This activity plan for preschool is designed for working parents and busy families in mind. Everyone wants to do something educational with their preschoolers, but not everyone has the time or bandwidth to plan and execute activities. These preschool activities are simple, they use things you probably have around your house, and I will walk you through every step of this activity plan for preschool. One activity a day won’t replace a full week of preschool or your child’s day in childcare, but this isn’t meant to. My goal is to do the planning for you by giving you one idea a day that you can do, and hopefully, after a while, you have learned so many ideas you can fit more in when you have time. If you have more time or energy, do more, I have links to more ideas, but if you are struggling, do what you can. Be gentle with your children and yourself, and focus on connection. These plans are named Lunch Break Learning because the activities can be done during your lunch break while working from home, but you can do them at night, early morning, or any time between zoom meetings too.
For more simple ideas, check out the previous week’s plans by clicking the links below.
April 13th
April 20thÂ
April 27thÂ
May 4thÂ
May 11th
How To Use Lunch Break Learning Weekly Preschool At Home Plan.Â
- Look over this week’s plan. Take a screenshot and save it to your phone, or if you have a printer, print it out.
- Read through the activity details. Take note of the “Make it harder/ make it easier” tips.
- Prep the activities either the night before or one big prep Sunday night. This won’t take long.
- Tell yourself you can do this. It’s going to be OK if you skip a day, no biggie!
- Come back every Saturday for the next eight weeks to get your free plan.
 Activity Plan for Preschool – May 18th – May 24th
PRINT HERE
Preschool Activities Planned For You – Activity Details
This list includes affiliate links.
Make A Name Sign
Learning to recognize and spell your name is an essential step for developing literacy. Not only do children see these letters often, but they are also meaningful. Use your child’s name as a place to start learning about letters, about spelling, and as a source of pride. You can use whatever you have. Paper and crayons. Construction paper and plastic jewels, markers, and glitter glue. Search and find what you have and use it to make this meaningful sign.
Make it easier -> Have your child decorate just their first initial. This is what we call “Your letter” in my preschool classroom, and it’s a great starting point for letter recognition.
Make it harder -> Make bedroom signs for everyone in your family or make one for a best buddy and send it to them in the mail!
Number Hunt
Young children love scavenger hunts and because they enjoy them so much that makes them a wonderful tool for playful learning. When children enjoy something, they want to participate in, and they make meaningful memories – which, as you have probably guessed, means they remember the facts or concepts we are trying to teach them too. Grab some number magnets, number puzzle pieces, or some paper you have written numbers on and hide them after your child has found them all put them in number order and count together.
Make it easier -> Use only 5-10 numbers.
Make it harder –> To make it a lot harder, you can hide basic equations written on paper. 1+1, 2+1, 4-1, instead of numbers. This is a great way of playing the game with an older sibling. Hide equations for the older child and numbers for the younger ones.
Play with puzzles
Dig out your puzzles and have a snack and do some puzzles together. Puzzles are a really important tool for developing spatial and visual discrimination skills. No puzzles at your house? Print out a dinosaur sequence puzzle here or our six-piece outdoor puzzle here.
Make it easier -> Try simple puzzles like these.Â
Make it harder -> Make a puzzle scavenger hunt!Â
Letter Match Up
Matching up lower and uppercase letters is an activity that helps children recognize letters but also learn that letters come in various sizes and serve different functions. You don’t need fancy equipment for this activity. Grab a few sheets of plain paper, a marker, and scissors. Write a few uppercase letters on one sheet of paper. You can make it fancy if you want with colors, but you don’t have to. Write lowercase letters on another sheet and cut them out, so they are in little squares. Pop them in a small ziplock or a bowl. When you are ready to play, simply pull a lower case letter out of the bag and match it up.
Make it easier -> Use fewer letters and use colored markers to write the same letters – so A and a are in red, B and b are in blue, C and c are in green … so that your child can use the color match as a hint!
Make it harder -> Try this with sight words instead. Find sight word lists here.Â
Parallel Drawings
This is a simple art activity that is fun but easy to do at home. Grab two crayons or two markers and tape them together. Use the taped together tools to make fun drawings with parallel lines!
Make it easier –> you can’t really – just meet your kiddo where they are at and have fun.
Make it harder –> Try drawing specific objects and see how these drawings look with parallel lines!
Big Project Ideas for the Weekend
Working parents may have more time during the weekend. Here are some longer projects you might like to try.
Do some space art and activities!Â
Feeling ambitious? Try this rainbow gelatin tub.
Learn with Lego! Psst! You are always learning when you play with Lego.
Craft something fun with my live videos.
Bed Time Reading Tips
Every week IÂ include different ways to make your bedtime reading more focused on different skills, no matter what books you are using. This week after reading, ask your child to come up with an alternate ending to the story.Â
Supplies Needed for the Weekly Preschool Plan
These supplies are what is needed for the Monday-Friday activities.
Please note that weekend craft ideas have their own supply lists in the linked post. This list includes affiliate links.
Construction paper
Plastic buttons and jewels if desired.
Paper
Pencil
Crayons or washable markersÂ
Scissors
Tape
Printable puzzles ( links above)
Number puzzlesÂ
Optional Additional Preschool At Home Activities
Lunch Break Learning Preschool Plans are purposefully simple, made for busy parents who need simple daily activities to keep their children learning without overwhelming their day. These activities are for you to browse if you have more time.
Playdough Bug FossilsÂ
Bugs in the MuckÂ
Paper bag Jelly FishÂ
Paper Roll FishÂ
Giant SunflowerÂ
Josephine Gupta says
Sooo amazing crafts!
Kt says
Thank you for these! They are perfect for this overwhelmed mom