Pre-School Home Learning

Below are a range of activities linked to the seven areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS). These activities are designed to be fun, interactive and engaging for your 3- and 4-year olds.

Home Learning Support

Useful links

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Play board games as a family – encourage turn taking using language such as my turn first, then your turn
Build a den in your living room – test different ideas that you each have and discuss why they did/didn’t work and what could be done differently, then eat lunch/watch a film etc in it together
Provide small tasks to complete e.g. setting the table for dinner, helping to make lunch, putting the washing in the machine, sweeping the floor

Expressive Arts and Design

Sing and dance together – do this lots!
Listen to your favourite music and make up dances
Play your favourite games
Use playdough
Paint pictures
Build using different construction materials

Communication and Language

Initiate conversations about areas of interest – children at this age will jump from topic to topic so take their lead and extend on what they are talking to you about
Sing rhymes and encourage the children to finish off the last words – to extend on this change the ending to rhymes to help children think of different rhyming words e.g. Hickory, Dickory Boot, the mouse ran up the…
Read stories together – encourage the children to describe what they see, what will happen next, what do the characters look like, how are they feeling and how do you know. You could do this in your den!
Provide children with simple instructions e.g. put your toys away first and then we will read a book. Extend this as children begin to understand and follow the instruction e.g. put your coat and shoes on and then we will go outside
Play games such as ‘Simon says’

Physical Development

Take part in some form of physical activity each day. This could be going out on your scooter or bike (please remember social distancing and only do this once a day with members of your household), taking part in the Joe Wicks PE session on YouTube or simply doing some yoga
Do some threading, cutting, mark making and play dough activities to help with fine manipulative skills
Practise your name writing – concentrate on one letter at a time and once this has been mastered move onto the next whilst still practising that first letter
Learn how to get dressed independently in the morning – this is the perfect opportunity to master this as there will be no rushing for the school run!
Gain independence in toileting and hand washing

Literacy

Model words that describe things e.g. if your child says ‘dog’ extend on this by saying “fluffy dog” “tiny dog” “noisy dog” – you decide the best way to describe it, this will also build on their language skills
Read books and sing rhymes – see Communication and Language
Listen to and say the initial sounds in words – I spy games are good for this although you may need lots of practise at first
Go outside and listen to the sounds you can hear
Make pictures with paint, pencils, crayons or even in the mud and encourage your children to tell you what they have made

Mathematics

Play games with a dice, dominoes and number bingo (this can be homemade)
Encourage lots of counting but in different ways so this could mean counting the steps you take when climbing the stairs, playing games such as ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’, ‘Simon Says’ where you can incorporate 3 claps, 2 jumps, 4 stomps etc.
Compare quantities – this could be when playing with cars, ask are there more red cars or blue cars and encourage them to check using their careful counting (lining things up makes this easier)
Bake something – use the scales to discuss quantities

Understanding the World

Go outside and investigate what bugs/creatures you can see – take photographs and then if you have access to the internet find out more about the creatures you found e.g. what are they called, what do they eat, how many legs do they have, where do they like to live etc.
Eat dinner together as a family
Look in the mirror and describe yourself make self-portraits using paint, pencils or pens and talk about things that you have in common and things that are different e.g. hair colour, eye colour

Letters and sounds Phase 1: http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-1-games.html
Maths: https://www.education.com/games/preschool/math/; https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/3-5-years/counting
Music and Movement: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Hdb26_xnPQsntwLazMqYw
Literacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyI6ykDwds

Watch this video, or even complete the experiment yourself using pepper, water and soap, to show your children how important it is to wash our hands properly using soap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HulpYYaQ2Dg

Twinkl is offering a month free subscription in the event of school closure. This means anyone can access all their games, worksheets and activities for free during this time. Twinkl have a variety of preschool resources to support your child’s learning at home. On their website if you search preschool home learning lots of ideas for you and your child will come up. To sign up and take advantage of this offer please use this link. Setting this up is easy to do – go to www.twinkl.co.uk/offer and enter the code UKTWINKLHELPS

Remember:

Children of this age learn best through play, there are many activities on here that will benefit your child’s learning and provide knowledge in each area of the EYFS. Please do not feel as though your children should be sitting for long periods of time learning – they will be learning when you talk to them, read and sing to them and interact with them so build some of these activities into what you already do. Remember, you can add photos of what your child is doing at home to Tapestry so your child’s preschool teacher will be able to see it.

But most of all stay safe and healthy and enjoy this extra time with your little ones.