Today I’m posting some of our favorite prek activities, great for workboxes! I usually mingle these in with our alphabet activities, they are also things she willl just go grab them on her own to do for fun as well.
Imaginets: These blocks are great for boosting fine motor, and visual thinking skills. And though the product is rated for ages 3 and up, it’s been a favorite for my 2 year old all the way to my 8 year old!
A favorite around here are the wipe-off books, one in particular is the Pre-Printing with Mazes book:
We also LOVE these See & Solve Math Manipulatives, they come with the wooden rods as well as lacing strings. You can do patterns, counting, sorting etc!
Homemade transferring activity! I used a plastic paint pallet probably from Michael’s and some kid’s chopsticks PF Chang’s. I have a bunch of variations of this game.
Daily counting calendar: I use this every day to practice counting, months and days of the week. We also put little colored math links on thumb tacks by each letter to make a pattern. I got the calendar and numbers from Lakeshore Learning and the colored math links from Lakeshore Learning as well.
Marbles on tees balancing game: I just cut a piece of styrafoam, but I’ve seen it done in sand as well. Stick in some golf tees and have them balance the marbles on top.
3D Feel & Find: This game is great, we try to ‘feel’ the object in the bag then pull it out. If it gets to hard, I just let her pull them all out and match them.
Number Pegs and Cards We use these to count, make super tall towers, sort by color, etc.
Counting Bears and Cups: we use these for counting, and sorting
Number cards and colored paper clips or mini-clothes pins: I put the correct amount of stickers on the backs of the cards as well so you can either work on number recognition or counting, also can be used as a double check for your answer. Another variation of this are my Number Dot Cards.
Small Places sorting: Placing straws into small holes in jar
Bingo markers put in bowls with numbers in them: Put in correct amount of markers, or any object you wish.
Blokus This game is great for the whole family, but I was surprised that my 3yr old loved it too! She plays with it on her own and tries to fit all the shapes on the board, she also sorts the by color as seen below:
Making shapes with stickers: Here is a link to a shape tracing template from Coloring Castle, they also have this shape tracer worksheet that gives the connecting dots only and the student has to fill in the missing ones, I used this for the older kids! I also made a Numbers Tracing Worksheet as well, figure while we’re at it might as well practice numbers! Worksheet Works is another great site where you can make your own worksheets. The scissor practice one would be great for this activity too!
CREATIVE COLOR CUBES ACTIVITY SET: We use these to make shapes on our alphabet activities and with these cards as well.
PS: I wasn’t paid to review anything here, everything I’ve promoted thus far, is just stuff we like and use!
Erica, my little boy just turned 3 and I have a 9 week old. I’m going to get your preschool curriculum but looking at everything on your site I feel super overwhelmed!!! its so great but where to do i start?? thank you Nicole
Hi Erica,
Love the list of preschool things you share here. They are ideal in a sense that it integrate play and learning at the same time. I especially like “Blokus Classics Game” which also serves as a great family bonding game. I don’t home-school but have a friend who does. I’ll definitely pass him this list for his reference.
How do you store and organize all of these extras?