200 Essential Preschool Activities

Book excerpt: 200 Essential Preschool Activities promotes children's learning, helps improve their functional skills, and encourages interaction in the classroom. This resource provides preschool, pre-kindergarten, and student teachers with an abundance of developmentally appropriate lessons, all developed by the author and used in her own classroom for more than fifteen years. These adaptable, open-ended activities and strategies complement any early childhood program's core curriculum. 200 Essential Preschool Activities provides activities for and information on: Creative centers, including dramatic play areas and discovery and sensory areas Learning games, including turn-taking and board games, academic games, and cooperative and active games Group lessons, including circle time, social lessons, hands-on skill builders, and musical games and finger plays Arts and crafts, including child-centered expressive art and creative tools and methods Classroom structure, including classroom areas and centers and creating learning opportunities Parent involvement Julienne M. Olson has been teaching early childhood special education since 1995. She holds a bachelor's degree in early childhood special education and a master's degree in early childhood special education.