ED334: Activities for

Preschool/Kindergarten
By: Madison Bradbury
 Glossary:
• Alphabetic Principal: The idea that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken
language.
• Dramatic Play: The kind of play where kids take on roles and act them out as a way of exploring
themselves and their surroundings.
• Writing: The process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces) to
communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form.
• Print Knowledge: An understanding that print is organized in a particular way
• Phonics: A method of teaching students to read by correlating sounds with letters or groups of
letters in an alphabetic writing system.
• Phonemic Awareness: The ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words, and the
understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of speech sounds
• Oral Language: The foundation of literacy, building comprehension skills through listening, the
lively back-and-forth of everyday conversations, pretend play, and active read aloud where parent
and child are having a dialogue about the book
 Dramatic Play: Laundry
Age: Preschool-Kindergarten

• Students will engage in literacy, self-

regulation, fine/gross motor skills, and
social skills.
• Your dramatic play should have props like
clean clothes, empty clean detergent
bottles, and laundry baskets. Those kinds of
props support the process of learning how
to wash clothes and folding too.
• Dramatic play is all about social skills. This is
where students learn how to share props
and talk to others.
• Students are learning real life skills.
 Dramatic Play: Doctors Office
Age: Preschool-Kindergarten

• Dramatic play benefits are numerous.

In addition to supporting creativity and
self-expression, dramatic play can help
children learn real life skills and social
skills that can serve them throughout
their lives, from engaging in dramatic
play for toddlers, to playtime in their
preschool classroom, and beyond.

• Gives children a look at real life

perspectives and lets children put
themselves in an adult viewpoint.
 Dramatic Play: Airport
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• Airport dramatic play gives preschoolers a

chance to replay their own visit to the
airport, prepare for an upcoming trip, and
learn more about what it's like to work in
an airport.
• This is a way of children exploring
themselves and their surroundings.
• Children engage in taking turns with peers
and developing vocabulary through
interactions with one another.
 Dramatic Play: Pizza Parlor

Age: Preschool-Kindergarten

• Students are building math skills through

play in the pizza restaurant. They are
sorting the toppings, selecting different
size cups, putting the pizza together to
build special reasoning, and counting
money.

• Imaginary restaurant play can help kids

learn social dining expectations.
 Dramatic Play: Theater
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• Theater play brings out a child's imagination by

using props and tools, which creates the setting
for their creative play and students can play a role
of someone else.

• Theatre is a unique way to expose children to

difficult situations and show them firsthand how
to handle these situations.

• Imaginary play exposes young people to new

vocabulary and new ways of communicating.

• The set up for this dramatic play is simple and can

be based on any topic that children want to learn
and work on.
 Dramatic Play: Grocery Shopping
Age: Preschool-Kindergarten

• This dramatic play center provides an

opportunity for young children to learn
through play. When kids play in a
pretend grocery store, they can learn
about people, jobs, and places in their
community.

• Preschoolers are often familiar with

the routine and idea of grocery
shopping. They often have rich life
experiences with it and are able to act
it out in complex and engaging ways.
 Writing: Shaving Cream Writing
Age: Preschool

• Playing with shaving cream allows children

to create art with a deeper understanding of
three-dimensional shapes and can help
them practice creating and forming a
specific sense of writing letters or numbers.
• Writing helps kids develop their fine motor
skills, and texture is one of the best ways to
work on letter shapes.
• Teaching children ways they can practice
spelling and writing their name or specific
letters.
 Writing: The Day The Crayons Quit
• Age: Kindergarten
• Book: The Day The Crayons Quit
By: Drew Daywalt
• The purpose of this activity is to let
students form the creativity of writing and
exploring a deeper look in the book the
children were presented.

• This activity allows students the form of

creative writing and thinking while focusing
on meaning and purpose when writing. As
this connects to a book, this allows
students to do the same as the book did
and write to a crayon and children can
share this to family and friends.
 Writing: Engaging Writing Prompts
Age: Kindergarten

• This activity allows for many forms of creativity,

allowing the teacher to choose specific, fun and
engaging prompts that the students will connect
with.
• The writing prompts allow children to engage in
specific topics they enjoy and allows students to
freely write about that topic and uses the
exploration of creativity and writing.
• Each writing prompt is similar but different in its
own way. This is a way to actively engage students
in the idea of freeform writing.
 Writing: Picture Journaling
Age: Kindergarten

• This activity involves giving

each student a writing journal, and
each morning, every student will
receive the same prompt, and
there will be a different one each day.
• Ex: A picture of a sunflower will be
the prompt for the morning. The
students will write in their journals
about their feelings, thoughts, and
questions about this image.
• This allows students to explore with
creativity and it lets students practice
writing sentences or new words.
Writing: Dot Markers Name Writing
Age: Preschool

• Children practice hand-eye coordination

as they direct the stamp to go where they
aim on the paper. Hand dexterity
improves as they hold and flip the dot
markers and practice their fine motor
skills.
• This activity allows students to explore
the use of using different writing
materials to write their name.
 Writing: Writing Centers
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• This is a writing center that can be set up

during group work activity or workshop
center time. This is a table set up with
many different writing materials for
students, and different prompts can be
provided for students to work on or blank
pages for creativity movement.

