Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 1 Early Literacy Tip Tuesday D ecember 1 st – P lay is T heir W ork : Play for P reschoolers (3 - 5 yrs ) Hi everyone and welcome to another week of Early Literacy Tip Tuesdays! Today we’ ll be finishing up our discussion on the practice of Play with a talk about our preschoolers and how play helps them continue to grow and learn, and get ready for school in their near future. Let’s get right into it! At this point in our children’s lives they are really beginning to become their own person. You worked on their foundational skills in their first year by helping them learn how to communicate and engage their senses. When they were toddlers, you engaged their gross motor skills that they lov e to use still to this day. You also worked on their fine motor skills and you might’ve started some educational based playing by learning shapes, colors, or the alphabet. Preschoolers are still working on each of these skills, so it’s important to remembe r the activities we worked on in past years. Let’s talk about some new toys and activities, though, that will also help your child grow and develop their mind. 1. Keep on reading! Books are so important for helping to develop storytelling skills and imaginat ion for preschoolers. By this age, many children will want to read books independently and be able to handle a little bit longer stories. Accidents can happen and pages may get torn, but let your child read a picture book independently. They are exercising their imagination and starting to work with letters. Refer back to our “Picture Books” video for some ideas to get you started ! 2. Open - ended toys. This is a broad term, but I want to use it to categorize toys like blocks, train sets, legos or duplos, doll h ouses with furniture, animal figures, really any toy that requires your preschooler to make up a story or setting of their own. Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 2 Toys like these are great for so many reasons. Imagination play, fine motor skills, puzzle solving skills, and endless ways to p lay. 3. Toys that encourage imitation. Just like our little guys, preschoolers are still learning about the world by watching. Encourage this by giving them access to dress up clothes, play kitchens, play tools or play doctor kits. When you are pretending wi th your child, listen to them and see how they perceive the job that they are reenacting. You can also use this time to teach them new things, like what different things are called and what they are used for. Board Games are a great transition into other activities that encourage early learning and there are so many great board games designed for the youngest of users. At this age, it’s easier to see how some activities or play are directly helping your child get ready for school and lifelong learning. He re are a few great types of board games to look out for, and a few of my personal favorites. 1. Memory games. Any tile memory or matching game is excellent for exercising a preschooler’s brain and memory skills. A favorite that we have here at the library is Pengoloo! 2. Cooperative games. Games that involve working together as a team to get to a goal are great for building preschool social skills. Some of my favorites in this category are Hoot, Owl Hoot and Stack Up ! 3. Games that teach colors, numbers or other e arly learning concepts. Games like Candlyland, Colorama, and Snail’s Pace Race are great. Uno is marketed towards older children but can also be easily adapted for younger kiddos. Take out the trick cards and focus on matching colors or numbers. Many match ing games are great for teaching these concepts too. Try out Alphabet Go Fish ! Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 3 4. Games that use fine motor skills. Games like Yeti in My Spaghetti, Honey Bee Tree, and Let’s Go Fishin’ require steady or delicate hands to win. These are great for working thos e fine motor skills ! Many of our past videos feature activities that are great for this age because they help with future writing and reading skills. Browse back through the videos on our website or Facebook page for a refresher. Just like our toddlers, preschoolers still have a lot of energy. Trips to the park, discovery museums, and homemade obstacle courses will still be a hit. Any activity that allows your child to burn off some energy safely, is great Preschool aged children will also be going thro ugh a lot of social development. Because they are growing into their own personalities, they may still be shy, or they may be really excited to get out there and meet new people. Preschool is a great place for three through five year olds to start getting used to the school dynamic with shortened hours and less curricula. But it’s alright if you don’t choose to send your child to preschool too. Getting out with trips to the park, story time groups, and just interacting with others during daily errands is ju st as useful in teaching your child about interacting with others. Using manners and demonstrating sharing and caring in your own household is the best way to encourage children to use those skills when they are outside of it, too. As a closer, I want to remind everyone of the title of this video, “Play is their work”. While it might seem like everything a child does has no rhyme or reason, just remember that they are learning. They are learning about their world and learning about how things and people i nteract to make stories and friends, and whole new concepts. The Five Practices are so important for preparing a child for lifelong literacy and learning, and at the root of them is Play, something a child knows how to do instinctively and something we can encourage easily. Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 4 Thank you all so much for joining me for another Early Literacy Tip Tuesday. Next week we’ll wrap up this series with a video summarizing the Five Practices once more and some ways that you can use your local library to help your early learner. See you all soon! Sources : https://www.healthline.com/health/parenting/types - of - play#3. - Onlooker - pla y https://happyyouhappyfamily.com/preschool - board - games / https://www.mother.ly/child/25 - simple - activities - to - help - prepare - your - child - for - preschoo l