6 Math Activities for Preschoolers to Do at Home (That Take Hardly Any Prep Work)

math activities for preschoolers

Some of us love math, and others cringe when we even think of it. But for all of us, math is a crucial life skill. And your child’s math knowledge will influence their academic achievement. Your role in your child’s math knowledge is important, and you can incorporate these six math activities for preschoolers into your day.

The bonus? These ideas require very little prep work!

First Things First: Don’t Stress Out

Your child’s preschool teachers will do an excellent job with math. If you feel nervous about guiding your child’s math skills, take a deep breath. You can make this easier by simply noticing basic math concepts in your daily routines.

Math is everywhere, and you can do a world of good by simply noticing the math that surrounds us. Ask your child: “How many banana slices are on your plate? How many will be left after you eat one? Two?”

Remember: Math isn’t always complex, especially at the preschool level. It’s sorting, finding patterns, measuring, building, counting, shapes, and comparisons. These things surround us every day. When you keep this in mind, math activities for preschoolers become second nature.

Second: Keep It Fun

You don’t need flashcards. Since math is everywhere, and since children learn best through play, keep math concepts fun and organic. Point out math concepts during play with the following math activities for preschoolers at home.

Rows and Shapes

Find similar items and line them up in a row (toy cars,  rocks, action figures, etc.). Ask your child to count them. Then, change the arrangement of the items: put them all in a circle, a triangle, or a square. Ask your child how many there are now.

Your child may need to count them again. As they grow and develop, they will understand that the number will remain the same even as the shape changes.

Measure

Preschool children may not be ready to grasp formal measurement yet. (inches, feet, etc.) But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t teach measurement skills! Using different items, like pumpkins in this photo, helps children begin to understand the concept of measurement.
What do you have around your house that you can use to measure items? Use blocks, teddy bears, or matchbox cars to see how long baby sister is when she lays on the floor. How many cups high is your child’s jack-o’-lantern? Try lining up leaves to measure your child’s shadow.

Shape Art

Have you ever stopped to wonder why we teach shapes to children? Shapes are the building blocks of geometry and spatial understanding. Help your child identify shapes by pointing them out in your home: the doorknob is a circle, the TV is a rectangle, etc.

And try this simple math activity for preschoolers: Cut out basic shapes in colored construction paper, and let your child glue the shapes onto paper to create art. Maybe they’ll make a building, and animal, a vehicle… whatever inspires them!

Sort with Candy

At snack time, give your child a few colored candies (M&M’s, skittles, jelly beans). Have them sort the candy into piles according to color. To add to this activity, guess at the biggest pile and then count each pile.

Ask your child what will happen if you add two piles together? How many candies will there be? What if you eat one candy? What if your child eats two?

Go on a Treasure Hunt

math activities for preschoolers

Send your child on a treasure hunt in your home! Hide a special treat, and then make a simple map of your home on a piece of paper. Indicate where your child should go with arrows or landmarks as checkpoints. This helps your child develop spatial awareness.

Then, make a map together and give it to another family member to use. Making the map together will give your child spatial language.

Compare Measurements

An important aspect of math is measuring and comparing. Find objects around the house and guess at which object is bigger. Then set them side by side and measure them.

Trace each other’s hands and feet to measure and compare.

Guess what’s farther: the distance from your bedroom to the stairs, or the distance from your child’s bedroom to the stairs? Then measure to find out.

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we know the critical importance of math skills for your preschooler.  That’s why we incorporate math activities for preschoolers into every aspect of our curriculum. Learn more about our curriculum and play-based learning. Call us at (801) 523-5930 for a tour.

 

8 At-Home Activities to Improve Your Preschooler’s Communication

improve your preschoolers communication

We’ve all experienced frustrating miscommunications, and this is especially difficult for preschool-aged kids. Imagine how your 3-year-old must feel when they can’t quite explain why they don’t want to share — frustration overload! While it’s developmentally normal for your preschooler to have a difficult time expressing themselves, you can help to improve your preschooler’s communication with these eight fun at-home activities.

1. Play Pass-the-Time Games

You know those old games you used to play on long road trips when you were a kid? Many of those are great tools for helping to improve your preschooler’s communication. Try these three the next time you’re in the car, eating lunch, or taking a walk.

  • Guess where we’re going/what we’re about to do: Give your child clues about the next thing you’re planning to do to help them piece together verbal information. For example, if you’re going to the movies after lunch, you could say, “We’ll eat popcorn, it will be dark, and we’ll watch a story on a screen. Where are we going?”
  • I Spy: The game I Spy is a great game for improving your preschooler’s communication because it encourages the use of descriptive words in relation to your environment.
  • Play 20 Questions: Another childhood favorite, 20 Questions requires  communication that involves reasoning, ruling things out, and the use of descriptive words.

    2. Increase Nonverbal Communication Skills

    So much of communication is actually nonverbal. You can help your child decode nonverbal cues with a few different activities.

  • Write or draw directions to somewhere in your neighborhood or home. Ask your child to follow them.
  • Silently give directions to somewhere in your neighborhood or home. Use hand gestures, pointing, and exaggerated facial expressions.
  • Look at pictures in books and make guesses about what someone is feeling, based on their facial expressions.
  • Try and do a cooperative activity together without talking. For example, run a relay race in your backyard, clean up the toys in the living room together, color a picture together, or play a sport in the backyard. The idea is that you’ll have to look to each other’s body language and facial expressions to determine next moves.

3. Play Telephone

Telephone helps your child develop good listening skills. With a group of people, sit in a circle and whisper a message to the person next to you. That person then whispers the message they heard to the next person, and so on. The final person shares the message out loud.

