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Learning through Play: A Hands-on Preschool Program
Preschool teachers are frequently asked, “How do children learn and get ready for kindergarten when they just play all day?” In a hands-on developmentally appropriate program, such as the one developed at Adventure Center over the past 30+ years, our intention is to stimulate a wide range of learning processes through practical, hands-on-activities.
The following provides specific examples of how basic educational concepts are “learned” through hands-on “play.”
| Mathematics: | |
|---|---|
| Concept | Activity |
| Classifying | Placing like farm animals in the same group |
| Counting | Number of children in a group |
| Matching | Lotto games (matching the same pictures) |
| Order | Determining position in a group (i.e. first in line) |
| Shapes | Identifying shapes of blocks |
| Space | Determining size of pretend house for playmates |
| Symbols | Learning phone number, age, address |
| Time | Tracking sequence of daily schedule |
| Whole & Parts | Paper cutting |
| Language Arts: |
|---|
| Felt-board stories |
| Listening to stories |
| Listening to taped stories while following in a book |
| Pretending to read to dolls/animals |
| Puppets |
| Puzzles |
| Re-telling stories |
| Science: |
| Caring for animals |
| Cooking (color, texture, measurement, temperature, nutrition) |
| Growing plants |
| Length/volume/weight (sensory table with sand, water, rice, beans, etc.) |
| Magnets |
| Magnifying glasses |
| Mixing colors (drawing/painting) |
| Water play (sink/ float, blowing bubbles) |
| Social-Emotional Development: |
| Active and quiet times |
| Body language |
| Controlling aggressiveness |
| Following rules and directions |
| Overcoming shyness |
| Respecting the feelings and belongings of others |
| Sharing |
| Verbal skills |
This is by no means a complete list of all the activities offered in Adventure Center programs. Please ask classroom teachers for additional examples if you have questions. Adventure Center programs are designed to: build a child’s attention span, comfort them away from home, provide self-direction, motivation, and self-esteem. These are attributes necessary for the child to take full advantage of kindergarten learning opportunities.
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