Rhymes can be used for any number of learning activities – for strengthening language skills, for boosting vocabulary, and for counting skills. Your preschooler will find counting and memorizing numbers becomes easier if counting rhymes are a part of his routine at home.

Younger kids are already familiar with 1-2-3, but find themselves getting stuck as they progress beyond these. Recite these rhymes together as you’re fixing dinner, in the car, during bath time. Practice makes permanent where numerals are concerned.

Here are some counting rhymes for the both of you to enjoy. Use plenty of actions, and encourage her to use her fingers and toes to count out the numbers, and hold them up.

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

One, two, buckle my shoe,

Three, four, shut the door,

Five, six, pick up sticks,

Seven, eight, lay them straight,

Nine, ten, a big fat hen,

Eleven, twelve, dig and delve

Thirteen, fourteen, maids are courting

Fifteen, sixteen, maids are kissing

Seventeen, eighteen, maids are waiting

Nineteen, twenty, my plate’s empty.

Fish Alive

One, two, three, four, five,

Once I caught a fish alive,

Six seven eight nine ten,

Then I let it go again.

Why did you let it go?

Because it bit my finger so,

Which finger did it bite?

The little finger on the right.

Use these rhymes to practice subtraction and counting backwords:

Ten green bottles

Ten green bottles standing on the wall,

Ten green bottles standing on the wall,

And if one green bottle should accidentally fall,

There’ll be nine green bottles standing on the wall,

Nine green bottles standing on the wall,

And if one green bottle should accidentally fall,

There’ll be eight green bottles hanging on the wall,

One little, 2 little, 3 little Indians,

4 little, 5 little, 6 little Indians,

7 little, 8 little, 9 little Indians,

Ten little Indian boys!

10 little, nine little, 8 little Indians

7 little, six little, five little Indians

4 little, 3 little, 2 little Indians

1 little Indian boy!

This is a popular rhyme that’s best when recited with lots of actions.

This old man

This old man he played one, (let her hold up her thumb)

He played knick knack on my thumb (let her tap two thumbs together)

With a knick knack paddy whack (put one fist on top of the other)

Give a dog a bone (make an action of handing over a bone to a dog)

This old man came rolling home (let her roll her arm one over the other).

Proceed to “two” till you’ve covered all numbers till 10. Use these rhyming words

Two – shoe

Three – on my knee

Four – on my door

Five – on my hive

Six – on my sticks

Seven – up in heaven

Eight – on my gate

Nine – on my spine

Ten – once again.

Change the words to other rhymes and songs to create new counting rhymes:

When the Numbers go Marching In (Sung to When the saints go marching in)

O, when the numbers go marching in

O, when the numbers go marching in,

We will count them one by one,

When the numbers go marching in,

O one two three and four five six,

Seven and eight nine and ten,

When we finish all our numbers,

We will count them once again.

Sing a Song of Numbers ( sung to Sing a song of Six Pence)

Sing a song of numbers,

Count them one by one,

Sing a song of numbers,

We’ve only just begun,

One, two, three, four, five, six,

Seven, eight, nine and ten,

When we finish counting them,

We’ll start over again.

Count our Numbers (sung to Oh my Darling Clementine)

Count our numbers, count our numbers,

Count our numbers everyday,

Oh it’s fun to count our numbers,

Count with Mommy every day.

One, two, three, four,

Five, six, seven, eight,

Nine and ten we’ll count today,

It’s so fun to count together,

One to ten and then again.

Show me One (sung to Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

One, one show me one,

Show me one right now,

One, one show me one

Show me one right now.

Proceed with other numbers.

The Number Song (sung to Mary had a little lamb)

Number one is o-n-e, o-n-e, o-n-e,

Number one is o-n-e,

That spells number one .

Use for numbers two, six, and ten.

The Number Song II (sung to Skip to my Lou)

T-h-r-e-e

T-h-r-e-e

T-h-r-e-e

That spells number three.