Undoubtedly, the final message will sound much different than it started out. The hilarity is what makes this game fun, but it also teaches a lesson — we have to pay close attention when communicating, or we have a hard time hearing the correct message.

4. Take a Nature Walk

Some of the best ways to improve your preschooler’s communication skills are in the simple, everyday connected activities.

Take a no-pressure nature walk and point out what you see. Ask your child what colors, animals, and plants they see. Point out letters and words on street signs. Collect nature items and talk about how they feel and smell.

5. Play Show-and-Tell

Kids love to describe their favorite toys and items. Ask your child to pick something and do a show-and-tell for the family. When they finish describing their item, ask questions about it. This not only helps build vocabulary, it’s another no-pressure way to increase confidence — which, in turn, improves your preschooler’s communication.

6. Play Pretend

Luckily, kids have a natural desire to play pretend — and luckily this is a simple way to improve communication skills. When children play pretend, they use  new vocabulary to describe their pretend situations. They problem-solve out loud, they cooperate with other playmates, and they use descriptive words to explain what’s going on.

{Read: Why Your Child Needs Pretend Play}

7. Play Charades

Sure, charades doesn’t rely on verbal communication. But it can still increase your preschooler’s communication skills by encouraging your child to think of non-verbal ways to get their point across. Remember, not all communication is verbal!

8. Tell a Story with Pictures

Give your child a few pictures and ask them to tell a story with them. You can clip pictures from a magazine, use family photos, or draw a few pictures. Put them in order, or let your child come up with their own order.

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we know how important communication is for your preschooler.  That’s why we provide a verbally-rich environment and curriculum. We are also always watching for markers of appropriately-developing language, and recommend intervention when those markers are not being met. Learn more about our curriculum. Call us at (801) 523-5930 for a tour.

10 Transportation Activities Your Preschooler Can Do at Home

Preschoolers are fascinated by vehicles. And transportation activities for preschoolers can actually help teach important concepts, like letters, numbers, cooperation, planning, and more.

Whether your kiddo is obsessed with tractors, trains, or trucks, these 10 transportation activities for preschoolers will give you something to do on a lazy afternoon while boosting important preschool skills.

1. Chairs, Chairs, Chairs

Let your preschooler rearrange the kitchen chairs to create a world of pretend transportation. Line the chairs up in a row to create a train, add aisles for an airplane, or create a replica of the family car.

Grab a few props from around the house — a suitcase, dress-up clothes, backpack, books for the flight, cardboard IDs for check-in, and more. Your child will have a great time playing pretend, but they’ll also be building vocabulary, increasing planning skills, and strengthening their imagination.

{Read: Why Your Child Needs Pretend Play}

2. Workin’ at the Carwash

A carwash sensory bin is a great backyard activity for a hot day, or a perfect kitchen-sink activity when it’s too cold to play with water outside.

Fill up a tub with soapy water, give your child some cleaning items (washcloth, brush, toothbrush), and let them give their toy cars a carwash. This sensory activity helps their brain create stronger connections, develops motor skills, builds imagination, and more.

[Read: The Benefits of Multisensory Learning]

Another fun sensory bin transportation activity for preschoolers is to make a construction sensory bin with sand, gravel, and rocks.

3. Make a Steering Wheel

Use construction paper or cardboard to make your own steering wheels, and then let your child use the wheel in their play. Have them bring their steering wheel along on car rides so they can backseat drive!

4. Active Transportation Activities for Preschoolers

Get your preschooler moving by teaching them to use their body as transportation in their pretend play. They can “fly” around the room as airplanes by putting their arms out to their sides. Crawling on the floor, they can use an arm to scoop up toys as they pretend to be a tractor (this could be helpful during cleanup time too!).

5. Car Painting

Have your child express themselves creatively with the transportation theme by painting with toy cars. Using washable paint, let your child use plastic toy cars as paintbrushes on their canvas. This will build creativity, reinforce the concept of cause-and-effect, and build fine motor skills.

6. Pull Out the Sleds

You might have some fun transportation props sitting in your garage. For example, a sled can make a fun boat on your living room floor. Your preschooler can take the lead in pretending where that boat is headed — is it going on a fishing trip, heading across the ocean to another continent, or ferrying stuffed animals across a river?

Let your child’s imagination drive this activity.

7. A City on the Floor

You might already have a rug with roads, buildings, and stop signs. These are great tools for imaginative play. But if you don’t have one, build one with your child.

Use masking tape to create roads. If your child wants a more-involved city, you can build buildings out of cardboard, toilet paper rolls, and more.

8. Make a Parking Lot

Use a cardboard box to make a parking lot for your child’s toy cars.

This is a great way to practice numbers or letters. Label each parking spot with a number or letter, and then label each car with a corresponding number or letter. Ask your child to park each car in its coordinating parking spot.

You can increase the challenge by asking them to park their car in the spot that is “plus 1” or “minus 1” from their car’s number.

9. Make Vehicles out of Shapes

Cut out triangles, squares, circles, and rectangles (or have your child do it), and then use those shapes to create vehicles. The vehicles can look like real vehicles, or your child can make up their own.

10. Visit Big Vehicles

transportation activities for preschoolersTake your preschooler to a construction site or fire station to let them observe big vehicles. What colors does your child see? How are the vehicles the same as your family car? How are they different? What sounds do the vehicles make? What features help the vehicles get their jobs done?

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Salt Lake City, thematic pretend play helps us teach reading, writing, science, social studies, and so much more. Learn about our curriculum. Call us at (801) 523-5930 for a tour.

 

12 Popular Preschool Activities to Do at Home

Learning should be fun, and at UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Utah, every activity we do is carefully thought out to teach important skills and concepts, while being fun and memorable.

