Kindergarten GearUp

Quiet Lap Games

Quiet lap games are great to use at the beginning of Kindergarten Gear Up lessons as families arrive. They should be simple activities that reinforce skills and can be completed in five minutes or less. These activities are meant for caregivers to interact with their children, not necessarily to be led by staff.

Place the activities around the room so that children can go to whatever is most appealing to them. Encourage caregivers to play with their children to help settle and focus them for the upcoming session. When it is time to start the rest of the lesson, have children help collect and put them away.

Magnet games, counting and sorting games, and alphabet games all work well. Avoid activities that need lots of set up or clean up. Lap games can be purchased at stores focused on classroom or educational toys. You can also make them yourself. We have some suggestions below that use inexpensive items that can be found in most homes and libraries. If you prepare these ahead, they can be used repeatedly for all the Kindergarten Gear Up lessons.

Make it Yourself Lap Games

Alphabet, Number, and Shape Coloring Sheets

Supplies:

• Printer, printer paper
• Crayons

Alphabet coloring sheet: Create coloring sheets that include a large letter and some pictures of some items that start with that letter.

Number coloring sheet: Create coloring sheets that include a large number and word and matching pictures (for example, use 4 FISH with four pictures of fish).

Shapes coloring sheet: Create a coloring sheet with various shapes. Give each shape a label identifying what it is.

Activity: While children color the coloring sheets, adults help them name the letters and words, count the numbers, and identify the shapes.

Magnet Board Letters

Supplies:

• Small magnetic board, such as a dry erase board or a clean baking pan.
• Magnetic letters. If you don’t have any on hand, you can make these by printing letters and gluing them onto flat refrigerator magnets or any magnetic sheet. If you have a blank magnetic sheet, you can print or write the letters directly onto it.
• Some simple words and pictures, printed or drawn onto heavy paper. Cut so that each word and picture is on its own card. Glue onto a flat magnet.

Activity: Put out the boards with the printed word at the top and assorted letters available. Children look at the word and try to match it with the letters.

Magnet Checker Patterns

Supplies:

• Small magnetic board, such as a dry erase board or a clean baking pan.
• Inexpensive plastic checkers or colored chips.
• Small magnets
• Hot glue gun

Use a hot glue gun to attach the plastic checkers or chips to small magnets. You can also purchase small colored magnetic disks. Be sure to use large enough pieces to avoid a choking hazard.

Create some patterns of colored circles printed onto heavy paper. Cut so that each pattern is on its own card.

Activity: Children use the colored disks to recreate the patterns on the cards.

Dry Erase Board Writing

Supplies:

• Small dry erase board, small enough to be held in a child’s lap. You could also use a larger dry erase board on an easel.
• Dry Erase markers, variety of colors
• Eraser

Print or draw a simple word and picture on a piece of paper. (For example, the word CAT accompanied by a simple drawing of a cat.)

Activity: Challenge children to write the word and draw their own version of the picture

Sewing with Yarn

Supplies:

• Yarn
• Blunt plastic needle with large eye
• Styrofoam plates or food trays (paper and plastic do not work for this)
• Marker

Use a marker to draw a large simple shape or letter on the Styrofoam plate – the simpler, the better. Thread the yarn onto the needle and tie a knot on one end.

Activity: Challenge children to sew stitches onto the plate. They can do it free form or attempt to follow the outline of the shape.

Cup Sort Game

Supplies:

• Some colorful small objects, such as large dice, pompoms, or other manipulatives
• Plastic cups, in the same colors as the objects
• Tongs

Activity: Children sort the objects by placing the items in the correct colored cups. For an extra challenge, they cannot touch the items, but must use the tongs to move them.

Egg Carton Sort Games

Supplies:

• Paper Egg carton
• Paint
• 12 – 18 small objects in three colors, such as large dice, plastic eggs, marbles, pompoms, or other manipulatives

Paint the egg carton egg cups in the same three colors as the manipulatives. Group the colors so that they form a clear pattern (for example, 4 reds together, 4 blues together, 4 yellows together).

Activity: Place all of the manipulatives in the lid. Challenge children to place them in spots that match the colors. Children then can count how many they have of each color.

Flannel Board Shapes and Colors

Supplies:

• Small lap sized flannel board. You can also use a larger flannel board on an easel
• Colored felt cut into squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, and half circles of various sizes.

Activities:

Challenge the children to group the shapes by color, size, or shape. Count how many are in each group.

Challenge the children to make a picture with the shapes, such as a house, a face, or a rainbow.