdf (of images).
Parents need to make cutouts of images. Now, the child needs to differentiate between domestic and wild animals. Next can be land animals and water animals. Or community helpers like firefighters, school buses, police, Courier, doctors, nurse, etc.
Virtual Field Trips For Preschoolers:
There are a lot of virtual field trips, just like there are a lot of virtual classrooms. Nowadays, there are a lot of options for preschoolers to go on virtual field trips. You can try out the Virtual Zoo, Theater, Farm, and more.
What Are Learning Activities For Preschoolers?
Activities developed by teachers to create a learning environment for preschoolers are learning activities. It can be experimental, analytical, and conceptual-based learning. The Teacher should consider and chose to learn activities based on learning focus and knowledge objectives. Here are few learning activities for preschoolers:
Water Walking Activities:
This activity is used to teach color theory. Color Theory is the study of mixing color and exploring the result. It’s simple to perform and enough to excite preschoolers. To accomplish this activity, you will need cups, colors, and paper towels.
Take 5 cups and pour different color water in each. Make a strip of paper towel and place it between each cup. The colored water is absorbed by the paper towel and travels to the next cup, and the color change is seen.
Suppose there are three cups, including yellow, blue, and regular water. The color walks over the yellow cup to blue, and the result is seen in the plain water.
The regular water will change into green showing the addition of two colors. Or, you can use simple cups and watercolor. And, performing this activity online shouldn’t be troublesome.
Ice Cream Stick Game:
This activity is to teach words and spelling. It only requires ice cream sticks, a marker, and paper. Take a piece of paper and fold 1/4th part of the paper and staple it from both ends.
Now, if you are taking four-letter words, make four rows. Take ice cream sticks and write an alphabet on each. Following is a diagram to explain it.
Suppose I have taken the word “ONCE.” Now, the child needs to find appropriate ice cream sticks and match them.
The kid can perform this activity online with some parental help to the child. It enforces better word recognition, memorization, and spelling. You can even assign different words to each student and shuffle them the next time.
Virtual Circle Time Activities For Preschool
Circle Time activities help to develop a positive relationship between preschoolers. This activity engages every each child to listen and share ideas. In preschool, such activities are essential, and even in such times, the Teacher should implement these activities. Here are few virtual circle time activities for preschool:
Fruits, Vegetables, and Colors:
In this activity, the child needs to name the fruit, vegetable, and color. You can also change this game a little bit.
Make a list of 2-4 fruits and vegetables and send it to the preschooler’s parents. The parent is required to bring the fruits and veggies.
In an online session, you can instruct kids to take a fruit, specify the color and keep it in the jar. So the instructions can be – Take a red apple, see it, and put it in the jar. Take a banana that is yellow, yes yellow, put it in the jar.
Then, take a pear that is green in color and put it in the jar. Now, take out red fruit, name it and keep it on the tray”. So You can take this type of approach.
Nursery Rhyme:
A Nursery rhyme is a traditional old-school way of teaching preschoolers. It enables early literacy and memorization. It’s easy to perform nursery rhyme online.
You can also divide the rhyme between students, and each student speaks a line. You can also search for quality content (videos and audio) on the internet. Because children love animated videos and they are more likely to get interested in them. So try to search for educational content and take lectures.
Pre K Remote Learning Activities
Pre-Kindergarten REMOTE learning activities are activities where the Teacher and students aren’t in a physical classroom. It is often referred in distance learning. You can conduct the activities on discussion boards, conferencing, and online assessments.
Musical Chair
For this game, students need a chair, a sheet of paper, and a marker. The Teacher plays a nursery rhyme, and the child revolves around the chair or can even dance.
As soon as the music stops, you write a word, and then the student writes it on their paper. Repeat the game!
Word Hunt Games
Word Hunt is a game where the player needs to find all things within a time limit. Here, parents are given a set of words they need to hide in a small area and where they can easily find it.
The child needs to see all the words, write them on a sheet and show it on the camera. Start with a small number. The first one to show the result will be the winner. You can change words after 2-3 drills or when children can recognize them.
Online Games With Kids
You can also share the screen and play games with preschoolers. On the other side, even preschoolers can play the game. If you opt to share the screen, you should select games with some riddles, color-based, or questioning games.
If you play games where the software speaks the alphabet if clicked, the kids might get bored. Meanwhile, games like Match the words, Connect the dots, who am I will engage kids in learning. Few of the mentioned games are on abcya.com.
Conclusion
Teaching preschoolers is a work of patience. But the accomplishment is worth mentioning. Every Teacher is trying to teach lessons without depleting the quality as compared to physical learning. Being a new type of teaching, the ideas are limited but effective.