• This center is to engage students

in practicing writing skills, and it can be
directed in many ways to fit to all the
student's different learning needs.
Phonemic Awareness: Sound Sorting
Age: Kindergarten

• This activity lets students build on literacy

skills, sorting, and phonemic awareness
skills.

• This activity helps children pay attention and

cue in to the sounds in words by asking
them to distinguish between words with the
same sounds and words with different
sounds, and to categorize the words.

• This activity can be flexible to what the

students are learning and as the teacher,
you can place specific items you want the
students using and recognizing.
 Phonemic Awareness: Puzzle Words
Age: Kindergarten

• This activity is a printout worksheet

that can be designed in multiple
different ways and used with any words
the teach wants the children to work
on.
• This allows students to work on
rhyming words and patters.
• This activity improves children's ability
to understand the pronunciation of
some words. It encourages the learning
of new vocabulary, and it generates an
opportunity for students to practice
reading.
 Phonemic Awareness: Similar Sounds
Video:
• Age: Kindergarten

• This is a simple activity that focuses on

children's recognition of sounds that
are similar and start with the same
sound but starts with a different
letter.
• This is a unique activity that can easily
be practiced with students and can
even be done the same but on index
cards.
 Phonemic Awareness: Match the Letter
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• Teaching students to associate sounds

with letters or Phonemic Awareness is
essential for them to be able to become
readers.

• These sound match cards can give

students repetitive practice on matching
up similar sounds and letter-sound
correspondence.

• This is a simple activity that can be set up

for each student and can focus on specific
words and letters.
Phonemic Awareness: Similar Ending Sounds
Age: Kindergarten

• This is a simple print out activity that

engages students in learning about
CVC Words and words with similar
ending sounds.

• The only materials needed for this is

the worksheet with the specific
words you want children to work on
and dot markers.

• This activity can be directed towards

specific words you, as a teacher, want
your students to work on and
practice more.
Alphabetical Principal: Letter Shaping
Age: Preschool-Kindergarten

• This activity works on children's fine

motor skills and helps them
understand the concepts of letters
and objects that start with the same
letter.
• Wiki sticks are engaging for young
children to work with and are an
easy/mess-free way to have children
learn new letter concepts.
 Alphabetical Principal: Letter Bracelets
• Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• Creating a letter bracelet is a fun way to get

students to work on specific letter
recognition skills. This allows students to
work on different letters that students need
practice, and it allows them to identify items
and objects that start with the same letter.
• Students can design and make their bracelet
as unique as they want to, and this allows
students to be more engaged with the
activity because they can design it themself.
Alphabetic Principal: Letter I Spy
Age: Kindergarten

• This activity allows students to focus on

letter recognition concepts

• This is a simple and mess free activity that

can be set up as an activity.

• Letter hunts can help early learners develop

a first-hand understanding of how the
alphabet works and letter recognition.
Alphabetic Principal: Letter Search
• Age: Preschool/Kindergarten
• Materials: Letter blocks and tiles or letter cards.
• With groups of 4 to 5 children, put a large
collection of letter blocks and tiles in the middle of
the circle where all the children can easily see and
reach. Ask the children to find certain kinds of
letters. For example, ask them to find their favorite
letter; two of the same letters; a letter in their
names; two letters that go together (any reason the
child provides is reasonable). Converse with
children about the letters they choose and refer to
the letters by name.
• This activity encourages children to identify letters
and to sort and arrange letters.
 Alphabetical Principal: Letter Connections
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• Learning letter names helps a child

learn letter sounds.
• It helps students develop their
understanding of the alphabetic
principle.
• This is a simple activity that can be
given to students and help children
make connections with the same
letter sound.
 Print Knowledge: Number Tracing
Age: Preschool-Kindergarten

• This activity allows students to

practice writing their numbers by
tracing the numbers with an
erasable marker.

• Tracing helps young children refine

their pre-writing skills and build the
foundation for drawing and writing
letters and words.