With summer coming up, we thought it might be helpful to round up some of  our most popular preschool activities you can do at home. We love to make home life easier for our preschool families, so for each activity in this article, we made sure it meets certain metrics:

  • It must be fun
  • The activity must be easy
  • It must require few supplies and little prep
  • It must strengthen a skill or concept (while being fun!)

To that end, here are 12 popular preschool activities for you to do at home. Keep these ideas in your back pocket for spur-of-the moment mood-lifters, gatherings with friends, or a way to get through the lazy days of summer.

Remember, none of these activities need to be done to perfection. And if anyone gets frustrated, it’s always okay to stop!

Indoor Snowball Fight

When it’s too hot outside, retreat indoors and have a snowball fight. Use rolled-up socks and get as creative as you feel. Build forts, construct barriers, or simply use the couch as no-man’s land.

Skills this builds: This builds strength, coordination, creativity, and helps your child find joy in being active.

Travel by Plane or Train

Need to mop under the kitchen table? While you mop, set the chairs in two rows in the living room as if they are a plane or a train. Pull a suitcase out of storage, and let your child “travel” around the world.

Skills this builds: Pretend play builds imagination and creativity, increases vocabulary, enhances problem-solving skills, and so much more.

{Read: Pretend Away: Why Your Child Needs Pretend Play}

Treasure Hunt

Hide something fun (a treat, small toy, special note, or even your child’s favorite stuffed animal), and send your child on a treasure hunt to find it! Make this as simple or complex as you’d like: The simplest way is to write or draw simple clues like, “Go to the refrigerator.” Once your child is at the refrigerator, they’ll find another clue.

You can move up in difficulty by writing or drawing clues that make your child think, like “Go to the place where our food is kept cold.”

Want it to be more complex? Make it an alphabet hunt, where each clue takes your child to the next letter. Or draw a map for your child to read.

Skills this builds: Treasure hunts, even in their simplest form, help your child build critical thinking skills. They have to read or interpret pictures and figure out what to do with the information. Treasure hunts also build reading skills.

Make Your Own Pizza

English muffins are a great canvas for pizza items. Set out pizza ingredients and let your child build their own pizza.

Think of other food items your child can make on their own, or with minimal help: fruit salads (they can cut bananas, grapes, and strawberries), quesadillas, cold-cut sandwiches, etc.

Skills this builds: Making their own food helps children build independence. It also gives them confidence in making their own choices. Plus, it builds fine motor strength.

Try New Foods

Pick a country or region, and learn about the foods that are eaten there. Then, try them together.

Another way to have fun with trying new foods is to pick one type of food and try its different variations: apples are great for this. Family members can vote on their favorite, and you can add different dips to select another favorite.

Skills this builds: Your child learns how to try new things, while paying attention to multiple senses. They also learn about world cultures. And if you make a hypothesis about which will be the family’s favorite, you’re introducing the scientific method.

Car Wash

Indoors or outdoors, car washes are always fun. Fill a bucket with water, soap, and sponges, and let your child give a bath to the toy cars. Want to keep an eye on your child while you’re preparing dinner? Fill the kitchen sink!

Skills this builds: This activity gives your child a multi-sensory experience, which engages multiple parts of the brain. Your child also develops fine-motor skills while having fun.

Red Light, Green Light

Red light, green light is an easy and fun way to kill time. As with all of these activities, you can make the activity as easy or complex as you want. On the easy end of the spectrum, you can simply take turns being “It” and shouting out “Red light” or “Green light.” On the more complicated end, you can make red lights and green lights on papers or craft sticks.

You can change it up — and add some creative thinking and memory-building skills — by designating different colors to mean different things. For example, purple light could mean to hop or dance forward.

Skills this builds: Red light, green light teaches your child skills like following directions, self-regulation, and self management. It also helps your child be active.

Obstacle Course

Obstacle courses are fun ways to pass the time. Use what you have to create areas where your child can jump, spin, climb, balance, crawl, skip, and more.

Skills this builds: Your child gets to develop their gross motor skills, find joy in movement, and learn how to follow directions.

Teddy Bear Picnic

For lunchtime, head outside, under the kitchen table, or spread a blanket on the living room floor. Invite the household teddy bears to join a picnic in their honor.

You can do this popular preschool activity on the spur of the moment, or make this an elaborate, drawn-out celebration where your child creates invitations and party games for the teddy bear guests.

Skills this builds: Creativity! Your child will come up with imaginative scenarios at your teddy bear picnic. This is also a fun and nurturing connection for your family. And if your child turns this into a day-long event, complete with activities and party games, your child will develop writing skills, planning skills, and leadership skills.

Paper Plate Ice Skating

Keep a few paper plates handy for the inevitable choruses of “I’m bored.” Simply step on the paper plates and move around — now you’re “ice skating” in your kitchen and living room!

You can make this activity last longer with races, obstacle courses, and challenges. Write movement suggestions on cards that your child draws at random — backwards, spinning, to music, dancing, etc.

Skills this builds: This activity builds your child’s strength, dexterity,  coordination, and motor skills. If you use cards to suggest movements, your child can also improve reading skills.

Paint with Unique Brushes

Find unique tools for painting. Head to the dollar store, and select kitchen items like whisks, spatulas, and brushes. Use vegetables, like peppers and potatoes. Ask your child for suggestions too!

Skills this builds: Your child gets to experiment, which builds imagination, an understanding of the scientific process, creativity, and artistry. They also build fine motor skills.

Scissor Practice

Give your child some safety scissors and head outside to cut the grass. (Just keep an eye out, because your garden might look tempting too!)

