Activities for Preschoolers!

I haven't been updating the blog for a while now, because my very active preschooler has been skipping her afternoon naps! So there goes my little one hour of break, and I have to come up with more activities to keep her occupied while I do the household chores. Haha. Here are some of the activities we had been doing the past few days.

Treasure Hunt

This is a really fun way for C to learn to read! The treasure was a bag of C's favourite snacks! That was good motivation for her to try her best to sound out as well as recognize the words. I had indicated some prepositions in the clues too, while writing down various places where the clues were hidden.

Clues were written, cut out and placed in coloured envelopes.

Where the clues and treasure were hidden.

Hunting for the clues!

Deciphering the clues.

She did it! C was exhilarated to find the Treasure!

You can download the Treasure Hunt printable here. You can fill in the blanks with various places in your home.

Exploring Emotions!

One of the important things I thought C has to learn, is to discover and understand the various feelings she may experience throughout life, so she can handle her emotions better. One of C's favourite books about feelings is The Way I Feel by Janan Cain. Usually after reading this book, we will discuss about the emotions she has felt, and also to talk about why she experiences them. At the same time, explore how she can feel better if she is upset about something.

Another activity that goes hand in hand with this is one where C helps to draw out faces for different emotions - HAPPY, SCARED, SAD, ANGRY and EXCITED.

Adding faces to different emotions!

Here's the Exploring Emotions printable that you can download.

Science Experiment : Water and Oil

This experiment teaches C about how water and oil do not mix, as well as allow her to learn about the usage of measuring cups. First, I set up the experiment in a large tray, so as to contain any spillages. 

Here are the items required:

- Large, transparent container

- Funnel

- 1 cup of vegetable oil (or any type of oil you may have)

- 1 cup of water

- blue food colouring

- stirrer

- dropper (optional)

Large tray to hold all the items needed.

C helped to put blue colouring into the water using a dropper.

Stirrer to mix the blue colouring into the water.

C pouring the coloured water into the large container.

C pouring the oil into the large container.

Oil floating on water!

C shook it up and saw how the oil will always
settle back on top of the water.

 The simple explanation of why oil and water do not mix is because water is denser than oil (water molecules are packed more tightly than oil molecules). At the same time, water molecules are attracted to each other more than oil molecules. (Water molecules are polar charged while oil molecules are non-polar.)

Sorting and Counting M&Ms!

A few days ago, as I was clearing the kitchen cupboard, I stumbled upon a bottle of M&Ms that were about to expire in a week's time! Not wanting to waste food, I came up with an activity that kept C busy, while she got to enjoy eating the chocolates thereafter! With clean hands, C was asked to sort the M&Ms by their various colours into muffin cups labelled accordingly. 

Muffin cups labelled with the colours of the M&Ms.

The colourful assortment of M&Ms in a bowl!

C having fun sorting out the M&Ms!

C can't resist eating a few along the way!

Cheeky C! Happy with the yummy M&Ms!

Counting the M&Ms!

After the M&Ms were sorted into their colours, C counted the remaining ones that were not eaten and placed them back into the bottle. She had so much fun doing this she asked to paint some M&Ms on paper as well! 

Having fun painting M&Ms!

Spot the Differences

Another activity that C enjoys is to spot differences between two pictures. I've come up with a couple of these. Click here to download.

The above are just some ideas to share. There are many more activities we can do with preschoolers, so they can have fun and learn at the same time! Hope you all enjoy and do check back for more preschooler activities!