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preschool games

Preschool Game – Letter K is for Kangaroo

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This is my second year as a preschool teacher and I have been creating all brand new lessons. Last year’s Letter A is for Ant was replaced by Letter A is for Alligator. B is for Butterfly became B is for Bear and so on. But when it came to the letter K, I just had to repeat K is for Kangaroo. We had so much fun – especially with this hopping game I invented – that I couldn’t wait a whole year to repeat it. Plus, the pouches needed improvement. I wanted to see if my my idea would work!
So, for our Letter K lesson we first learned about Kangaroos. I read them the book “Kangaroos” and we discussed it page by page. Then we imagined what it was to live as a baby kangaroo with the story “Pouch!” Finally, we saw a short video about Kangaroos. Enough sitting. It was time to get on the move!

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Kangaroo Hopping Hunt Game

Kids love to hop! When you play this game, you’ll see that it just comes naturally. One mention of hopping and they just HOP!

 

How To Play The Kangaroo Hopping Game

First “hide” many laminated K  and kangaroo images all over the room, in plain sight.
Tie the pouch/pocket around each child’s waist, as you would an apron.
Have the kids hop around and collect them.
Let them empty their pouches and count how many they found.

How To Make Kangaroo Pouches

Supplies
Colored copy paper
Elmer’s Glue
Glue-sticks
Crayons
Scissors
Single-hole punch
Yarn
Printed coloring picture of mommy and baby kangaroo
Laminated letter K’s and joeys

Making The Kangaroo Pouches – What the Kids Do

Kangaroo Day arrives! The morning began with having the students make their own kangaroo pouches. Since my students are very young, 3 and 4 years old, I pre-cut the pouches at home and glued them together, using Elmer’s glue.

The top should not be glued. 
Leave it open like a pocket. 

The top piece is cut just a bit shorter than the back. As you see in the picture, I used a hole punch to punch 6 holes across the back of the pouch. The students laced a long string of yarn through it [also pre-cut.]

 

Fixing the Design: last year the holes pulled out too easily. Their pouches became a ripped up mess from their exuberant hopping. This year, I girded the end holes with a piece of scotch tape on the front and back of the top edge, reinforcing it. When I punched the holes, the ones on each end were punched right through the tape. It worked beautifully. No tearing!

 

The children glue-sticked the drawing of the mommy kangaroo and joey on the front of their pouches, colored them and laced the yarn through the holes. We marked their name on them and put them aside for our midday “motion” time. They had so much fun hopping and collecting joeys and K’s. I think it was the best part of the day!
Two great book resources to compliment your lesson.

Explore my world KANGAROOS book for kids #ad

Sweet little video to show your preschoolers with momma kangaroo calling her joey back into the pouch.

 

Last year’s craft and lesson was so cute. This year, I added the feature of making our kids the joeys. I printed a small photo of each child that they could glue onto the face of the joey after they colored and cut it out, adding a nice personal touch.

Letter K is for Kangaroo #kidscrafts #kangaroo #preschool
Yep, that’s me!
Letter K is for Kangaroo #kidscrafts #preschool
K is for Kangaroo Preschool Craft #kidscrafts #preschool
How To Make A Kangaroo Craft for Kids
      

Preschool Ant Hill Game

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Here is a fun game that you can play with your preschoolers while they are learning about the letter A and ants.  

 

preschool game, preschool lesson, letter A
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You will need:

Small ants (plastic toys or homemade)
Wrapper with ants printed on them (simulates an ant hill)
One die
Colorful game board
Plastic game pieces from any game
preschool game

The object of the game is to race to the finish line. Whoever reaches the end first, or fills the anthill first, wins. Counting is the primary skill being taught. 

Your children will practice counting in three ways: 

  1. Rolling the die (the game will last a bit longer if the players cannot go more than 6 spaces per turn, so use just one)
  2. Counting spaces as they move ahead  
  3. Counting ants.  

How to Play:

Each player’s turn includes rolling one die, moving their playing piece that same number of spaces and then counting out the same number of ants and putting them in the top.

Anthill and Ants:
Anthill is made by carving the bottom out of a small Styrofoam cup.  Print small ants on a piece of copier paper and attach it to the outside of the cup using glue-stick or clear tape. Trim the edges.  Make a circle out of paper and cap the wider end of the cup, which will be the bottom of the ant hill.

Small plastic ants can be purchased from party supply stores or toy stores. Another option is to make them on your computer and laminate the page. Then cut them out. Lots of cutting, but it’s worth it!

Game board: Use any colorful game board. This Reading Mama has free printable gameboards!

More…

Enjoy!

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Note: this author is an Amazon Affiliate. What that means is that if you purchase items from Amazon after first clicking on an Amazon ad, link or using the Amazon search window on Ducks ‘n a Row then, at NO extra expense to you, I will earn a small commission. In advance, “thank you for shopping Amazon through me!” …Sinea