Use for numbers, four, five and nine.

The Number Song III (sung to The Farmer’s in the Dell)

S-e-v-e-n,

S-e-v-e-n,

Hi ho the derry o,

That spells number seven.

Use for number eight too.

Enjoy!

Continuing with my series on preschool sensory activities, we’re moving on to taste activities. Here’s the first one:

Take 8 dropper bottles. Smaller bottles with narrow mouths will also do.

Paint the lids of fours bottles green, and four others red.

Into each red lidded bottle, pour four different tasting liquids

• Sugary water for sweet
• Salt water for salty
• Lemon juice for sour
• Black coffee for bitter

Do the same for the green lidded bottles

Ask your child to wash her hand, open a red lidded bottle, put a couple of drops of liquid on the back of her hand.

Ask her to taste the liquid.

Let her then test each green lidded bottle till she finds the exact same taste.

When she finds a perfectly matched pair, let her keep those two bottles aside, and proceed with the others.

Keep a small jug of water and a plastic bowl for her to wash her hand after each testing session.

More Taste Sensory Activities

Add taste sensory activities to every day eating scenarios. Talk about the taste of different foods as you eat together.

• This apple is so sweet.
• This yoghurt is sour.
• These chips are salty.

Encourage her to find the taste of ingredients in each dish –

Can you taste the lemon in the lemon sponge cake?

Ask her what a certain food tastes like – a slice of lemon, a piece of horseradish etc.

Blindfold her and put a bite of a food that she’s familiar with in her mouth – a grape, a spoon of pasta. Let her guess what it is.

Place a large plastic tray in front of her, and give her three cups of pudding with food coloring mixed in each. Let her paint on the tray, and then lick the pudding off her fingers. Next time, vary the taste of the edible paint – make it thick yoghurt mixed with food coloring. This activity allows her to use all her senses – she can see the pudding, smell it, touch it and taste it.

Since kids haven’t been exposed to as many tastes as we have, they are not prepared for what they will taste, which heightens the entire sensory experience for them. Plus, the mouth is one of the earliest organs for exploration in a baby, which makes it feel natural for a preschooler when he takes part in a tasting activity. Introducing her to different tastes can also help her develop an interest in different foods.

Have fun!

Measuring Activities for PreSchoolers

The concept of measuring distances in feet, or inches is a difficult one to grasp, but one your child will have to begin to learn soon.

Begin by using measuring scales that she understands – let her use steps or strides to measure the distance to the door, from the door to the car etc.

Count how many steps it takes to cover each length of distance.

Let her use arm lengths to cover the same distances. Let her compare the number of strides with the number of arm lengths taken to cover the same distance. This is also great practice for counting lessons.

Give her a dressmaker’s tape and begin measuring things –

• Her shoes
• Distances from her bed to the door
• The tiles on the floor
• The length of the carpet
• The hands of the sofa chair
• The car

Stick to a certain unit of measurement to avoid confusing her – only inches in the beginning, for instance.

Measurements –adding them, breaking them down – will be part of her studies soon enough, and this helps her to learn the basics.

Weighing Activity for PreSchoolers

Use your kitchen weighing scale for this measuring activity. Create a worksheet and make columns for the name of the item you’re measuring and the weight. Let her fill this on her own as she’s done with each weighing activity.

Give her a cup of rice, and show her how to weigh it.

Compare the weight of the cup of rice with other items – let her measure a cup of beans or lentils, or short grain rice, and compare the weights.

Give her a bag of rice, and ask her to fill another bowl using a small measuring cup. Let her count how many cups it takes to fill the bowl.

Break down this activity as you go along. How many spoons of rice does it take to fill a cup?

What She Learns

These activities help develop an understanding of weights and distance. Plus, there’s lots of counting involved which helps boost math skills. Noting down measurements on a worksheet on her own gives her a sense of accomplishment, of doing something on her own, and doing something right – always a self esteem booster.

