LANGUAGE AWARENESS
To encourage letter recognition, listening skills,
creative expression, and following directions, try
the following:
· Read often to your child. Take advantage of
when your child is willing to cuddle and
listen to a story.
· Start with board books, which have
cardboard pages, simple text and brightly
colored pictures. They are just the right size
for the very young.
· Talk about how a book is made. Show the
front and back and explain that stories have
a beginning and an end. Discuss the
pictures. Let your young one help you hold it
and turn the pages.
· After reading the story, talk about it. Let your
child tell you the story! As you read a story,
see if your child can predict what will happen
next. If the story has repetitious lines, have
your child join in.
· On different days, choose a letter of the
alphabet. Look for that letter in street signs,
on buildings, on items in the kitchen
cupboards, while shopping, reading books
and magazines. Ask what the letter sound
like and looks like. Draw it in sand or flour.
· Take an old magazine and cut out letters to
spell your child’s name.
· Print your child’s name and let him/her find
and match the letters by using letter
magnets or alphabet blocks. Make your own
letter flash cards.
· Take construction paper and using glue,
print your child’s name. Sprinkle glitter over
it. Once dry, let your child feel his/her name
as well as see it spelled.
· Talk about favorite animals or a pet. Spell
the animal’s name. Talk about what it eats,
where it lives, how it moves. Imitate what
sounds it makes.
· Sing a favorite song; change the lyrics of the
song (instead of 5 little monkeys, sing 5 little
teddy bears). Make up a song.
· Use a play telephone and talk to each other.
· On a special day, call a grandparent and let
them talk with your child.
IMAGINATION, MEMORY, SPATIAL
AWARENESS, CAUSE AND EFFECT
· Use paper lunch bags to make puppets.
· Pretend to be an animal. Pretend to walk
like it and sound like it.
· Give your child a straw. Ask what else it
could be used for. (wand, fishing pole,
musical baton, etc.)
· Make a silly wig by attaching crepe paper or
yarn to a band of paper or a paper plate that
has its middle cut out. Ask your child who
might have such hair.
· Cover a table with a sheet or blanket and
pretend it is a cave, house, airplane, etc.
· Create funny creatures using toothpicks and
marshmallows or cubes of cheese.
· Have a pretend tea party, decide who will be
invited and what will be served?
· Form a marching band using kitchen pots
and pans, bowls and spoons for
instruments. March through the house.
· At one of your meals, leave something off
the table that is always there and see if your
child can figure out what it is.
· Make cards with pictures of your family
members. Name the family members.
· Use 3x5” cards and make sets of matching
pictures or stickers. Mix them up, turn them
over and have your child find the matching
sets.
· Make a sound and have your child guess
what it is (train whistle, lion growling, etc.)
· Lay out different objects and have your child
look at them. Cover them up and then see
how many items your child can remember.
· With your child, construct a train from old
boxes. Talk to your child about what kind of
train it is and where it is going.
· Stack bowls, measuring cups or boxes so
they fit into each other.
· Compare lengths of different objects and
talk about which is longer and shorter.
· Compare weights of different objects and
talk about which is lighter and heavier

SIZE AND SHAPE RECOGNITION
· Look for different shapes in books and
magazines.
· Cut a sponge into different shapes and let
your child make pictures or designs using a
stamp pad and the sponge shape. Different
colored stamp pads are ideal for this activity.
· If making pancakes, pour the batter into
different shapes.
· Walk in a circle, in a square, in a triangle.
Ask which way is easier.
· Find different shapes while in the grocery
store, on a drive, while walking outside, or in
your house.
· When making your child’s sandwich, use a
cookie cutter to create different shapes.
· Buy or make a shape sorter cube. Have
your child decide which shapes go through
which holes.
COLOR RECOGNITION
· Read a book such as Brown Bear, Brown
Bear by Bill Martin or Mouse Paint by Ellen
Stoll Walsh, and talk about the different
colors. Ask what colors mix to make purple,
green or orange?
· While in a parking lot, have your child point
to different colored vehicles (a red car, a
blue truck, a white van, etc.)
· Talk about the colors you see while in the
store, when picking out an outfit to wear,
and while making/eating meals.
· Take pieces of color paper and print the
names of the color on the paper.
· Arrange several different pieces of colored
paper and have your child match a toy to the
sheet of paper (Example: red car to red
paper, yellow crayon to yellow paper).
· Take a round lid and draw a line of circles
with edges touching. Let your child make
each circle a different color. Add antennae
and legs. Now you have a caterpillar!
SORTING AND PATTERNING
· Have your child help you sort the laundry.
· On a walk, pick up stones or leaves, etc.
and sort them by shape or size.
· Let your child help you set the table. He/she
can sort the silverware.