Or draw fun lines on paper, and have your child try and cut on the lines.

Skills this builds: Cutting with scissors builds the small muscles in the hands, which are critical for writing, brushing teeth, buttoning, tying shoes, and more. Cutting with scissors also builds coordination.

Come see how we incorporate these, and other fun skill-building activities, into our curriculum at UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah. Give us a call at (801) 523-5930, or contact us online to schedule a tour.

23 Family Activities to Boost Preschool Learning and Skills

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Utah, we have loads of fun every day. It’s meant to be that way! But our activities are also carefully curated to help children learn and develop in several areas: Reading/Writing, Math, Science,  Art, Creative Movement and Dance, Social Studies, Character Development,  and Music.

Because children learn through play, all these areas of focus are presented in playful, imaginative ways so that children can grasp concepts more thoroughly and at their own pace.

You can do this in your family too, both at home and on the go! Read on for 23 ideas for family activities for preschoolers in math, reading, science, and creative movement.

Math Family Activities for Preschoolers

Math is everywhere, and simply pointing that out can be a huge boost to your child’s understanding of numbers. You can incorporate math activities into your everyday life. For example, ask your child to count how many stop signs you see on the way to preschool. Or at snack time, count out 10 goldfish crackers together, and ask your child to tell you how many will be left when they eat one. Or count the steps to your front door.

And then try these fun math family activities for preschoolers:

  • Have a Numbers Picnic: Plan a picnic where your food items go in numerical order. For example, maybe there’s one orange, two sandwiches, three cookies, four bunches of grapes, etc. Have your child help you prepare the picnic, and then have them line the items up in numerical order. As you decide what to eat first, you can go in numerical order, backwards, evens first, odds first, etc.
  • Cook or Bake Together: Let your child read the numbers of the measurements if they’re able. Have them measure the ingredients (or help you).
  • Make Playdoh Together: Not only is playdoh fun to make and play with, the process of making it can boost your child’s math understanding. Plus, it’s a great multi-sensory activity — this is a recipe your child can really stick their hands into.{Try this easy playdoh recipe together}
  • Work on a Puzzle Together: One study found that puzzle play between the ages of 2 and 4 helped children develop better spatial skills, an important concept in math.
  • Play Card Games: The old standbys, like Go Fish, War, and Uno, have simple-enough rules that young children can grasp the concepts.
  • Play Bingo: Everyone loves the chance to call out Bingo, and playing Bingo can help your child improve number (and some letter) recognition.
  • Make Fruit Kebabs: For a tasty math activity, work on patterns by making fruit kebabs

Science Family Activities

Look around you — you’re holding technology in your hands, there’s nature just outside the window, and electricity is pumping through your home. Being an observer is one of the most important skills of science, and just like math, science is everywhere. Help your child become an observer too, and try these fun science family activities.

  • Look at the Stars: Stay up late and look at the stars and moon. Observe what you see, and share what you remember from elementary school science. (Read a little beforehand if you don’t remember much!) Stargazing almost always leads to big questions, so be prepared to look up the answers.
  • Make Tie-Dye: Freshen up your family wardrobe with some new tie-dye. Talk about the chemical reaction that’s taking place between the dye and the fabric molecules.
  • Go for a Nature Walk: A good scientist observes. Take binoculars, magnifying glass, and notepad to observe and study what you see in nature. Responsibly take back leaves or pebbles to use in  artwork.


  • Grow a Garden: Plant seeds, and tend a garden together. Make predictions for what will happen. Observe the plant’s growth.

Movement Activities

Creating a family culture of movement and play will help your child develop healthy exercise habits. Plus, movement is important for young children, who need to develop strength and mobility. Try these fun family activities for preschoolers.

  • 4-square: Bring back an old playground favorite that involves eye-hand coordination, quick feet, and strength.
  • Make an Obstacle Course: Kids love obstacle courses, and they’re a great way to encourage different types of movement.
  • Play Charades: Laugh together as you try to use your body to act things out. If your child isn’t reading yet, draw your clues instead of writing them.
  • Play Balloon Games: Balloons are great tools for teaching hand-eye coordination, because they move so slowly and give your child enough time to get where they need to be. Play catch, keep the balloon off the floor, balloon volleyball, and more.
  • Freeze Dance: Freeze dance is one of those perfect ideas to keep in your back pocket. Not only does it inspire movement, it can quickly turn a sour mood happy. Use this game liberally.

Family Activities for Preschoolers to Help with Reading

Read! Read as much as you can! And then have fun with these reading and pre-reading activities.

  • Have a Letter Picnic: Can you pack something that starts with every letter of the alphabet? If that’s too much, how about every letter of your child’s name?
  • Put on a Play: If your child can read, write a script together. If they can’t yet, draw images to remind them of each scene. Or let your child put on a play free-style — storytelling in and of itself is an important pre-reading skill.
  • Go on a Treasure Hunt: Send your child on a treasure hunt, in which they have to follow written clues (if they can read) or certain letters.
  • Spot Your Letter: Even young preschoolers can learn to recognize the first letter of their name. Make this their special letter, and search for it everywhere you go: on traffic signs, on stores, etc.
  • Play Pass the Story: Start a story, and pause dramatically at a critical point. Ask your child to finish it. You can do this with familiar stories, like The Three Little Pigs, or you can make up stories as you go.
  • Tell Family Stories: Pull out photo albums and tell the stories of your family. Storytelling is an important reading skill, and hearing about family members keeps children engaged and grounded.
  • Keep a Travel Log: Get a special notebook for your summer activities, your vacations, or your weekend adventures. Have everyone take a turn writing or drawing a picture about your experiences.

