When we offer activities to children in early education settings, we want them to be not only entertaining but to have clear learning outcomes. It’s much more beneficial for children and helps us to meet the NQS (National Quality Standards).
In this article, I’ll list language and literacy activities to do with your preschoolers. They all are fun for children and easy to organise for teachers. These activities are an excellent start for introducing young minds to letters and setting the stage for further learning.
LANGUAGE AND LITERACY ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOLERS
1. Treasure Hunt
Use a tray, or a toy box and throw a bunch of toys in it. Close your eyes and go on a “treasure hunt.” You can do this activity in a sandpit. Bury toys in the sand and then go on a treasure hunt. As you and the children take turns pulling toys out of the box, encourage them to create a story from what they find. Story telling is an important skill for oral language development.
2. Crocodile circle
Picture a bin with a crocodile face on top, filled with letters and surprise cards. Children pass the crocodile around the circle singing “Crocodile, crocodile down by lake, I’m going to reach right in and see what (letter) you ate”. The child holding the crocodile then pulls a letter and calls it out. Extra surprise cards can let you repeat a turn, reverse directions or anything else you want to include.
3. Letter matching archaeology game
The perfect accompaniment to a dinosaur-themed unit, this activity allows children to practice letter recognition while playing archaeologist. Drop a few magnetic letters onto a cookie sheet, writing the letters you chose on a piece of paper for the children to use as a key. Cover the letters in flour and give the kids a brush to carefully ‘search the site’ for hidden letters. When they find one, they must match it to their paper key before continuing the hunt.
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4. Storytelling
Picture books are great to use for storytelling. And storytelling is a fantastic activity for children to learn how to construct their message, to learn new vocabulary, to sharpen memory and to improve listening skills. Simply encourage children to describe what they see. It might be especially funny experience if children take turns page after page.
5. Lotto with pictures
This game can be played with 2-4 players. Each player should choose a board and find the tiles that match his or her board. Turn those tiles over and mix them up. The first player should draw a picture tile from the pile. If the picture matches the player’s board, the player keeps the tile and puts it on his board. If it does not match, the player puts it back into the pile. The next player gets a turn.
The game is continued in this way until one player has found all six of his or her tiles and wins the game. Should I mention that while children draw their tiles, encourage them to talk about objects they see.
6. Mini alphabet sensory bins
Tape the letter on the front of each box, or let the kids guess the letter as they examine the objects. Either way, these sensory bins transform a fun, hands-on play activity into a literacy lesson.
7. Snowball throw alphabet game
Paper, tape and ping-pong balls are all you need for this game of ‘snowball’ throwing. Tape a bunch of letters to a wall, call out the sounds and have the children throw the snowball at the letter represented. As an added bonus, kids get to work on their coordination as well as their alphabet.
8. Blocks
Build castles, houses, farms. Once your masterpiece is built, create stories out of your play with animals and people.
9. Bringing books to life
Read a story/rhyme together and discuss which characters you each want to be. Consider the props you might want to bring to this story alive. You might create caves and homes with blankets and cushions – you may even like to close the blinds and use a torch to create a spooky atmosphere. Put some enthusiasm into your storytelling or rhyme and discuss what is happening within the story. There are so many stories and rhymes that can be acted out, such as:
We’re going on a Bear hunt – by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
A Summery Saturday Morning – by Margaret Mahy
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Three Little Pigs
Miss Polly had a Dolly
Five Little Speckled Frogs
Incy Wincy Spider
10. What Goes Together Game
Say a noun, such as ‘flower’. Next, have the child say or write three to five words that tell about the word. For example, for flower they might say: pretty, blue, tiny, tall, or smelly.
11. Shaving cream writing
For this activity you’ll need baking paper and non-menthol aerosol shaving cream
Lay out paper flat on a table. Children spray a large pile of shaving cream on the area. Have them spread out the cream and practice their writing skills.
This activity will be very helpful with fine motor skills – also visual and tactical learners will benefit. The more senses you use, the more you learn. Do this activity to practise letters, writing words, writing cursive, numbers, and doing addition.
12. Outdoor Drawing Activity
Invite children to pair up and sit back to back so they can each see a different part of the grounds.Have children spend 2-5 minutes carefully drawing what they see, in silence. Then give them a few minutes to share their drawings and tell their partners about two or three things they saw.
Which literacy activities you love doing in your classroom? Share with us in the comments below. Let’s Grow this list for our future reference!
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