PRESCHOOLERS
At preschool age, children tend
to be bundles of energy with lots to say and lots more to discover.
Some
preschoolers chatter constantly, some run and play incessantly
and some sing, dance and perform, basking in the glow of attention.
And even if your preschooler is just as happy flipping quietly
through books, he's got creative energy just waiting to be unleashed.
Consider preschooler-oriented educational toys like puppets, hide-away
tents, costume articles for dress-up, easels and art supplies,
as well as books that invite imagery or rhythmic speaking.
TOYS
FOR
PRESCHOOLERS
This is a dramatic and creative
age. Many conversations between preschool-age friends start with
"Let's pretend...." Children become social. They become
interested in playing with each other instead of preferring to
play alone. Many toys become props for cooperative play.
Preschool-age children also are
interested in active physical play. They have more control of
their muscles at this age and this can be seen in the move from
a tricycle to a two-wheel bike. Preschoolers also are increasingly
curious about the world around them. They enjoy realistic toys
such as farm and animal sets, grocery store prop boxes, model
cars, and trains.
As hand coordination increases,
so does the child's interest in simple construction sets and more
difficult puzzles. They can manage more difficult creative projects,
and enjoy cutting and simple sewing projects, in addition to the
paint and play dough of earlier stages. Since children at this
age also are busy learning to read and write, give them play equipment
that encourages these interests.
You may notice that preschool
children play with many of the same toys as toddlers, but do so
in different ways. As a caregiver, encourage them to be creative
and to experiment. There are fewer safety concerns in this stage,
but sharp or cutting toys and electrical toys are still too dangerous.
Appropriate Toys for Preschoolers
puppets
farm and community play sets
transportation vehicles of all types
simple construction toys
creative materials
books and records
wheel toys
sleds
simple musical instruments
boxes
climbing structures
prop boxes
water play toys
puzzles
balls
cognitive games
dress-up clothes
housekeeping props
dolls and stuffed animals
character toys
How you can help
1. Get a book on puppets from
your local library. Then act out a scene.
2. Act out fairy tales or other
children's stories. *The Three Bears*, *The Three Billy Goats
Gruff*, and *Caps for Sale* are good starting stories for this.
For more ideas on things to do with children and books, see *Good
Times with Stories and Poems*.
3. Reverse roles with the child.
Let him or her pretend to be the caregiver and you pretend to
be the child.
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PLAY FOR PRESCHOOLERS
Children who are 4 and 5 are ready
for more organized social play. They grow away from being interested
only in their own ideas to being interested in the actions and
feelings of others.
Preschoolers love to dress-up
and pretend. They need dress-up clothes - hats, high heels, purses,
play money, or anything grown-ups wear. Providing costumes, dress-up
clothes, and equipment or furnishings encourages preschoolers
toward creative, dramatic play. Big boxes that can become houses
or stores are wonderful. These activities give them a chance to
act out their feelings, emotions, and how they view the world
about them. This practice of grown-up roles leads to the child's
understanding of adults by giving the child a chance to play at
being an adult. Preschoolers learn how it feels to be big. They
pretend, imagine, create, and imitate what they think it is like
to be grown up. They practice relating to their friends. Creative
play combines the elements of imagination and fantasy with what
is real.
The preschooler learns rapidly
through play. Learning the differences in how things feel, look,
and sound helps children develop intellectual skills. The child's
vocabulary expands through learning about color and size in play
activities. As children develop physically through running, jumping,
and hopping, they learn action words.
Giving a child an opportunity
to get messy also is a learning experience. Playing in mud, sand,
and water or painting and coloring gives children a sense of freedom
and another chance to strengthen their imagination and creativity.
Preschoolers are not lying when they tell wonderful and exciting
tales about things that adults know are not true. They are being
creative.
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MUSICAL FUN FOR
PRESCHOOLERS
Children who are 4 and 5 enjoy
singing just to be singing! They like songs that repeat words
and melodies, rhythms with a definite beat and words that ask
them to do things. Preschool children enjoy nursery rhymes and
songs about familiar things like toys, animals, play activities,
and people. They also like fingerplays and nonsense rhymes with
or without musical accompaniment.
If you are caring for preschool
children, provide a wide variety of music for them to listen to;
folk songs, symphonies, operas, rock and roll, and even sound
tracks from movies they might have seen. Suggest that everyone
pretend to be animals or objects like cats, elephants, trucks,
or bouncing balls, and then imitate these in response to the music.
You might provide the children with long scarves with which they
can pretend to make butterfly wings. Together, you can move your
bodies and "wings" and "fly" along with the
music!
