What Will You Child Do All Day? Popular Daycare Activities

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A Summer of Learning

Are you a school teacher? Perhaps, the start of each summer is bittersweet to you. You may enjoy the downtime for a while. However, you might become bored after staying home for a few weeks. If you can relate to this scenario, consider enrolling in a continuing education class this summer. If you’re a parent, you might even wish to sign up for a fun class with your kids. For instance, you may absolutely adore taking a pottery, cake designing, spinning, step aerobics, or basket weaving course. On this blog, I hope you will discover the amazing benefits of taking exciting, continuing education classes during the summer months. Enjoy!

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What Will You Child Do All Day? Popular Daycare Activities

4 October 2021
 Categories: Education & Development, Blog


What types of activities might you see in the daycare setting? This is your child's first experience with preschool and you're not sure what to expect. While each pre-kindergarten classroom is different, take a look at the common activities that are popular options in the early childhood education environment. 

Sensory Play

Sensory play includes a wide range of activities for infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. These activities may happen in group settings or individually but will always encourage the child to explore through their senses (touch, taste, sight, smell, or hearing). Sensory play may include:

  • Art -- Finger paint, play clay, glitter, glue, paper mache, and other art explorations allow young children to explore through their senses of sight, touch, smell, and sometimes even hearing.

  • Sand table -- The texture of sand provides the perfect way for young children to experiment with the sense of touch. Some teachers may empty the sand table and fill it with water for a different type of sensory play.

  • Music -- From listening to live or recorded songs to making their own sounds with kid-sized instruments, music is an easy (and enjoyable) sensory activity for infants, toddlers, and pre-k aged children.

Along with these activities, this type of play could include science, movement, or any other exploration that encourages the children to engage their senses.

Science Activities

While science is a sensory activity, your child's teacher or school's curriculum may categorize it in another area. Unlike the lectures you may remember from high school or college, science in the pre-kindergarten classroom includes active, hands-on adventures. Common science activities you may find in childcare services settings are:

  • Nature -- The preschoolers may go outside to observe nature, play with plastic or other fake animals, or explore natural materials the teacher brings inside.

  • Chemistry -- Even though hazardous chemicals aren't allowed in the pre-k classroom, young children can still experiment with chemistry. These basic experiments may include kitchen-friendly items such as baking soda, vinegar, or vegetable oil.

  • Physics -- Like other scientific areas, physics looks different in the early childhood education environment. To experiment with physics, the young students may drop a ball to learn more about gravity or race cars down a ramp to better understand energy.

Not only can science help preschoolers to learn through their senses, but it can also help them to build skills they'll need when they get to kindergarten—and beyond. Daycare classroom experiments give children the chance to develop crucial critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Reach out to a preschool like Learning Tree Schools to learn more about the scheduled activities.