Free Preschool Activities

Beading is a fun way for preschoolers to develop their hand-eye coordination, and also to have fun creating something. Below, writer Rachel Paxton shares an easy preschool beading activity with you. Depending on your child’s age, you can use brightly colored beads that are just right for smaller hands or smaller decorative beads that look like tiny jewels.

Preschool Beading Activity by Rachel Paxton

Young children love beads of all shapes and sizes.  This beading activity is great for older toddlers and preschool aged children.

All you need is a shoelace or string like from the hood of a sweat shirt, some large wooden beads, and a small pouch to keep everything in.  You can purchase the beads at most any craft store. My mom made my boys cute little drawstring pouches out of scrap fabric.

The object of the activity is to have your child string the beads onto the string.  Tie a large knot at the end of the string so the beads will not slip off.  You might need to wrap a small piece of scotch tape around the other end of the string to help guide the string through the bead.

Sounds too easy doesn’t it?  You’ll be surprised at how long this will keep your child entertained.  They love stringing beads! This is a great activity to take on the road (e.g., in the car, at a restaurant, etc.), and it also improves their hand and eye coordination.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For resources for the Christian family, including parenting, toddler and preschool activities, homeschooling, family traditions, and more, visit http://www.Christian-Parent.com

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

I love making this Advent calendar with the kids! It’s just so simple, and is a good way to keep track of how many days until Christmas.

What you need:

• Christmas picture to color. You can find several coloring pages here
• construction paper in Christmas colors or your child’s favorite
• child-sized scissors (You and your preschooler will LOVE the ones that come with the Super Scissors Book.
• Glue or tape

What you do:

Have your child color and cut out the Christmas picture you chose.

Count how many days there are left until Christmas morning. Cut a strip of construction paper for each day.

Tape or glue each strip into a ring. Make them into a chain and attach to your picture.

For some extra fun, see if your child can create a pattern with the colors.

Hang the chain up where your child will see it everyday. Before he or she goes to bed each night, have them cut one ring off the chain.

When you cut off the last ring, the next morning is Christmas!

What you need:

- construction paper in colors you want to teach. If you’ll be teaching the basic shapes instead,  cut them into circles, squares and triangles.

- a preschool music CD such as 30 Preschool Songs

What you do:

Tape the construction paper to the floor, close enough that preschoolers can jump from piece to piece.

Start the music and have the preschoolers jump from paper to paper. Stop the music and have everyone tell you what color/shape they’re standing on.

Alternatives:

Try hopping or jumping backwards instead of jumping.

When the music stops, call out a particular color or shape for then to run to, like “Red!” or “Triangle!”

For older preschoolers, try a variation of musical chairs. Have one less paper than you have children. The one not standing on a color/shape when the music stops can sit down, or become a helper.

by Rachel Paxton

Kids are never too young to write thank you notes.  If they are old enough to hold a pencil or crayon, they can help create a thoughtful thank you note to send to friends or relatives for a birthday gift they have received.

People won’t expect a perfect thank you note from a young child, so let your preschooler have fun with this project.  The point isn’t how good the finished product looks, but how much effort and thoughtfulness the child put into it.

Supplies needed:

Blank greeting cards and envelopes
White card stock
Crayons/colored pencils/paints
Paper cutter
Glue stick
“Thank you” rubber stamp
Ink for rubber stamp
Birthday photos of child

Your child’s artwork will decorate the front of the greeting card.  Give your preschooler a blank piece of white card stock and let him draw on the paper.  He can use crayons, colored pencils, or my boys’ favorite, paints.  Paints can be applied with a paint brush or with sponges.

If your child has chosen to use paint, you will have to wait until the paper is completely dry to start the next step.

Using the paper cutter, cut the artwork to fit the front of the greeting card.  Let your child use the glue stick to apply glue to the back of the artwork and glue it to the card.

Next let your child glue a birthday photo of himself in the center of the front of the card.

Open the card and have your child use the rubber stamp to stamp “thank you” in the center of the card.

Have your child sign his name in the card.  If your child is not old enough to write, just have him scribble in the card.  Older children can write their name with your help.  You can write a note in the card thanking the person for the specific gift the child received.

Encourage your children from a young age to be thankful for gifts they have received.  Make it a fun activity, and they will enjoy writing thank you cards.

Photos of thank you card:
http://www.christian-parent.com/preschool/thank-you-cards.shtml

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For resources for the Christian family, including parenting, toddler and preschool activities, homeschooling, family traditions, and more, visit http://www.Christian-Parent.com

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

This is an activity I tried with some preschoolers over the weekend, and it went over really well. We had a story about a boat in a storm. Then to bring the story to life, we made our own foil boats and turned our water table into a roaring ocean. I’ve also added some extensions to the end of this activity that you could try with your preschoolers.

What you need:

Basin of water
Foil
Objects/plastic people to put in boats
Towels!

What you do:

Give each preschooler a piece of foil. Show them how they can turn it into a boat. There’s no right or wrong way to do this, so let them be creative! We folded our foil in half then turned the edges up for sides.

Put the boats in the water and watch how they float. Invite your preschoolers to make a windy day by blowing on the water and making waves.

Extension activities:

Turn this into a counting activity! How many objects can you put into a boat before it sinks?

Put an island (a small saucer or other object) in your water table and read The Little Island to your preschoolers. Have them recreate the storm and other events of the story.

These ghosts are spooky and delicious too! One year we make these as gifts for my son’s preschool friends.  If you plan on giving lollipops to your trick-or-treaters this year, this is a fun way to decorate them ahead of time.

What you need for each ghost:

lollipop

tissue

tape

marker

What you do:

Cover the lollipop with the tissue so it looks like a ghost’s body. Secure the tissue in place with a piece of tape.

