Preschool Readiness Preparation Tasks and Activities

	Parents	Teachers
Social Interaction	Play dates: Create opportunities for the child to interact with other children of a similar age through play dates and playgroups. Board games: Play board games with the child to teach turn-taking, sharing, waiting and the ability to cope when they don't win.	Small groups: Encourage small groups of children to play together in games. Visuals: Use visuals to help children understand turn-taking. Greetings: At the start of each session encourage children how to say “hello” and respond to the question, “How are you?” and at the end of each session to say “goodbye”.
Play	Play styles: Provide opportunities for the child to explore different styles of play (e.g. imaginative play, constructive play, symbolic play). Role play: Spend 20-30 minutes every day interacting and playing with the child. During these opportunities model language that would be suitable to use in certain real life situations (e.g. if playing with a toy kitchen, talk about what you do when preparing food).	Play stations: Set up play stations that teach different styles of play (e.g. constructive: trains, blocks, jigsaws, sandcastles, playdough; imaginative: kitchen, dress-ups, roads).
Language	Books: Read to the child every day to expose them to different language concepts. Talk about the pictures and words in the stories and what the words mean. Relate things that happen in the story to their experiences. Vocabulary: When reading books, ask the child to point to/name different pictures to expand their vocabulary. Walks: When going for a walk point to items and name them. Daily activities: When engaging in daily activities, such as preparing a bath, setting the table, preparing dinner or getting dress, model the language that the child can use/understand in these situations (e.g. preparing the bath: “Turn the taps on. Put the plug in. Put the bubbles in. Take your clothes off. Get into the bath”). Following instructions: During daily activities encourage the child to follow 2-3 step instructions (e.g. “Get your hat and then go and get in the car”). Say their name before giving the instruction to gain their attention, and try to gain eye contact. Ask them to repeat the instruction to ensure that they have understood what is expected. Games: Play games such as Simon Says to practise listening to instructions. Weather: Talk about the weather and what it feels/looks/smells like. Counting: Encourage the child to count in as many varied ways as possible. Dinner talk: At the dinner table take it in turns to talk about what you have done during the day. Colours & shapes: Talk about different colours and shapes. Concepts: Talk about different concepts such as big/little; on/in/under; in front/behind/next to; long/short; short/tall. Concept books: Read books that talk about different concepts (e.g. Where is the green sheep?). Model: When the child uses inaccurate grammar or sentence structure, model back to them the correct way of saying it (e.g. child: “Her is happy!” parent: “Yes, she is happy. I wonder why she is happy?”).	Story time: Have story time and ask questions about the story. Nursery rhymes: Sing nursery rhymes. Scavenger hunts: Go on scavenger hunts to follow instructions, expand vocabulary and work as a team. Obstacle courses: Do obstacle courses to teach different concepts (big/little; on/in/under; in front/behind/next to; long/short; short/tall). Following instructions: During the course of the day give 2-3 step instructions (e.g. “Get your hats and line up at the door”). Concepts: Teach colour concepts by labelling different activity groups with a different colour or number. Calendars: Each day talk about the day of the week, the month of the year, the weather, what day it was yesterday and day it will be tomorrow. Modelling: When a child uses inaccurate grammar or sentence structure, model back to them the correct way of saying it (e.g. child: “Her is happy!” teacher: “Yes, she is happy. I wonder why she is happy?”). Scrap books: Make scrap books to work on categorisation (e.g. sort pictures into different categories such as animals, food, transport, clothing).
Emotional Development	Feelings: Talk about feelings with the child. Identify emotions: Verbalise when you see certain emotions in different people. Facial Expressions: Comment on facial expressions when reading books and talk about the way the person might be feeling and why. Explain Emotions: Talk about ways to express different emotions (e.g. “You are laughing because you are happy; You are crying because you are sad”). Sing Songs that talk about emotions (e.g. “If you're happy and you know it” or “How do you feel today?”).	Role Play different emotions. Emotion pictures: Show pictures of different emotions and talk about them. Explain emotions: When a child is feeling a particular way, talk to them about their emotion (e.g. if a child is crying model to them: “You are sad because you hurt your knee” OR “You are crying because you are sad”). Sing songs about emotions (e.g. “If you're happy and you know it” or “How do you feel today?”). Books: Discuss the emotions of characters in book.
Literacy	Read to the child every day. Point to the words in the book as you read them. Point to the pictures in the book as you read the story. Page turning: Encourage the child to turn the pages of the book, but only once they have finished attending to details on the page. Model to the child reading a book from front to back. Independent selection: Encourage the child to choose the book to read at story time. Sing songs and nursery rhymes. Alphabet: Learn the alphabet song. Rhyming books: Read books that have rhyming words in them (e.g. Dr Seuss books). Games: Play games such as “I spy” to help children to think about things that start with a specific sound (e.g. “I spy with my little eye something that starts with t”).	Story time: Have daily story time. ‘Page turner': Nominate a different child each time to be the ‘page turner' and only allow them to turn the page once all the details have been discussed. Question time: Whilst reading the story ask the children questions about the story: (e.g. What happened?, What do you think might happen next? What would happen if?). Point to the words on the page as you read them. Alphabet: Learn the alphabet song. Label places for each child to hang their bag or to sit on the floor at mat time with their name. Letter of the week: Have a letter of the week and encourage the children to think of things that start with that sound or use activities that start with that sound.
Fine Motor	Cutting and pasting: Use cardboard (easier to hold) to cut out geometric shapes and make pictures. Drawing: Provide a model to copy or draw one shape at a time for the child to copy. Colouring: Colour small shapes to encourage pencil control and improve endurance for pencil skills. Mazes: These are a fun way to engage in pencil skills as well as developing visual perception.	Craft: Encourage cutting, pasting and sticking various pieces of material together to create things. Storage: Use ziplock bags or screw top containers to store toys, to ensure the children are practicing using their fine motor skills when trying to access toys. Play doh: Rolling, squishing, pinching and making things with playdough to increase finger strength.
Physical Skills	Wheelbarrow walking races for upper body strength. Swimming is a whole body activity that will help build strength and endurance as the child is constantly working against a small amount of resistance in the water. Animal walks: Pretending to be a variety of animals such as crabs, frogs, bears or worms. All of these will use the child's body weight as resistance. Throw bean bags: The added weight of a bean bag will help develop strength and endurance.	Hopscotch for hopping, or other games that encourage direct task/skill practice. Obstacle course: Age appropriate obstacle course completion will help develop endurance. Ball skills: Increase a child's experience and confidence to attempt ball skills.