Have fun, and keep smiling!

Learning words and what they mean is the very basis of education.  Whether your child goes to a preschool or is home schooled, she will be expected to know a number of words before any serious learning can begin.  Thankfully, vocabulary is also one of the first things we start teaching a child (when your baby says her first word – that’s her introduction to vocabulary). 

Here are some vocabulary preschool activities that you can use to boost your child’s understanding of words, increase the numbers of words she’s familiar and their context and meaning.

Bean Bag Game

Throw a bean bag back and forth, and recite rhyming words

Start with the very basics.

Cat, bat, mat, pat

Can, pan, man

Top, mop, hop

Tin, bin, pin

Egg, peg, leg, keg

Run, bun, sun

Progress to bigger words.

Land, band, sand

This is a verbal game, so don’t worry too much about spelling discrepancies.

White can go with tight, might and bright, and even kite.

 If she gets stuck, continue, and explain the meaning of the words as you recite them.

 
Thinking Game

Use thinking games to boost vocabulary.

What else in the room is red?

Show me something else on the table that’s round. (at dinner time)

The egg is yellow. Find me something else in the house or garden that’s yellow. Give her a paper lunch bag to fill with other things of the same kind she finds.  Strictly no opening closets.  She’ll have to found whatever is out in the open at home or outside.

Story Telling PreSchool Activity

• Cut out a bunch of pictures from magazines, and make a scrapbook of it.
• Paste the pictures to pieces of cardboard, insert in clear plastic covers and staple at the sides. 
• Include a fair mix of things that she’s very familiar with (animals, household items or objects) and things she’s not familiar with (ocean, forests,). 
• Now look at the pictures together, and make a story out of them. 
• When she comes across a picture that she doesn’t know much about like a forest, explain what it means and the different animals and birds that live in one, and proceed with the story. 

Name the book after your child.

Word Recognition Through Context

Take a bunch of index cards, write names of commonly found household objects,  and place the cards on these objects.  For instance, door, window, bed etc.  Keep the cards up for a week, to establish word recognition in your preschooler.  At the end of the week, take the cards down, and write down the words on a paper.

Let her compare the list with the cards, and match each card with the word on the list.

Tip: This preschool activity works equally well, if you’re trying to get your preschooler to learn a new language.

Enjoy!

Sorting activities can lay a strong foundation for addition, counting and more advanced math skills. It can be taught using the most basic things around the house –

• Sorting forks and spoons,
• Sorting buttons and beads by colors,
• Sorting shoes by size,
• Sorting socks by pattern or color,

And so on.

If your child is up for newer challenges, teach her that things can be sorted into more than one category.

Giver her four lunch bags, shoe boxes or cartons. This game is easiest when you use building blocks.

Ask her to sort the blocks based on color and size. For instance – one bag for big red blocks, one for smaller red blocks, one for big blue blocks, another for small blue blocks.

This teaches her that that things can be both one thing and another.

Here’s how you can use these complex sorting games to boost math abilities. Ask her to count the sides of each block, and then sort into blocks with four sides and blocks without four sides.

You can also use buttons – let her sort them into round, square, with 4 holes and without four holes. So, she’ll end up with 4 categories of buttons -

round with four holes

round without four holes

square with four holes

squares without four holes

This preschool activity combines sorting with counting, and helps lay a foundation for finer math skills.

Color recognition activities can start as early as age two, although it ultimately depends on your child.

Many kids tend to find primary colors more difficult to grasp, because the concept of things having different colors is not an easy one to understand. Don’t mix up all the colors in your enthusiasm – start with the three primary colors. Kids find it easier to understand when you can show them each color in the form of an object, rather than trying to point out colors on a chart.

Take a number of objects of the same color in a basket – toy cars, caps, building blocks. These should all be in solid red, blue or yellow. Let’s start with the color red.