• This tracing activity strengthens

handwriting by helping children
recognize the shape a number
forms.
Print Knowledge: Building Words
Age: preschool/Kindergarten

• This is a simple, print out activities that allows

teachers to pick specific words students should
work and focus on.

• This activity allows students to explore the

word, build the word, write the word, and
illustrate the word.

• This focuses on early vocabulary,

• concept of print and writing skills at a young
age.
Print Knowledge: Concept of Books
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• While reading one-on-one or in small groups,

you as a teacher, can complete this small
checklist with your students. This allows a
teacher to read a book and then ask students
follow-up questions about the book and to
identify parts of the book.

• This allows students to connect better with

the book and form an understanding of what
parts of the book do for readers.
 Print Knowledge: Word Wheel
Age: Preschool/ Kindergarten

• This is a simple activity that

involves little prep and lets
students focus on how specific
letters blend together to make a
word.

• This can be completed during

workshop time or center time. This
can also be completed one-on-one
or in small groups.
 Print Knowledge: Small, Medium, Large

Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• This is a simple print out activity that allows

students to work on specific words and then
allows students to practice writing them in
small, medium, and large font.

• This works on handwriting skills, print

knowledge, word recognition, and spelling.
 Phonics: CVC Word Practice
• Age: Kindergarten
• This activity is an example of how to
prompt students to practice a simple
sentence frame with multiple different
endings.
• This activity falls under the foundation
for putting letter sound knowledge to the
test as students sound out and blend
words. These activities for CVC words are
engaging and can be effective for young
learners.
• This is a simple activity to set up for your
students and doesn’t involve more than
the worksheet and colorful writing
materials.
 Phonics: BINGO
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• Instead of numbers, the Bingo cards have

a picture in each box. The first player to
get five pictures in a horizontal, diagonal
or vertical row gets BINGO!
• Teaching pre-readers the sounds made by
individual letters will help them to decode
or sound out words.

• Phonics Bingo helps players recognize

words and word patterns, expand on
vocabulary, and aid in memory.
 Phonics: Key and Lock
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• This phonics key and lock activity allows

for children to work on specific words and
sounds, but also works on fine motor
skills.
• Materials needed: Keys, Lock, Box, and
print out phonics words.
• This activity children to try new things and
if it doesn’t work the key will not unlock
the lock.
 Phonics: Sight Words

Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• This activity has students work and focuses

on specific sight words, which can help their
fluency within literature and helps focus on
recognition of specific words.

• Coloring can be incorporated throughout this

activity, which is a simple activity that helps
with children’s development.
 Phonics: Playdough Writing
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• The teacher can hand out play dough to

the children and ask them to roll it flat
on the table in front of them. Then ask
them to carve various letters and even
small words on that play dough using a
stick.
• Children can practice handwriting
skills and specific recognition of specific
words, letters, and sounds.
 Oral Language: Interactive Read Aloud
• Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• Doing an interactive read aloud is always a fun

and engaging activity to get your students
interested in books.
• Interactive read-alouds consist of the teacher
engaging and interacting with the children
during the story of the book. This keeps
children entertained and allows them to make
assumptions, conclusions and share thoughts
about the book.
 Oral Language: Rhymes and Songs
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• This activity is simple and can be directed in

so many different ways. Doing rhyming
songs, poems, and books can help children
learn how language works.
• Songs, rhymes, and rhythm help your child
hear the smaller parts in words, the sounds
and the syllables.
• Repetition of rhymes and stories is good for
the brain, teaching how language works and
building memory capabilities.
• Rhymes help develop inferencing skills, both
with encountering new words and in reading
comprehension.
 Oral Language: Story Telling
Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• Story telling with young children can be

done with many different stories and it
allows teachers to incorporate specific
books that children are learning during
the specific unit.
• Storytelling helps develop a sense of
empathy as children are encouraged to
put themselves in the position of the
story's protagonist;
 Oral Language: Conversation Station
Age: Kindergarten

• This activity can be set up in small stations with groups

of three-four students.
• The topic can be varied on what the teacher wants
students to specifically focus on.
• This will be a place where students get to practice
their communication skills and have special
conversations with the teacher
• This can be used with a variety of books, props, and/or
picture cards that may stimulate discussion with
children.
• The teacher can carry out many different
conversations with students, one-on-one or in groups.
As well as direct conversation and questions in a
beneficial way.
Oral Language: Post Book Reading Discussion

• Age: Preschool/Kindergarten

• Completing a post-book discussion with

your students is very beneficial because it
allows the teacher to understand more
clearly how the students comprehend the
book.
• Allows students to create a deeper
understanding of the book.
• A post-book discussion involves asking
students about the book and
specific questions to see what students
can recall specific information.