Preschool Learning Activities For 4-Year-Olds

As my daughter has gotten more adjusted to preschool, I have started incorporating more learning activities at home that are great for 4-year-olds.

One of the things that I love about my daughter’s preschool is that they utilize a curriculum with the kids.

If you all remember my post where I discussed what to look for in a preschool, then you may recall that one of those things that I look for is a curriculum-based preschool.

• Read More: What I Look For When Choosing A Preschool For A 3 Year Old

That is one of the biggest differences you will find between a daycare and a preschool and that is whether they follow an educational curriculum.

My daughter’s preschool does have a monthly curriculum that they follow and the parents receive monthly progress reports based on their child’s progress.

I really like this because it provides us parents feedback on our children’s progress and what they can improve on.

Because I do get these monthly reports, I use these as a way to incorporate some learning activities at home that we can on together to improve upon what she does in school.

And of course, I want to share some of those things that we do with you all.

Here, I will be sharing some preschool learning activities that you can do at home for 4-year-olds.

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What Should I Be Doing With A 4-Year-Old?

Before I dive into some learning activities that I do with my 4-year-old, let’s talk about this.

What should I be doing with my 4-year-old?

In a previous post where I shared what I got my 4-year-old for her birthday, I talked about some of the things that you can look forward to.

Some of those things are:

• Being able to say their first and last name
• Start grasping the concept of time
• Memorizing and reciting words to songs and poems
• Dressing themselves
• Able to hop, skip, jump, and climb around

Which is exactly what my daughter is doing.

So when it comes to doing things with a 4-year-old, you have to be thinking along the lines of where they are developmentally and mentally.

A great post to check on what to do with a 4-year-old is this one from Raising Children.

They discuss how you can help with your preschooler’s development as well as when you should be concerned with their development.

Some of their suggestions that you can do to help with your 4-year-old’s development are:

• Giving your child plenty of playtime
• Spending time outdoors
• Making time for imaginative and pretend play
• Reading with your child
• Cooking with your child
• Playing games with your child

Along with these suggestions and any feedback that I get from my daughter’s teacher, I use these to figure out how to utilize some of these practices at home.

With that being said, let’s get into some preschool learning activities that are great for 4-year-olds that I use with my daughter.

Preschool Learning Activities For 4-Year-Olds

Dry Erase Tracing Workbooks

The very first preschool activity that I have to mention is utilizing dry-erase workbooks for tracing letters, numbers, shapes, and other things.

I actually shared this activity in a previous post on preparing my daughter for preschool.

• Read More: Preparing My 3 Year Old For Preschool

And if you follow me on Instagram, then you have probably seen me share my daughter doing her workbook in my stories from time to time.

This is an activity that we do every day after my daughter gets out of school.

It was also recommended by her teacher to do as well to help with her writing skills.

At her school, the kids work out of their workbooks daily doing things such as writing, counting, and identifying shapes and colors.

Since she was already familiar with doing her workbook at her school, I knew that I could incorporate a workbook at home.

And the workbooks that we use at home are dry-erase so we can continue to reuse them.

We do anywhere between 3 to 5 pages a day and it only takes us about 10 to 15 minutes to get through the pages.

I have found this amount to be sufficient and enough for her to not get overwhelmed.

My daughter really enjoys doing her workbook and this has become an activity that she looks forward to doing when she comes home after school.

I will link a couple of the dry-erase workbooks that we use below.

Activity Workbooks

Along with the dry-erase workbooks, other workbooks that are great for 4-year-olds are activity workbooks.

These kinds of workbooks are great for challenging your little one.

Some activities that my daughter does in school are matching, patterns, and mazes and a lot of activity books will usually have these activities in them.

Whether it’s matching the color to the object.

Or completing a pattern.

All of these activities are great preschool learning activities for 4-year-olds.

And I have noticed that my daughter also enjoys these kinds of activities as well so some days, we will switch out her tracing workbook for one of these.

I have a maze workbook and a connect-the-dots workbook that we use from time to time.

Flash Cards

Another preschool activity that my daughter’s teachers recommend that we do at home is use flash cards.

Flash cards are great for identifying what you see.

For instance, something that my daughter’s school has been working on with the kids is identifying numbers, letters, and shapes.

Before starting preschool last year, my daughter could identify shapes and colors but struggled with identifying numbers and letters.

Now that we are over halfway through the school year, I have seen such improvement in her ability to do so now.

She can identify numbers now but still struggles with identifying letters.

And that is where flashcards can come in handy.

We have these flashcards from School Zone for the alphabet that we use from time to time.

There are many different kinds of flashcards that you get on Amazon so be sure to check there if you are looking for some.

Scissors Skills

Something that my daughter has been showing a lot of interest in lately is scissors.

Which if I’m honest is kind of scary as a parent.

Scissors can be so dangerous to a young child.

But I’m also aware that at some point, she needs to learn how to properly use them.

Teaching your preschooler how to use scissors is a great learning opportunity for them and a skill that they will need as they get older.

A great preschool-friendly option is this Scissor Skills Activity Book.

