How To Make More Preschool Worksheets By Doing Less
When looking for the best preschool worksheets, parents and teachers will quickly find that there are many to choose from. However, not all of the worksheets you will offer the educational opportunities that preschoolers need in order to better prepare them for kindergarten. While many worksheets will include charming drawings and cartoons that work well to keep young learners interested, they lack the challenge and focus on important skills that preschool children need in order to prepare them for primary school.
Whether you are putting together you are own preschool worksheets or considering purchasing worksheets for preschoolers, there are some key points to keep in mind. More than any other consideration, preschool worksheets should focus on developing and strengthening the following learning areas:
Number Awareness. Basic math literacy is an important skill that young minds must develop early in order to be prepared for beginning addition and subtraction. At this age, preschool work with numbers should focus on important concepts such as counting and number recognition. Preschool numbers worksheets should emphasize counting from one to ten, understanding less and more, and have children practice seeing and tracking numbers.
Alphabet. It is important to remember that children learn to read in kindergarten, so establishing a strong foundation in the alphabet and letters is important to do now in order to facilitate literacy. Worksheets should introduce preschoolers to the alphabet and correlate letter sounds too basic words that the child is familiar with. This helps preschoolers to draw connections and to understand that letters are a symbolic representation of more complex ideas. This is the basis of reading.
Cognitive Skills. Preschool education focuses on laying the foundation for later learning, and so preschool worksheets should include a focus on developing important cognitive skills. These skills, such as memory skills, problem-solving, and prediction allow your child to more easily grasp subjects that are more complex.
Fine Motor Skills. Strengthening fine motor skills is a combination of mental and physical learning. Not only are preschoolers learning to better develop control with their hand and fingers, but they are also strengthening the muscles in their hands, fingers, and wrists. Preschool worksheets that incorporate coloring and tracing are perfect for developing and strengthening fine motor skills.
Each of these important concepts can likely be found in combination on the same preschool worksheet, making it easier to find high-quality worksheets that fit the educational needs of young children. For example, in learning the alphabet preschool children are also developing cognitive skills as they are learning the symbolic relationship of, say, a circle, the “o” sound, and words like orange and octopus. Tracing those letters then helps to develop fine motor skills as preschoolers learn to hold and control a pencil.