Fall means back to school, and that means a return to routines, schedules, and finding enriching and education preschool classroom games and activities for teachers. The great thing about fall is there are a lot of themes and ideas to build classroom activities around. At the preschool level there are a few key landmarks to build activities on: establishing a routine, learning the basics, and making learning fun. Fall weather, seasonal holidays, and the newness of the school routine are all options for establishing a schedule, structuring activities, and helping little minds and hands get into the swing of things.
Preschool Back To School: Establishing a Routine
An important part of preschool classroom activities in the fall is helping young children become acclimated to the structure and routine of the classroom. This includes introducing rules, building stamina, and beginning to teach the basics of preschool curriculum like getting along with others and recognizing letters and numbers. For preschool age children it's also a good idea to incorporate activities that lessen separation anxiety and establish the classroom as a friendly and encouraging place to learn and make friends.
A great activity that accomplishes all these goals is the Back To School book. Take a picture of each child in the class and make a page with this picture and their name on it. Put the pictures together in a book with a picture of the class together on the front. Every day "read" this book together with the class so the children can get to know one another and begin to feel comfortable together. Add fun features like "Foods We Like," "Favorite Colors," and other information that is easy for the children to contribute each day for something new to learn about their classmates and to encourage classroom participation.
Preschool Fall Activities: Beginning With The Basics
Fall activities in the preschool classroom are all about building a foundation for early learning. Some preschool classroom games and activities that make early learning fun include using music, rhymes, and physical activity to engage all of a children's senses. Some such activities include singing counting songs that go along with Fall themes like counting leaves that fell from a tree with a tree and cutout leaves that can be laminated or cut from felt to be attached, made to fall, and then reattached and counted to teach numbers, patterns, and counting. This can also be used to teach the colors red, orange, yellow, brown, and even green as you talk about how green leaves change to autumn colors in the fall.
Preschool classroom teachers can also use seasonal holidays and themes for the fall like harvest time, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. Preschool classroom games and activities can include items like pumpkins in activities like coloring, drawing, or even sticking Mr. Potato Head pieces into small pumpkins to make their own faces or decorating mini pumpkins with paints or glue-on pieces to learn about the components of a face.
The fall is a great time for using activities to establish routines, introduce learning as a fun and encouraging activity, and use seasonal weather and holiday and natural implements for learning. There are all kinds of supplies that are versatile in many ways for this purpose. Share your preschool fall classroom ideas and activities with us.
