🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🎨 Creativity & Imagination — Open-ended activities that let children direct their own play grow creative thinking, original problem solving, and the confidence to express personal ideas.
- 😌 Emotional Self-Regulation — Managing the feelings that arise during activities — frustration when something doesn't work, excitement, disappointment at the end — builds the self-regulation foundation that distinguishes emotionally ready kindergarteners.
- 🧠 Executive Function — Planning an activity, following multi-step directions, and seeing a project through to completion builds the executive function skills — working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control — that are the strongest predictors of school success.
- 🏃 Gross Motor Development — Large-movement activities develop the coordination, balance, and muscle strength that underpin physical confidence and school-readiness fitness.
By Julie Pirkle
Transform preschool party guests into a giant birthday present. With an ordinary box, some wrapping paper and a giant bow, you can create a whimsical birthday present photo prop that is guaranteed to delight preschoolers. Preschoolers will grin from ear to ear when it’s their turn to get inside the box and have a special photo taken. With themed wrapping paper, this preschool party activity can be modified to fit any special occasion.
What You Will Need
A Large Box
Wrapping Paper
Giant Bow
Box Cutter
A Camera
Birthday Present Photo Prop Prepapration
Step 1:
Use the box cutter to cut off all the flaps to the box.
Step 2:
Cover the box in wrapping paper.
Step 3:
Position the box so that it’s taller rather than wider. Cut a semicircle opening in the top of the box. Note: When cutting out your semicircle, keep in mind that the opening you create will be used to position a preschooler’s head in the box so that the rest of the box appears to be the preschooler’s body.
What to Do
Step 1:
Instruct the guest of honor to get inside of box, sticking his/her head in the semicircular opening.
Step 2:
Stick the giant bow on the preschooler’s head.
Step 3:
Snap a photo of the “human birthday present.”
Step 4:
Repeat Steps 1 through 3 until each party guest has a chance to have their photo taken inside the present.
Birthday Present Photo Prop Tips
*Preschoolers will definitely want to get a peek at what they look like disguised as a birthday present. Send a copy of each preschooler’s photo with thank you notes.
*Modify your present photo prop to fit the occasion. Instead of birthday wrapping, wrap the box in Christmas paper during the holidays, etc.
*The birthday present photo prop is also a fun activity to incorporate in the classroom. Students will love having their picture taken inside the birthday present photo prop on their birthday and having it hung in the classroom to commemorate their special day.
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Preschoolers benefit from both self-directed and adult-guided activities. Self-directed play produces the most creative and deeply personal outcomes. Adult-guided activities introduce materials, techniques, and concepts children wouldn't discover independently. The ideal balance is roughly 2/3 self-directed and 1/3 adult-scaffolded. The worst approach is constant adult-direction of all activities — it eliminates agency and creative thinking.
Activities that allow each sibling to engage at their own developmental level work best: building with blocks (toddler stacks, preschooler builds structures, older child engineers complex designs), art (each makes what they can), baking (each has an age-appropriate task). Avoid activities where one sibling's participation spoils the other's — matching academic difficulty is the main conflict source. Physical activities with a cooperative rather than competitive structure are usually most successful across age gaps.
