Preschool is the time when children are allowed to explore their creative sides through arts, crafts, games, and creative play. As an instructor, it's crucial to incorporate a wide variety of preschool creative activities to every theme so that there's an activity for each child. Some children may choose to explore their creative side through drawing or coloring, while others prefer more hands-on activities like building, while others might express themselves best through games of pretend or other types of creative play.
Try some of these preschool creative activities that focus on the letter "T". However, they are not just limited to the alphabet theme. Many can be used when learning about animals or teddy bears, transportation, or dental hygiene.
Teddy Bear Rank and File
Children love teddy bears, which can often lead to a week-long or month-long celebration of all things teddy, such as Octobear or Novembear. Have each child bring their favorite teddy bear to live in the classroom for a month and meet other teddy bears. This is when the preschool creative activities can begin!
First, assemble all the teddy bears together. Then, have one of the children rank the bears according to a criteria such as size, weight, cutest, funniest, etc. This teaches children to look at pieces of a whole and learn the concept of ranking things. Plus it allows allow them to apply creative criteria to a set of objects.
Taking a Train Ride
When learning about the letter "T", one of the most important categories to explore is transportation. Here's a fun little game called Taking a Train Ride. For this game, assemble all the chairs in the classroom two by two in a line. For each chair, write a number on a piece of paper and tape it to the back of the chair.
Give each child a ticket that corresponds with one of the seats on the train. At the sound of the whistle, each child is to take their place on the train. Then, appoint one of the children to be the engineer, and they go to each child and punch a hole in their ticket with a hole punch.
After each child has taken their place on the train, have each person describe what kind of trip they are taking, where they are going, what they will see, and who they are going with. This exercise allows the children to use their imaginations for planning the fictitious vacations, and shows them what travel on a train might be like.
Tooth Time!
Finally, here are some creative activities for exploring another aspect of the letter "T"- teeth. For the first activity, children make large teeth from plastic bottles and white tempra paint. Give each child a two-liter soft drink bottle that has the top part cut off. Paint the bottles with white tempra paint, and once the paint has dried, each child has a giant tooth that they can practice brushing on.
Next, have each child make their own toothbrush to use for brushing the giant tooth. First, cut a toothbrush shape from a piece of construction paper. Punch a few holes in the head side, and string short pieces of pipecleaners through the holes. Tape or glue the pipecleaners to the other side of the toothbrush. Have each child write their name on the toothbrush and decorate it to their liking. Now they have a toothbrush to brush the large models of the teeth!
Try these preschool creative activities and then let your own imagination take over. Your preschoolers can also provide their own fresh ideas to use!