Draw a spooky or a happy face with the marker.

Enjoy!

These tissue ghosts are so simple to make and yet so cute! You can make just one or create a whole row of ghosts to decorate your window for Halloween night.

For each tissue ghost you will need:

2 tissues

twist tie

marker

What you do:

Crumple one tissue into a ball. This will be the form for the ghost’s head.

Cover the ball with the other tissue so the tissue hangs down like a ghost’s body.

Secure the tissue in place by wrapping a twist tie under the ball to form the neck.

Draw a face onto the head with the marker.

Have fun drawing different expressions and hanging them up for everyone to see!

by Tracy Zdelar

Don’t let the economy bum you out when it comes to having fun.  Saving money should always be in fashion anyways. Get creative and think outside the box to spice up life. If you haven’t had to get creative before, now is a good time to start. Look for “free community” opportunities for fun times!

Earlier this year we made a purchase from a furniture store in the Akron area and became a “past customer”. This furniture store sent out flyers recently to their “past customers” inviting us to a free Fall Festival at their store.  Details of the night included finger-food dinner from “their” cafe-  (yes, this furniture store has a cafe), a free gift (choice of a pumpkin or a floor rug), a little bit of Halloween fun for the kiddos (trick or treating for candy) and if you were making a non-refundable purchase that night you could play musical chairs and get a chance to win up to $5000 off your purchase that night!

Other frugal ways to have fun:

~ While the weather is still nice, give the kids some paper lunch sacks and go for a walk.  Have the kids pick up whatever looks interesting (and safe) and put it in the bags. Or, give them a list of things to hunt…a scavenger hunt! Acorns, gold leaves, pine cones, strange rocks…etc..

~  Teach them how to rake leaves. If they are young enough, they might actually “believe” it is fun!

~ Have a s’mores cookout on the grill or over the fire pit in the backyard. Get a bag of marshmallows, a box of Hershey bars  and graham crakers. Just toast the marshmallows and stick between to crackers with a chocolate bar.  You can also do this in the oven broiler. (Stand by  and wait so it doesn’t burn!) Just put your crackers on foil, top with marshmallows- when those are toasty take out of oven and place your chocolate on top and eat! Okay, let it cool first.

~ Pick out different leaves, bring in the house, lay wax paper or plain white paper and use a crayon to color over to bring out the shape of the leaves.

~ Make a craft with your souvenirs you gathered from your nature walk.

Spending time with your family or friends is the key, isn’t it? That alone doesn’t have to cost money. So get busy thinking. You’ll be surprised to find the simple things you can do for “free” that may just net you “priceless” memories in the future!

Tracy Zdelar lives in Canton, Ohio and is a graduate of Liberty University with a bachelors in Interdisciplinary Studies.  She’s enjoyed (more and less) working in a variety of fields from being a small newspaper “high school” news writer,  fast food,  management, teaching,  and case management in the health care system (just to name a few).  She now, like many moms, desires to work from home. This has been a journey in and of itself.  Tracy has earned extra income from home by being in direct sales, offering childcare, selling on Ebay,  and affiliate marketing - sometimes simultaneously .

As a wife and mother of two boys, Tracy now focuses on  affiliate marketing, blogging, and promoting other WAHMs (work-at-home moms) as well as sharing her money saving ways, reviews and resources on her website  http://www.HallofFameMoms.com

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Fall is full of wonder for preschoolers. If you live in an area where trees lose their leaves in preparation for winter, here is an outdoor activity that will help them enjoy and explore the falling leaves.

What you need:

1 large blanket
Yard or park full of leaves
Energetic preschoolers

What you do:

Lay the blanket on the ground and fill it up with leaves that have already fallen.

Everyone grabs a corner of the blanket.

Lift the blanket together.

Count to three. On “three” everyone throws up the blanket so the leaves fly up and come back down.

Try to catch the falling leaves!

by Rachel Paxton

Making placemats from fall leaves is a fun activity for kids of all ages. Even toddlers will have fun collecting leaves and creating their own placemat. For this craft you will need:

Roll of contact paper
Fall leaves
Scissors

This activity is very inexpensive. The only item you will have to buy is the contact paper, and you can pick this up for about $5 a roll. One roll will make many placemats.

Have your kids go out in the yard and collect some fall leaves. Have them look for a variety of colors and shapes. If the leaves are dry you can use them right away. If they are wet, let them set on a piece of newspaper to dry before you start the craft project.

Before you sit the kids down cut some pieces of contact paper into the shape of placemats. I used the width of the contact paper for the width of the placemat so I would only have to make one cut for each placemat. You will need two pieces of contact paper for each placemat. You can make the placemats any size you choose.

After the contact paper is ready, sit your kids down at a table and have them spread out the leaves in the center of the table. Give them a piece of contact paper with the backing paper removed. Let them arrange their leaves on the sticky side of the paper. After they are happy with the arrangement of their leaves, take another piece of contact paper and carefully lay it on top of the leaves so that the sticky sides of both pieces of contact paper are together. Carefully use your hands to smooth out any bubbles or wrinkles. You won’t be able to get them all out, but don’t worry, a few wrinkles will not be noticeable when you are done.

When you are finished you can use the scissors to trim around the edges to make sure they are all even and straight. This is an easy project that can be completed in about an hour. Remember the younger the child, the shorter their attention span, so if you are making very many you may end up finishing them yourself! My toddler boys spent about 15 minutes on theirs and they had a great time.

Don’t forget to proudly display your fall leaf placemats on your Thanksgiving table!

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Photos of finished fall leaf placemats: http://www.crafty-moms.com/fall-leaf-placemat.shtml

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com.