Learn how we incorporate all of these subjects and more at UDA Creative Arts Preschool. We invite you to come watch us in action.  You can schedule a tour today by calling (801) 523-5930.

How to Get Your Preschooler to Open up After School

“How was preschool today?”

“Good.”

“What did you do?”

“I don’t remember.”

Does this conversation sound familiar? Getting your preschooler to open up after school can be a challenge!

The reason? Their brains are darting from idea to idea at rapid speed, and their working memory hasn’t fully developed yet. They may have LOVED when Miss Vicky led them on a hunt for the gingerbread man, but that was two hours ago. Plus, right now they’re distracted by something they see out the window.

But you (naturally!) want to know what your child did at school, and you want to know how they felt about it all. And it’s actually good for your preschooler’s brain if you do ask them to open up about their day. Revisiting their day helps their brain to develop while making important connections in their life.

So how can you get your preschooler to open up after preschool? Try these seven tell-me-about-your day tips.

Check Your Questions

It’s natural to say, “How was your day?” And there’s nothing wrong with this question. But if you want your preschooler to open up, try to ask fewer questions that prompt only one-word answers. Questions like, “Did you have fun?” or “Did you have a good day?” don’t invite your child to revisit their day and think about something to share.

Instead of “Did you have fun?”, try, “What was the most fun part of your day?” This will help you get more information, while also helping your child build their memory and communication skills.

Become Familiar with the Preschool Schedule

how to get your preschooler to open up

The more you know about what goes on at preschool each day, the more you can get your preschooler to open up. Use what you know to form your questions.

For example, if you know the preschool does show-and-tell every day, you can ask who brought an item, what it was, and what the child said about that item.

Use the teachers’ names, and ask questions about what they did during different subjects. “What kind of wiggly activity did you do in Miss Kris’ movement class today?”

What other routines or traditions happen at your child’s preschool? At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we have a special puppet named Tiki who introduces our character traits. Ask your child, “What did Tiki teach you?”

Use the 5 Ws

how to get your preschooler to open up

Help your child think back over their day by asking specific questions that ask them to recall details.

The 5Ws are a helpful guideline in this:

  • Who
  • What
  • When
  • Where
  • Why

Who did you sit next to at snack time? What art project did you work on today? When did you feel excited today? Where did you play during free time? Why did you get in the car with a smile/frown?

You can also add how questions: How did you feel during playtime? How were you friendly/silly/curious today? How did you solve a problem today?

Be Fun

how to get your preschooler to open up

Get your preschooler to open up by being fun or silly.

“Today, I wished a unicorn would knock on the door. It didn’t happen, but I did get a fun package. What silly thing did you wish for today?”

“I’m sure you did nothing today! You sat on the floor and stared at the wall, right?” If your child is in a playful mood, this might prompt responses like, “Noooo! I played with Emma! We were firefighters and we saved all the ponies!”

Take Your Time

Some kids are ready to share all the details of their day as soon as they get in the car, but some kids need time to decompress. And even chatty kids will have days when they need some time.

Gauge your child’s engagement, and if they need some time, wait. Try again when you’re both eating a snack together, driving to an after-school activity, eating dinner, or going to bed.

Get Your Preschooler to Open up by Showing How It’s Done

Start your conversation by sharing about your own day. Think of moments in your day that are relatable to your child’s day.

For example, “I had an orange for a snack.” Or, “I had a good time talking with my best friend today.” Or, “I felt frustrated today, and I helped myself feel better by taking deep breaths.”

Sometimes your child might take your cue, and offer up a similar tidbit from their day. Or you can then ask your child a similar question. “What did you have for snack today? What did you do with your friend today?”

Change the Scenery

Pay attention to when — and where — your child opens up about their day. If they clam up in the car, they may still be decompressing. Or they may be distracted by what they see outside. Try asking about your child’s day at a more calm time, like at bedtime.

If they can’t answer your questions face-to-face at dinner time, they may prefer talking when you’re doing a side-by-side activity, like putting together a puzzle or going for a walk.

15 Questions to Get Your Preschooler to Open up After School

Add a few of these questions to your rotation, and see how it goes!

  1. What did your teacher say to you today?
  2. Who did you spend the most time with today?
  3. What was the best thing you did outside?
  4. What was the hardest thing you did inside?
  5. Why was (fill in the blank from their answer) so fun/hard?
  6. Where is your favorite place at preschool?
  7. What did you have for snack?
  8. Sing me a song your learned today.
  9. What was the worst thing that happened today?
  10. What made you smile today?
  11. Show me your artwork. Tell me about it.
  12. What made you laugh today?
  13. Show me something you did in your creative movement class.
  14. Tell me about something that made you sad today.
  15. Tell me about something you learned today. 

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah, we enjoy full days of learning, exploration, and fun. To learn more about how we teach music, art, reading, math, science, creative movement, social studies, and so much more, contact us online or give us a call at (801) 523-5930.

7 Thanksgiving Activities for Your Preschooler

Thanksgiving time lends naturally to discussions of gratitude, even among the youngest of us! At UDA Creative Arts Preschool, we help children understand the concept of gratitude while giving opportunities for practice.

You can do the same at home, with these seven Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers, all of which point back to gratitude in one way or another. Do these on the day of Thanksgiving, or any time during the month.

{How to Teach Gratitude to Your Preschooler}

Cook Together

Thanksgiving is such a high-stakes meal, which might lead to shooing the littlest children out of the kitchen. But does it really have to be that way? For a meal so focused on gratitude, this is a perfect time to involve your preschool-aged children.

Think of simple kitchen activities that your child can manage mostly on their own: washing green beans, stirring stuffing, spreading butter, and mixing the dip for appetizers.

