What You Need

Preschoolers ready to have some fun!

What To Do

This classic game is a wonderful circle time activity or transition activity that can be used in the preschool classroom. Have all the preschoolers sit in a circle. Choose one preschooler who gets to go first and teach them how to say the "I Spy" Rhyme.

"I Spy with my little eye someone (or something) . . . . "

Getting to Know New Preschool Friends

Have the preschooler who is going first choose a feature that makes one of their friends stand out. This could be the color of their shirt, a description of their hair, how tall they are, or something they are doing at the time. Be sure to tell the preschoolers to focus on positive things about their friends.

Let the other preschoolers try and guess which preschooler is being described.

Preschool Classroom Exploration

This activity can also be used to help preschoolers get to know their new preschool classroom. Have each preschooler pick out an object in the preschool classroom that they find interesting. Playing this game helps preschoolers to explore their new environment freely and at an appropriate time.

Like this article? Get more like it in your inbox. Subscribe today to our free weekly newsletter.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Avoid academic pressure before age 5. Preschool children's brains are not developmentally ready for formal academic instruction, and premature pressure backfires.

• Expose children to multiple languages early if possible. The preschool window is the most efficient period for language acquisition the brain will ever have.

• Sleep is educational. Memory consolidation — the process of moving learning from short-term to long-term memory — happens during sleep. Well-rested children learn more effectively.

• Choose toys that grow with the child: open-ended materials (blocks, clay, art supplies) remain valuable for years; single-use toys with one correct answer produce brief engagement.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should formal education begin for preschoolers?

Play-based learning is the developmentally appropriate educational mode for children from birth through age 6–7. Formal academic instruction (sitting at desks, worksheets, direct phonics drills) before age 6 consistently produces short-term knowledge gains but long-term motivation losses. The children with the richest preschool play experiences often outperform academically drilled peers by age 8, when the developmental advantage of play-based executive function development becomes apparent in school performance.

What learning differences might first become apparent in the preschool years?

The preschool years are when speech and language delays, developmental delays, autism spectrum characteristics, sensory processing differences, and early signs of ADHD typically become apparent. Early identification and early intervention are the most powerful factors in outcomes for children with learning differences — the preschool brain's plasticity makes early intervention far more effective than the same intervention at age 8. If you have concerns about your child's development, discuss them with your pediatrician rather than waiting to see if the child grows out of it.

Related reading: See also our vocabulary building guide and our counting activities for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 📖 Story Structure Understanding — Understanding that stories have a beginning, problem, solution, and ending develops narrative comprehension — the mental schema children use to make sense of increasingly complex texts throughout their school years.
• 🤔 Critical Thinking — Being asked "why do you think that?" and forming and defending an answer develops the analytical reasoning children need for reading comprehension, mathematics, and evidence-based argumentation.
• ✏️ Pre-Writing Development — Drawing, tracing, and early mark-making develop the fine motor control and visual-motor integration that handwriting requires — making every drawing activity a contribution to writing readiness.
• 😊 Love of Learning — Positive early learning experiences build a child's identity as a learner — and children who see themselves as curious, capable learners approach school with the engagement and resilience that matter more than any specific skill.

The ability to describe the things in the world around them with words is an important step for preschoolers to make in their language development. This preschool language activity is a fun way for preschoolers to practice using words to describe the things that they see in their world.

This activity is a wonderful game that can be played any time throughout the preschool school year but it is also a great way to introduce the preschool classroom and new preschool friends at the beginning of a new preschool year.

Questions to Ask Your Child

Use these open-ended prompts to extend the learning during or after the activity:

• "What was the most interesting thing you learned today?"
• "Can you explain this to a stuffed animal as if they've never heard of it?"
• "What part do you want to practice more?"
• "How is this connected to something you already know?"
• "What would you want to learn more about?"
• "If you were the teacher, what would you tell the class about this?"

There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions. The goal is to keep the conversation going, model curious thinking, and give your child practice putting their experience into words.