Ask your child to hand you things one at a time:

Can you hand me the red car, please?

Next, ask him for the red cap.

Stress the word red always.

Do this for each object in the basket.

Once he’s been able to establish red, move on to yellow and blue.

When he becomes fairly comfortable with these three colors individually, begin mixing them up in a basket.

Can you hand me the red car and the yellow bowl please?

The yellow block and the blue truck?

This won’t happen overnight, but once the primary colors are firmly established, it’s easy and fun to begin experimenting with secondary colors.

Keep smiling!

Here’s a twist on an age old game to teach your child to recognize the starting sounds of a word.

1. Take a cloth bag, and attach a letter tag to it. Stick to letters that have consistent sounds like “b” or “f” to keep things simple.
2. Ask your child to find 5 things around the house that begin with that letter. You can progress to tougher letters as you go along.
3. Later, you can introduce her to combinations of letters like “sh.”

Enjoy!

Just in case it wasn’t obvious by now, I am a huge fan of using simple day to day activities and situations as opportunities to teach. There are countless activities in your day like cooking activities for preschoolers that you can use to create an enriching learning environment for your child.

I am one of those people who finds doing laundry very therapeutic. There’s something about dirty clothes going into the washer, and fresh clean clothes coming out that gives my mind a well deserved rest, and makes me fresh enough for new challenges. Some people meditate, others do yoga. I do laundry.

Whether you like doing laundry or not, here’s a sorting activity for your preschooler that you can use next laundry day. If she enjoys it, you could also add it to your list of chores for her to do. (You are giving her at least some chores, aren’t you?)

• Ask your child to help by sorting the dirty laundry into whites and coloreds, and then coloreds into wools, cottons and other fabrics.
• Once you’ve brought back the clean wash into the house, let her help you separate it into clothes and other things.
• Next up, ask her to separate clothes that belong to each family member.

What does she learn?

• Sorting according to fabric, and types of clothing
• Participating in a family activity (sense of accomplishment)
• A sense of neatness. (Hopefully, by the time she’s a teenager, she’ll have learned to actually fold her clothes and put them away, instead of cramming them all into the closet, and pushing against the door to lock it!)

Have fun!

Continuing with our series on sensory activities, here is an activity for sensory awareness of smell.  Sniffing and recognizing smells may be difficult for younger kids, but not if you introduce stronger and easily distinguishable fragrances.

Just like in the hearing activities, make two sets of jars, using a total of six jars, one set with red bottles and the other set in green bottles.  Plastic spice jars are fine, and so are baby food jars. 

Place a piece of cotton wool with a few drops of a particular liquid flavoring in each pair.  Use strong easily identifiable scents like lemon, vanilla, or herbs from your kitchen – lavender, rosemary.  If you want a stronger fragrance, use lemon rinds instead, or cinnamon, cloves or other strong spices.  If you’re not using cotton balls, you’ll have to make sure the bottles are opaque.

Ask your child to open and sniff a red jar, and then, open and sniff a green jar to find the matching green jar  with the exact same scent. 

This activity can be a lot of fun, especially when it comes to the strong scents!

 
Have fun, and keep smiling.

Listening is a skill that in our world, is getting more and more difficult to pick up. Watching television and being transfixed by the sounds from it, or playing a video game doesn’t really require “listening.”

Play the silence game to encourage your preschooler to focus his attention on his hearing senses.

Use a kitchen timer to start the game. Don’t set a five minute timer; kids this age can’t be expected to sit still and silent for that long.

Start with 30 seconds – it’s just about right.

Ask your child to close her eyes, and keep quiet till the timer goes off.

When the timer goes off, ask her to tell her the sounds she heard when she was silent – the ceiling fan whirring, the neighbor’s dog, a door slamming shut.

Make a game out of it, and she’ll be eager to concentrate and focus all her listening powers.

This activity is great for improving concentration, and enhancing listening skills.