Fun Preschool Activities

School is a totally new world for toddlers. They are reluctant and scared. The routine is new to them. Hence preschools are meant to be a preparatory school of sorts, to get them into the habit of going to school. It is, hence, of utmost importance for the preschools to incorporate fun activities for the kids. Listed below are a few theme-based activities, that you can experiment with.

To begin with, you can let your children act out the rhyme "Little Miss Muffet", and also show them videos and pictures on spiders. This also gives you an opportunity to incorporate some art and craft activities. Teach them to create their own spider. Here is how.

• Take a large, plastic, black trash bag.
• Have the children fill it up with crumpled newspaper.
• Cut eight strips of black plastic from another trash bag, and let the children tape them on to the spider's body.
• To create the spider's eyes use some aluminum foil.

The children can make their own ladybugs by painting walnut shells with red color, and then adding black spots with a marker when the paint is dry. You may have a basic snack-making activity as well. Things you will need to make ladybug snacks:

• Round biscuits
• Raisins
• Jam
• Butter knives
• Paper plates

Distribute the biscuits, and hand a plastic knife to each kid. Teach them to spread some jam over the biscuits. Add raisins on top of the jam and biscuits to resemble the spots of a ladybug.

Make the children trace out their hands and feet on to pieces of paper. You can then give them color to add in details such as rings, nail polish, or tattoos. If you like, you can also give the children old magazines and newspapers, and have them cut out facial features from them. They can then glue these onto paper plates, and use yarn for hair.

Supply the children with some green clay or play dough to make cactus plants. They can use thin drinking straws for pines. As a learning activity for them, photocopy pictures of all animals found in the desert, for example snakes, lizards, and camels.

Ask the children to cut and glue them on to some cardboard. Label the animals. Once it is dry, staple strips of ribbon on to the cardboard. Make a hook with the ribbon on the top. Display it on the classroom wall for all to see.

For this preschool activity, take the children out into the garden in springtime, and let them see the flowers in full bloom! Talk to them about the various flowers and colors, and introduce them to words like aroma. Now, give the children water colors, markers, and crayons to draw a garden. The flannel boards used to display their artwork can also be used to match flowers and their names.

With Easter just around the corner, here are activities that you can arrange around an Easter theme. You can take a large oval piece of cardboard, and decorate it as an Easter egg with help from the children.

Once it looks beautiful and ready, cut the cardboard Easter egg into puzzle pieces, and let the children put all the pieces into place. Another thing you can do is bring some hard-boiled eggs to class, and let the children paint their own eggs using food coloring. They can also eat these eggs during break.

Let's hope these activities help you make preschool a part of the kids' cherished memories.