Looking for a better morning routine? How about a calmer start to the day with your preschooler? Seeking a way to begin your day with less morning television can be a tall order.
We wake up and immediately have a million tasks. I get it. What if it didn’t have to be that way? What if I shared a way to connect with your children that also led to independent play?
I’ve got some quick and easy Preschool Activities to help calm your morning routine with just five minutes of prep so you can include them in your Breakfast Invitations!
RELATED: We put our favorite ideas on a ring in our activity cards!
11 Preschool Activities for Breakfast Invitations
1. Alphabet Sort
Ready for preschool activities that give a hands-on way to better understand the letters of the alphabet? I love taking something my preschooler sees daily and breaking it down to create more connections.
Even better is when the activity is fun, hands-on, and simple to set up. No worksheets here!
2. Bring Home the Bears
Grab the counting bears for these preschool activities!
This fun Breakfast Invitation brings the bears from left to right as your child also incorporates imaginary play.
3. Cut the Lines
Why is cutting preschooler activities so important?
Fine motor skills practice helps control small muscles in your toddler’s hands, coordinate eye-hand movement, and help with bigger movements later, such as writing.
Think of small hand movements and grip as the numero uno skill. It is age-appropriate and basically sets the stage for what’s to come in elementary school.
4. Feed the Sharks
We all know that preschool activities using counting are essential.
However, what is more, important is that children touch the objects as they count.
By Kindergarten, children will be asked to understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.
But, what does this mean?! It means we want preschoolers to practice pairing each object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and only one object. We do this by asking our children to touch the object and count out loud.
5. Fill the Empty Space with Tetris
I’ll be the first to admit that Tetris is pretty addictive. There is something about mixing the sizes and spaces that keeps me up all night, wondering how it all fits together. Call me crazy, but Tetris changed how I see a shape’s area and volume.
So, when I first saw this idea on @bare.nutrients, I knew I needed to add it to our Breakfast Invitations preschool activities collection. There was something so compelling about finding the correct sizes and shapes to fit into space, similar to a Tetris game. Talk about a game that generates thinking and conversation!
6. Highlighter Trace
The truth is, I’ve been itching to use highlighters with my boys.
Not only will highlighters help my three-year-old and four-year-old with their grip, but they will also zone in on paying attention to detail as they steady their hand along each curved and straight line.
So I started thinking. How can I get my boys to “write” curved and straight lines? And here you have it—highlighter drawings.
The other #momtruth is that I have reluctant writers. I need to find additional ways to sneak in writing other than saying, “Please write your name here.” If this is the same for you, check out Magnetic Prewriting and Giant Alphabet Dot to Dot.
7. Name Posters
It turns out; block lettering is as much fun to design as in high school. The bonus? It helps with pencil grip and inspires creativity when you include it in your list of preschool activities!
8. Phone Number Countup
I know the importance of my preschoolers knowing my phone number, yet I continued to put it off in my preschool activities. Perhaps I was intimidated because they would have to memorize a sequence of numbers, or I felt like they weren’t ready. I am not sure why I was hesitant to start. But you know what? It took this introduction, plus a simple follow-up, to make it stick in a matter of days.
9. Prewriting Lines – Write with Movement
Ready to get your preschooler moving? Try this prewriting activity. Now, I know writing and moving your body are not typically seen together. It’s a little like me asking you to add pickles to your ice cream.
But put the two together to help encourage your child to move left to the right, along with seeing lines like straights, zigzags, and curves, and you’ve got magic.
10. Prewriting Rainbow Using Bears
These counting/sorting/pattern bears are everything. Now, I know you may be thinking, “What do we do with these bears?”. And here’s the thing. 95% of the time, all you do is open the storage container they are in, and your preschooler will handle the rest.
For the remaining 5%, come here. You are going to love Rainbow Prewriting just as much as you loved Bear Soup.
11. Stack the Hearts
Rainbows and hearts. I had them at hello. Once my boys, 3.5 and 5, heard “rainbows” and “hearts”, they both came running. Bummer, I thought. I should have made more. Not a bad problem to have because you can whip this up in minutes for preschool activities!
12. Toddler Block Box
If you are over there nodding your head like, “Yes!, Yes! I need this! Give me all the toddler Breakfast Invitations!”, You are going to LOVE this.
Providing your toddler a border for your blocks may buy you a little more time. I say ‘may’ because they are under two. They just learned to walk. Chances are, they don’t want to sit still. – and they shouldn’t. But sometimes, mom needs a minute, and Baby Block Box will do the trick, which is why it’s included in this great preschool activities list.
RELATED: Need block play supplies? Check out my favorite Block Play Toys.
Use These Activities as Breakfast Invitations
Breakfast Invitations are ways to invite your toddler and preschoolers to practice something they have already mastered.
They plant the seeds that children will carry into their self-guided play.
It is a time for your preschooler to have a hands-on review that will engage their thinking and distract them before everyone hits the ground running.
Read and understand what play schema is and how repeated patterns help children learn.
Benefits of Breakfast Invitations:
- Allows caregivers to drink their morning beverage HOT.
- Engages and excites your preschooler at their most influential time of the day to inspire play.
- Gives caregivers a minute to wake up.
- Helps caregivers to prepare breakfast with less distraction.
RELATED: Check out 50+ fine motor activities for kids.
Which Popular Preschool Activity Will You Try Today?
There are so many preschool activities to choose from with a tonne of benefits so your preschooler can have a calm, fun start to the day while learning and growing. Who doesn’t want that?! Pick any of these preschool activities and add them to a Breakfast Invitation for a transformative morning for both you and your kids!
Need More Breakfast Invitation Ideas?
- Breakfast Invitation Activity Cards
- Breakfast Invitation Tab
- Shape Graph for Preschool
- What’s Inside? A Beginning Sound Activity for Kindergarten
- 101+ Preschool Activities
Frequently Asked Questions
Preschoolers enjoy activities that are hands-on and open-ended.
Repeated actions through play are how children build learning paths in their brains. Children learn through exploration and building on play schema.
The best activities for 4-year-olds are play-based learning activities. Young children enjoy learning through their senses, creating, fine motor play, touching, moving, exploring, digging, throwing, imagining, and having the time and opportunities to play.
Children learn to play by having opportunities to do so. Here is how to create a predictable routine with preschoolers to include play in your day.
Love all of them! Thanks again and again. ?✨
I so appreciate you taking a look, Tami