It’s made for children ages 3 to 5 and serves as a great guide for them to learn how to use and cut with scissors.

Just make sure you have children’s scissors and that you are supervising this activity.

Puzzles

Next up are puzzles.

If you all remember my post on some activities that you can do with an 18-month-old, I actually mentioned puzzles there as well.

• Read More: Play-Based Learning Activities For Toddlers

Puzzles are great for all ages.

Whether it’s my 1-year-old playing with a chunky puzzle or a puzzle with pegs.

Or my 4-year-old putting together a puzzle that creates a picture.

Which is exactly what makes them a great activity for a preschooler.

My daughter has definitely outgrown the chunky puzzles and now prefers the puzzles that make a picture when completed.

She has to put her cognitive skills to use because she has to think about where each piece will go and if it will make sense in the place that she decides.

Depending on the number of pieces, I will help my daughter put them together.

But once she has figured out how to put a puzzle together, she can do it again by herself.

Melissa & Doug has some great floor puzzles for preschoolers that you can find on Amazon.

Sensory Play

You can never go wrong with sensory play with a 4-year-old.

I feel like sensory play is often associated with 2 and 3-year-old toddlers.

But I feel like by the time they are 4, they have a better understanding and ability to really comprehend how things work.

This is the time to really let them play with the playdough, sand, and nature.

If you go on Pinterest, you will find a ton of sensory activities that you can do with a preschooler.

But the sensory activity that my daughter loves the most is the Kinetic Sand.

If you have never heard of Kinetic Sand, it functions a lot like play-doh, but with a sandy texture.

I don’t know who came up with kinetic sand but it’s really cool and my daughter loves to make different shapes and create different things with it.

Reading Books

Another activity that you can never go wrong with is reading books with your 4-year-old.

Reading books is something that I have been doing with both of my girls since they were small babies.

Going all the way back to when they were 4 months old.

• Read More: Developmental Activities For A 4-Month-Old Baby

At this stage, my daughter is in the early phases of learning to read.

When we read books together at night, I will read the book first and then have her “try” to read it after.

She can’t read per se, but she has managed to memorize what I have said when I was reading so when it is time for her to read the book, she recites what I said per page.

Probably like most young kids, my daughter has certain books that are her favorite that she loves to read every night.

And because she loves to read the same books every night, she has practically memorized the stories with them.

This is a good thing because that means she is on the right track to learning how to identify words and learning to read.

If you are not already, a great activity that you can incorporate into your preschooler’s bedtime routine is reading books.

• Read More: Black Children’s Books For Toddlers and Preschoolers

Educational Songs

My daughter loves a good song to jam to.

So why not make it educational?

My daughter’s school takes a moment each day in which their teacher plays music and allows the kiddos to dance.

Most of the songs are educational where they are saying the alphabet, counting, naming colors, or even talking about the days of the week.

And the kids really enjoy it because they get to dance around while learning.

I caught my daughter on numerous occasions singing the songs that they sing at school so I know that she is memorizing them.

Here at home, we do “dance” parties on Saturday mornings where we turn on Youtube and play a bunch of kids’ songs.

One of my daughter’s favorite Youtube channels is Gracie’s Corner.

If you all caught my post on black children’s shows for kids, then you already saw that I mentioned this channel there.

• Read More: Black Children’s Shows For Toddlers And Preschoolers

But if you are not familiar with Gracie’s Corner on Youtube, then I highly recommend you check them out.

Especially if you also have black children as I do.

She sings a lot of the classic nursery songs as well as a lot of educational songs but with her own spin on it that makes the songs really catchy.

I will link Gracie’s Corner on Youtube below for you all to check because I’m sure that you will love it.

Involving Them In Everyday Tasks

And the last activity that I do with my daughter is simply involving her in everyday tasks that we do around the house.

Some may be wondering how is doing everyday tasks a learning activity for a 4-year-old.

Well if your child is anything like mine, then they are in that really helpful stage where they are showing an interest in helping with tasks such as cooking and cleaning.

And I personally think it’s important that they start developing these kinds of good habits early on.

My daughter has technically had “chores” since she was 3.

• Read More: Daily Chores For 3-Year-Olds

And some of those chores consisted of doing things like:

• Making her bed
• Putting dirty dishes away in the sink
• Throwing away trash
• Picking up her toys and books
• Putting her dirty clothes in her hamper

I still have my daughter do these chores as well as have her help out around the house if she is willing.

Tasks that my daughter likes to help with it are cooking and mopping.

So if she is showing an interest in wanting to help with these tasks, I do my best to involve her.

Simple daily household tasks are great learning opportunities for younger children to learn how to take care of and maintain their space.

Which is a skill that they will need as they get older.

Your Turn

Well, those are some of the preschool learning activities that I do with my 4-year-old daughter at home. I want to hear from you all now. What are some at-home learning activities that you do with your 4-year-olds? I would love to hear from you all in the comments and while you are still here, check out my previous post below. Until next time!

• Read More: Grocery Shopping Tips For Our Family Of 4

Love,

Just Jass