Be sure to thank your child for their help, and point out how their contributions allowed others to enjoy the meal.

Make Homemade Butter

thanksgiving activities for your preschooler

Kids love making butter in a jar. All you need is a baby food jar or mason jar, heavy cream, and a wiggly child willing to shake the jar! Follow these directions from The Stay-at-Home Chef here.

Make the butter a few days before Thanksgiving, and then ooh and ahh over how delicious it tastes on your Thanksgiving rolls. Your child will enjoy your gratitude for their hard work.

Go for a Walk — for Charity

Traditional community turkey trots and charity walks may not take place in 2020, but your family unit can still create your own charity walk.

Pick a charity you all want to support. Then, map out a route and set out on a walk or jog together as a family. Donate what you would have donated in a traditional turkey trot.

Go for a Walk — for  Nature Art

preschool thanksgiving activities

Take a walk around the neighborhood, looking for nature items you can bring back home. As you walk, talk about what you’re grateful for in nature. Point out the tree your child loves to climb, or notice the beautiful variations in the neighbor’s rock bed.

Collect twigs, leaves, rocks, acorns, pinecones, and more. Bring them home and make a gratitude nature art piece. Use paper, glue, tape, glitter, scissors, markers, and crayons and see what your child can create.

{6 Playful Art Ideas for Your Preschooler}

Create a Thankful Collage

Put some concrete understanding behind the concept of gratitude. Discuss what it means to be thankful. Then, look through magazines for images that remind you of gratitude. Cut out the images and arrange them into a collage. Display the collage somewhere your family will pass by frequently, so everyone can be reminded of gratitude.

{4 Ways to Teach Gratitude and the Joy of Giving}

Let Your Child Make Place Cards

Give your child ownership of Thanksgiving day, by letting them help decorate. One simple — and fun — thing your child can do is to create place cards for the dinner table.

If your child can write, let them sound out people’s names. If this frustrates them, write out the names for your child to copy.

If your child can’t yet write, you can first write the names and let your child decorate the place cards. Or you can forego names, and let your child decorate however they want.

Stickers are a great item to have to make the place card decorating fun — and to help your child develop their pincer grasp.

Make Thankful Cards

Talk about people you love and why you’re thankful for them. Then, encourage your child to decorate cards and write those thoughts (with your help, if needed). Hand deliver the cards, or send them in the mail!

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah, we teach children important character traits, like gratitude, as part of our curriculum. To learn more about how and what we teach, contact us online or give us a call at (801) 523-5930.

6 Playful Art Ideas for Your Preschooler

If you’ve been around UDA Creative Arts Preschool for a minute, you know our curriculum is heavily focused on play.

That’s because play is critical for children’s development. Play is how children learn, and it allows children to develop in multiple areas: physically, emotionally, and cognitively. Through play, children build their imagination, strengthen their dexterity, develop social skills, learn problem-solving, and so much more.

Not to mention, play is fun! And that’s important, because when a child is experiencing joy, they have a positive experience — and that leads to a positive association with learning.

There are generally four types of play: dramatic (pretend), manipulative (using toys and objects), physical, and creative.

In creative play, children use art materials to create — and the play happens in the process. The end product isn’t as important as the creation. In other words, the playful process is where the magic happens!

Try these six playful art ideas with your preschooler.

Nature Art

play art ideas

Begin this playful art project by going for a walk/run/hop around the neighborhood to collect nature items. Let your child’s imagination run wild — maybe they’re on the hunt for dinosaur fossils, or maybe they’re searching the area for food to bring back to their pretend cabin in the woods.

When you get home, use craft items like glue, glitter, paint, paper, and markers to create an art piece out of the items collected.

Soil Tray

This is a great outdoor activity, especially because it involves getting dirty! Place soil into some sort of tray, and then let your child arrange nature items however they’d like.

Similar to nature art, this playful art activity begins with a hunt in your backyard or neighborhood for nature items.

You’ll also want to gather:

  • a tray or plastic plate
  • soil
  • a spray bottle
  • small tools for arranging the dirt (toothbrush, toothpick, pencil, paintbrush)

Story Art

Children’s imaginations are huge. Foster their playful nature by encouraging them to tell you a story, while drawing it as they go.

Ice Cube Painting

playful art activities

Freeze a small toy into an ice cube. Give your child a piece of dark-colored construction paper, and encourage them to make art with the ice. As they “draw,” the ice will melt and free the toy!

Just Add Toys! And Other Things

Let your preschooler paint with toys, vegetables, toothbrushes, and more. This is such a fun activity for kids, because it lets them get even more playful with their art.

Not only that, they learn cause and effect — what happens when you paint with a toy car? How is it different from a paint brush or fingers?

Look around the house for other unique “paint brushes.” How about a toilet paper roll? Toy animals? Plastic utensils?

Spice up Your Playdough

Playdough is a great way to combine art with play. Children can turn the playdough into all sorts of fun, artistic creations. They can also use the items they create in their play. Maybe they’ll set up a playdough hamburger stand or pretend to take care of a playdough pet snake.

Make playdough even more of a sensory experience by making scented playdough. We love using pumpkin spice playdough during the fall. The scent inspires seasonal creations, and adds a lot of playful fun to creativity.

Here’s our favorite recipe!

