Small-group activities for PreK shouldn’t be an extra or add-on to your curriculum. Small-group learning is a powerful tool for teaching specific concepts, developing targeted skills, and building relationships with your students. More than anything, it is also an imperative tool for differentiating instruction and assessment. These small group games and activities for preschool and PreK are well worth adding to your lesson plans. Learn more about small group instruction, social emotional learning, and differentiation with my virtual professional development workshops! Use this link for 25% off!
How to set up small groups in your preschool classroom
In my multi-age classroom, small group time is a must. We have a formal small group time daily, and during free choice time, I will call willing students over to work on specific skills. In addition to this, in my classroom, we create learning centers that naturally invite children to work in small groupings. This is because children learn best when they learn with others and engage in social interaction. As I said, using small groups helps build teacher-student relationships, but it also helps build student-to-student relationships.
Use Small Groups During Free Choice Time
During free choice, I will call children over to me to do activities like those listed below. I will almost always choose two students who either need to work on a specific skill at the same level or who are at very different development levels to provide natural peer scaffolding during the activity. We have to be careful when we do this, though, because some children are not eager to have another child be much more competent than they are at a task. The scaffolding can unintentionally become very negative. This is why you must spend ample time playing with your students to get to know them and their temperaments. Also, my free choice is a genuinely free choice, and I try not to call any child who is deeply engrossed in play over for small group; when I do call them, if they choose not to come, I respect that. Usually, if I feel like the child needs the skill building, I may ask, ” Can you come over in a bit?” and they do.
Here are some great options for small group activities and games during free choice time at preschool.
Many of these small group games and activities for PreK can also work well as whole group activities and for free choice time. I used many interchangeably for many years, but recently discovered that research actually supports using specific activities for formal small groups. Knowing this, I now keep specific activities for formal small groups only, but do interchange the activities I do informally when calling specific children over during free choice. I chose these activities for free choice because they can be done first with you, and then the children can do them solo easily.
Initial Sound Bingo ( see it in action on Instagram)
Pocket Chart Activities
Letter Recognition Game
Ten Frame Activities
Count & Bead
Mini Eraser Graphing and Grouping
Missing Letter
Lock & Key Math
Phonics Sorting Tray
Rhyming Blocks
How to Use Dedicated Small Group Time For Preschool & PreK
In my classroom, we have short formal group time every day. We split the class into three groups. Small groups should not have more than 5 children. If I were teaching solo or had a class with more than 15 students, I would alternate days where 2/3 of the class would be doing free choice, and I would be working with 4-5 students in small groups. Our guided small groups are literacy and math, with the third doing quiet reading with special books that are not out during free choice. Do what works for you. Keep it short, keep it predictable but not too routine that learning becomes boring. Here are some great small group games and activities for preschool and prek for this more formal small group time:
Letter Journals is absolutely the best activity I’ve added to my PreK curriculum in years!
Roll & Write a must do – so easy to differentiate for children!
Name Activities
It’s Not A Box Shape lessons
Directed Drawings
I gathered some of my favorite printable resources for small groups and popped them into a resource pack!
As I refine my teaching practice, I am trying to bundle the resources and printables that are most helpful to you. These are tools I use all the time in my PreK class. I am not selling you things I don’t use myself. This bundle includes some of my most popular downloads, all in one file for you. Get it for just $6.99! Click the red button below to buy yours now.
Rhyming Blocks
Sound Sorting Cards ( the updated version)
Name Hunts
Rhyme Matching Mats
Letter Bingo
Number Hunts
Number Bingo
Sticker Math
Need more than just small group games and activities for preschool and pre-k?
If you like my ideas of small group games and activities for preschool & preK, my newest book, Everyday Preschool In The Classroom, is precisely what you need. It’s packed with simple, effective activities you can throw together, and you can rest assured these are tried-and-true lessons that work! Find it on Amazon here.
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