· Sort loose change (coins) with your child.
· Gather some shoes, slippers and boots.
These can be sorted by type of shoe, who
the shoe belongs to, size of shoe, color of
shoe, etc. Be creative and add some doll
shoes.
· Sort other clothing such as mittens, hats, tshirts.
· Line items in a pattern and see if your child
can repeat the pattern (for example: cup,
spoon , napkin, cup spoon, napkin)
· Cut shapes (circles, squares, and triangles)
from colored construction paper. Your child
can sort by shape and color. Make it harder
by cutting small, medium and large sizes of
the shapes. Sort by shape, size and color.
· Mix different kinds of pasta in a large bowl.
Let your child sort the various pastas.
· Blindfold your child and let him/her smell
different foods. As if he/she can identify the
smells? Try tastes.
· Make flash cards with words and pictures
that can be combined into compound words.
(gold, fish, bowl, sea, shell, shore, tooth,
brush, pick, eye, lid, air, plane, butter, fly,
dog, house, etc.) Experiment by putting
different combinations together.
· Play “Follow the Leader”, “Mother May I”, or
“Simon Says”
· Have your child tell you what his/her favorite
part of the day was.
· Make rattles from envelopes, cups/lids, and
boxes. Listen to the different sounds they
make.
· Listen to sounds inside or outside the house.
Ask what is making those sounds. Have
your child make up a story about one of the
sounds.
· Have your child make up a storybook.
Instead of coloring all the pictures, make
collages using different textures such as
wax paper, fur, velvet, feathers, sandpaper,
corrugated paper, corduroy.
· Read stories that rhyme. See if your child
can predict what the next rhyming word will
be.
· While waiting in a line, sing a favorite song
· Look at a family photo album and tell stories
about the pictures.
· As the seasons change, talk about other
changes that occur. Ask what happens
outside, what happens inside, what different
clothes are worn.
· Play “I Spy”.
· Make cookies, or something to eat and read
the recipe together. Talk about how to mix
the ingredients and what order they are
added.
· Make a shopping list together. When at the
grocery store, talk about shapes, textures
and colors of items.
· Don’t be afraid to use many different words
with your child. Most children enter school
knowing between 3,000 to 5,000 words. You
will be the one who teaches the most words
to your child!
COUNTING AND NUMBER RECOGNITION
· With your child, count how many fingers and
toes he/she has. Play “This little piggy went
to market”. Count other body parts…nose,
ears, etc.
· When your child is brushing his/her teeth,
count how many teeth he/she has.
· Look for different numbers on houses, street
signs, license plates, buildings, and in
stores, books and magazines.
· Talk about how many people are in your
family and in your extended family?
· Use blocks to build a tower. Count the
number of blocks it takes.
· Write the numbers 1-10, or cut them out.
Glue them on paper. Have your child count
items (blocks, shoes, cereal, etc.) and place
them by the correct number.
· When grocery shopping, have your child
help you count the number of items you are
buying…the number of apples, boxes of
cereal, etc.
BODY AWARENESS
All children need to develop: eye-hand and foothand
coordination, fine and gross motor
coordination, as well as a sense of balance,
tactile stimulation, creative movement, and
sensory exploration. The following can be used
to promote these skills:
· Show how to clap. Advance clapping to a
rhythm while counting.
· Point to different body parts while playing in
front of a mirror. Make funny faces. Take
turns winking.
· Play peek-a-boo and hide and seek.
· Tip-toe, march, leap, hop, take giant steps.
· Balance on one foot. Practice skipping.
· Hold a hoola hoop vertically and have your
child crawl through it. Lay the hoola hoop on
the floor and have your child walk over it,
jump over it, leap over it.
· Put a large sheet of paper on the floor. Have
your child lay on it and draw an outline
around him/her. Together, add physical
details (nose, eyes, hair, and clothes.
· Draw pictures together. Use crayons on
paper, chalk on the driveway or sidewalk.
Trace around leaves or common household
items like a spoon or make rubbings with a
piece of paper and the flat side of a crayon.
· String pasta, cereal or cut-up straws to
make necklaces.
· Pick up different toys or objects with tongs.
· Feel different textures around you and talk
about them. Bowls are smooth, sandpaper is
rough, a stuffed animal or pet is furry, satin
is soft, etc. Walk barefoot on carpeting,
grass, and concrete.
· Play Simon Says with body parts.
· Draw a blank face and let your child fill in the
features.
· Trace your child’s shoes or feet to make
“footsteps” from colored paper. Lay them in
a pattern and have your child follow the
footsteps. Have your child name the colors
as they step on them
· Use or make play dough. Squeeze it, roll it,
make shapes.

Everything in this post comes from the following link(which is a PDF)
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/ha...Me_80204_7.pdf