More about Children and Music and Rhythm.
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STORIES AND POEMS
FOR PRESCHOOLERS
Four- and 5-year-olds enjoy stories
about things they know. They also like to hear things repeated
and enjoy rhythm and rhyme. By now their attention span is more
developed and they are able to listen to longer books. You can
choose a book with short chapters and read one or two at a time.
You might even read a new chapter each time you care for the children.
Preschoolers often memorize words
to a favorite book and can "read" the story out loud.
They use the pictures as clues to help them remember the words.
This is their first step in learning to read. Give them lots of
encouragement.
Four-year-olds have a great sense
of humor and are curious about people and the world around them.
They like to talk and tell "tall tales." They also love
silly language, riddles, and non-sense rhymes. Sometimes they
will even make up their own nonsense rhymes and exaggerated stories
to test their language skills. (They are not "lying",
just testing their knowledge of real and pretend.)
Five-year-olds are interested
in their families, schools, and neighborhoods, and ask many questions
beginning with "how" and "why." Choose books
about how things are made or done and why things happen. You may
want to think of 5-year-olds as little scientists, always asking
questions and testing things out.
Four- and 5-year-olds are forming
real friendships for the first time, so stories about friends
are meaningful to them. Preschoolers also are beginning to have
a sense of rules and justice. They are interested in stories about
fairness. They also like stories in which the characters make
choices and decisions and get involved in confusing situations.
Preschoolers also can learn from stories and poems that portray
changes in time since their sense of time is not yet developed.
As a caregiver, it is important
for you to remember that 4-and 5-year-olds want to be independent,
but still are in need of warmth and security. Books about happy
family relationships make them feel good. There are many quality
books in libraries and stories today about single parent families,
stepfamilies, working mothers, and even grandparents. Be sensitive
to the kind of families that the children you care for are growing
up in!
Books for Preschoolers
Preschoolers enjoy information
books and story books, both realistic and fantasy. Non-fiction
books about dinosaurs, insects,rocks, foreign countries, and other
subjects that interest them are favorites. They also like realistic
stories about their worlds of home and community. Try reading
stories about real-life children and places.
The silly language and nonsense
of Dr. Seuss books also are perfect for this age. Other favorite
topics are first experiences (like a first visit to the dentist),
family relationships, funny and wild stories, books about weather
and seasons, feelings, nature, and animals.
How you can help
You can help by listening to 4-year-olds'
"tall tales" without being critical, and by reading
fantasy stories such as *Where the Wild Things Are* to satisfy
their yen for the outlandish. You also can help by making an effort
to answer 5-year-olds' questions. If you do not know the answer,
you may say, "I do not know the answer to that, but let's
find a book about it." With the parents' permission, you
might plan a trip to the library to find the answer.
To help preschoolers become better
thinkers and problem solvers, you can choose stories in which
the main character makes a decision. You also can encourage children
to talk about or retell stories in their own words and tell you
about decisions they have made. Remember how dramatic they can
be!
Play silly word games with 4-
and 5-year-olds to help develop their language skills. See who
can make up the silliest nonsense rhymes. Tell some stories with
big words.
More
about Children and Stories and Poems
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Reprinted with permission from
the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Lagoni, L. S., Martin,
D. H., Maslin-Cole, C., Cook, A., MacIsaac, K., Parrill, G., Bigner,
J., Coker, E., & Sheie, S. (1989). Good times being creative.
In *Good times with child care* (pp. 239-253). Fort Collins,
CO: Colorado State University Cooperative Extension.
MORE ON CHILD CREATIVITY
Make
your child
more creative for life.
Every child has creative
ability just waiting to be tapped. Even infants have budding creative
potential. The right educational toys can bring it out. and let
children enjoy the benefits of creative pursuits at many levels.
Infants,
toddlers,
preschoolers,
early
school age and older
school age children all delight in opportunities for creative
expression through colors, shapes and sounds.
At The Creativity Institute, we handpick each infant educational
toy, every creative plaything, each piece of furniture and every
toy musical instrument based on its potential for developing vital
creative resources in your child.
Toy
pianos, oversized
foam building blocks, puppet
theaters and puppet stages and people
and animal hand puppets, art
supplies and children's
easels, play
tents and more. The scale and durability of many of these
toys make them perfect for classrooms, homeschool,
day care centers and waiting rooms, too. The benefits of nurturing
creativity can be profound, offering children tools for success
in all endeavors athletic, artistic or academic. Let your baby
begin now.