Pumpkin Spice Play Dough

 1 cup of canned pumpkin puree
 1/2 cup of water
 2 tablespoons of oil
 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla
 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
 1 teaspoon of cloves
 1 teaspoon of allspice
 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
 1/2 teaspoon of ginger
 OR skip the separate spices and 4 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
 1/2 cup of salt
 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
 2 ¼ Cups of flour

1. Add first four ingredients to a large pot and heat on the stove {stirring regularly} until just bubbling.

2. Remove from heat and add in dry ingredients.  Stir until combined and dump mixture out on the counter.

3. Allow to cool for 5 or 10 minutes.

4. Knead dough until soft and fully cooled (it may feel sticky in the beginning but resist the urge to add flour – the stickiness vanishes completely once the dough is no longer warm).  Store in an airtight bag or container in the fridge when not in use.

 

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah, we know how important art is for your child’s intellectual, physical, and emotional development.   To learn more about how we teach, contact us online or give us a call at (801) 523-5930.

 

Why Your Preschooler Needs More Physical Play — Especially in the Time of Covid

preschooler physical play

Did you know that your child’s physical movement in the early years is directly  related to critical skills later in life — like reading, writing, emotional control, creativity, vocabulary skills, math, and more?

9 Movement Activities for Preschoolers You Can Do At Home

Play and movement is necessary for learning. Sometimes, we tend to view playtime and learning time as two distinct and separate tasks. One (play) is viewed as nice but just something to do when you have the time. The other (learning) is viewed as disciplined and serious.

But play is the way children learn! Play is children’s work.  When children are allowed to play, their brains get primed and ready for learning.

And perhaps never has this been more important than right now during the Covid-19 pandemic. With so much stability and activity now absent from our lives, children desperately need the physical and intellectual benefits of playful movement.

“Brain, This Is Body. Body, This Is Brain. Say Hello to Each Other.”

Your child’s brain and body are always working together, but the interesting thing is that the body actually teaches the brain.

This means that the more your preschooler moves during play, the more their brain will develop and grow.

That’s not something to be taken lightly! Children need to move and play so their brains can maximize their power!

On the outside of your child’s body, the five sense — touch, taste, smell, vision, and hearing — are working to organize information coming at them.

At the same time, there is an internal stimulus going on. As your child moves, internal systems, like the kinesthetic system and vestibular system, are activated. And these strengthened systems then support the brain’s functions.

Movement actually increases your child’s cognitive and intellectual abilities.

Are You Really Right-Brained or Left-Brained?

preschooler physical play

You’ve heard of the right and left brain. The left hemisphere of the brain is in charge of processing logic, words, math, and sequence, while the right side of the brain manages rhythm, music, pictures, emotion, and intuition.

We tend to say we are either right-brained or left-brained, but the truth is that both sides of the brain are working together all the time.

And the more we access each side, the better we can function — both academically and creatively.

Now here’s the interesting thing!

Physical play is one huge element that helps to develop both sides of the brain.

In other words, the thing that will help your child’s brain to grow and develop so that it can handle academics, emotions, creativity, and logic later on?

Play!

Movement!

It’s no surprise then, that children want to move, play, climb, wiggle, crawl, jump, run, skip, hop, climb (did we already say that?), and more.

And as they do, their brains are forming the right connections to make reading, writing, math, and more possible later on.

8 Music and Movement Activities for Preschoolers

There’s More Going on Than Meets the Eye

preschooler physical play

Different movements stimulate different parts of the brain, which translates to different gains later on.

How Your Child Is Strengthening Their Brain Stem: Basic movements like grasping, crawling, walking, reaching, turning, touching, pushing, and pulling stimulate the brain stem. This leads your child to be able to develop hand-eye coordination, big motor skills, and pre-writing abilities.

Did You Know Your Child Is Working on Cerebellum Health?: Movements like spinning, balancing, listening, swinging, rolling, tumbling, and dancing stimulate the cerebellum, which is responsible for better balance, sports ability, riding a bike, writing, fine motor coordination, reading, and even typing.

Yep, Your Child’s Movements Are Improving Their Limbic System Too: Movements like cuddling, stroking, playing with others, and socializing stimulate the limbic system. That leads to emotional intelligence qualities like: love, security, social sills, cooperation, and confidence.

And a Stimulated Cortex Improves Your Child’s Life: Movements like putting puzzles together, stacking, making patterns, playing word games, and listening to music stimulate the cortex. This leads to the ability to do math and logic problems, to paint, to increase in musical ability, and to become fluent in reading and writing.

So don’t stop your child from moving! Recognize the value and strength in wiggling, climbing, running, and more.

But during Covid, when some activities are unavailable, it can be hard to find enough movement activities for your child.

Here are a few suggestions.

10 Ideas to Get Your Child Moving During Covid-19

preschooler physical play

  • Go outside where it’s green. Not only will your child enjoy the space to run and move their body, studies have found that time in green nature can improve focus.When you go outside, bring objects to encourage movement: jump ropes, kites, balls, bikes, scooters, hula hoops, and more.
  • Create obstacle courses indoors or outdoors. When coming up with the obstacles, think: What can your child climb through, climb over, or climb under? Can your child hop over something? What can your child do on one foot? Can your child do something backwards? What can your child balance on? What can your child carry?

  • Look online for movement videos: Cosmic Kids Yoga and Go Noodle are popular ones with many children.
  • Turn on music and dance.

  • Do chores. Weeding, cleaning bathrooms, folding laundry, picking up toys and more all require movement. (This may take some creativity to make it fun, but it can be done!)

  • Do the hokey pokey.

  • Play hot lava.
  • Time how long it takes to ride bikes to a certain point. Then time how long it takes to run, to walk, to skip, and more. Turn this into a scientific experiment by making a hypothesis and charting your data.
  • Set a timer for one minute, and do as many squats/jumping jacks/push-ups/favorite exercise as you can. Do it again with another exercise.
  • Allow for free play. While your child will benefit from structured play, they also need time to move their bodies in ways that feel good to them. Free play lets them combine their creativity with their environment in ways that test their bodies.

At UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah, we incorporate creative movement, dance, and play into every single day. To learn more about how we promote physical development at preschool, contact us online or give us a call at (801) 523-5930.

 

 

Written by Rebecca Brown Wright

Kindergarten Readiness in the Time of Covid

Preschool graduation looks different than expected. Preschoolers don’t get to hug their teachers or friends goodbye. Safety protocols have changed the way once-normal gatherings are handled. No, this year ended in a way we never could have predicted.

And the fact is, at the time of this writing (May), we still don’t know what to expect when your child begins kindergarten in the fall.

So how should you prepare your child for kindergarten in the time of Covid-19? Read on for some helpful tips.

Social Development

kindergarten readiness utah

Our social world is drastically different than a few months ago. Where once, children may have gotten much of their social development from frequent play dates, now we need to reconsider how our children will develop social skills.

At this age, your child is working on sharing, taking turns, showing concern for others, playing cooperatively, and managing emotions. 

How can you do this when you might need to limit play dates and group settings?

  • Take your child into the world as much as possible. Take walks in nature and discuss how you need to move to the right of the trail when another person approaches (sharing the trail). Talk about being respectful with your voices so as not to disturb other people or neighborhoods (playing cooperatively). 
  • If you can go to public places, discuss current social distancing guidelines and how to follow them (playing cooperatively and showing concern for others).
  • Set up video calls, and encourage your child to take turns in the conversation. Teach them how to ask questions and wait for answers.
  • Give your child time, space, and materials to play pretend so they can role-play different scenarios.
  • Read books, and ponder out loud about how the characters feel.
  • If you can have play dates, follow current social distancing guidelines and discuss that you are taking these measures to protect others (showing concern for others and playing cooperatively).
  • If your child has siblings, help them share, play together, and take turns.
  • Look for ways you can help others following current social distancing guidelines (showing concern for others).

Motor Skills

kindergarten readiness utah

Motor skill development is still important during a pandemic! And thankfully, you don’t have to think too far out of the box to develop motor skills during Covid-19.

Gross Motor Activities

  • Get outside and run! Climb! Hop, skip, and jump!
  • Go for walks and hikes on uneven surfaces
  • Ride bikes, balance bikes, and scooters
  • Turn on the sprinklers
  • Splash in a kiddie pool
  • Jump on a trampoline
  • Play hopscotch
  • Dance
  • Set up an obstacle course in the backyard

 

Fine Motor Activities

  • Eat finger foods
  • Stack blocks
  • Play with play dough
  • Cook together (let your child measure and stir)
  • Give the toy cars a car wash (include a sponge for squeezing)
  • Cut the lawn with child scissors
  • Draw
  • Play around on the piano
  • Work on puzzles

{Why You Should Care About Fine Motor Skills in Your Preschooler}

Self-Help Skills

This time of social distancing and more time at home is actually the perfect time to work on self-help skills.

This is a time when you can assign age-appropriate chores. Let your child do them on their own as time goes on. As they master skills, continue to add more.

Encourage your child to do what they can do on their own. For example, they can probably get dressed mostly or completely on their own. Let them!

If they’re stuck with something, encourage them to ask questions and ask for help when needed. Don’t jump in with answers before they’ve had the chance to problem solve on their own.

If your child can’t use the restroom on their own, this is the time to coach them on how to do so. Be sure to teach them to wash their hands for 20 seconds.

Make sure your child can eat independently. Pack a lunchbox for them, and see if any part of opening the items is tricky. Then work on those items until your child can do it.

Academic Development

kindergarten readiness Utah

Academic development is what most parents think about when they consider kindergarten readiness. Can my child read? What about adding and subtracting? Can they write their name?

These worries tend to push parents to push children too hard. Please don’t stress about whether your child can read yet. These are important skills, but they are not the most crucial concern at this stage of your child’s life. 

Instead, focus on pre-reading skills. The Utah State Board of Education recommends you work on helping your child with these academic skills:

  • Listening attentively and responding to stories and books  
  • Speaking in complete sentences  
  • Identifying signs, symbols, or logos in the environment
  • Speaking clearly enough to be understood by others  
  • Identifying rhyming words in stories, poems, and songs  
  • Knowing that letters of the alphabet have specific sounds  
  • Identifying the first sound heard in random words  
  • Identifying some uppercase and lowercase letters, including those in their name  
  • Using beginning writing skills (e.g. drawing, scribbling, writing) to express ideas 

As you can see, none of these academic skills will require hours of flashcards. Most of these skills can be developed as you talk with your child, observe your surroundings with your child, and read, read, read with your child!

{8 Ways to Lose the Flashcards: Make Alphabet Learning Fun}

  • When you have conversations with your child, take turns asking questions
  • Ask your child to describe what they see, hear, smell, taste, or feel
  • Point out logos on products
  • Read a variety of books
  • Pause when you read, and ask your child what they think will happen next
  • Point out uppercase letters at the beginning of sentences in books
  • Do an activity together like cooking, and talk about the first sounds of words. “Let’s add the sugar. Ssss is the first sound in sugar.”
  • Let your child draw often, and use a variety of materials
  • Have your child practice writing their first name — use shaving cream, chalk, paint, dry erase on a mirror, and more to make it more fun
  • Work on puzzles

The times are uncertain, but your love for your child hasn’t wavered. Take these skills one day at a time, don’t push your child, and remember that we’ll all make it through.

To learn more about UDA Creative Arts Preschool in Draper, Utah, contact us online or give us a call at (801) 523-5930.