It cannot be stressed enough how preschool is an important phase of a child’s life. After all, it is when the foundation for their long-term education is developed. A parent should think of their child’s preschool phase as a two-pronged approach: (i) Book-based learning (ii) Activity-based learning. The latter is extremely significant in the development of your child during their preschool years because it stimulates your child’s cognitive development and also improves their social and emotional skills. As the first teacher’s in your child’s life, it becomes our responsibility to create an environment where your child can take advantage of the aforementioned two-pronged approach to learning in preschool. This article will go over the preschool activities that will not only keep your child entertained while they are in the Canadian Maple International School (CMIS), but will encourage them to learn via playing while simultaneously focusing on child development. 

Preschool Activities And Their Associated Benefits For Child Development 

There are a myriad of ways of how different activities are set for your child’s benefit. Some of the ways in which the activities are designed are the following: 

• Creative Arts and Crafts:

Creative arts and crafts are a given in any preschool. The activities surrounding them are designed so that they are able to creatively express themselves, develop their motor skills and push the boundaries of their imagination. The benefits are as follows: 

• Creative expression: The ideas of young minds are limitless and to that end it is a necessity that we provide them the tools required to express their ideas. 
• Developing their motor skills: Using child-proof scissors, kid-friendly glue and encouraging them to draw to their heart’s content allows the children to show visually what they cannot say verbally. 
• Social and emotional skills: Creative arts and crafts are done in groups. The direct benefit of doing this is that the children learn teamwork and how to respect each other’s boundaries, while also creating life-long friendships. 

• Outdoor Play And Natural Exploration:

Nature is the best medicine and this is firmly believed by CMIS as well. We have a state-of-the-art outdoor playing field that is well maintained and gets plenty of sunlight. Moreover, our playing field is what is utilized the most for outdoor play and natural exploration activities. The benefits for this are as follows:

• Maintenance of physical health: While the children are not made to perform strenuous activities, they are of course encouraged to run alongside each other and jump among their peers in a playful manner when they are out on the field. 
• Being one with nature: During our outdoor play and natural exploration activities, the children get the opportunity to improve their sensory skills by being exposed to grass, sunlight and wind. 
• Mental health benefits: Research has shown that being exposed to natural light and trees are beneficial for human beings, especially if they are exposed to them from a young age. 

• Verbal Storytelling: 

Verbal storytelling is an essential activity among preschool children where they are encouraged to share stories with each other in circles. They can either do it without showing any illustrations or they can use a storybook they like and explain to their peers what the story is. Additionally, the students are encouraged to act out the stories if they are comfortable to do so. The advantages of doing these are: 

• Proficient development of language: When the children are hearing and listening to stories, they are able to comprehend the vocabulary and pronunciation that are being utilized during these communications. This practical practice helps them develop the language they need, at a faster rate. 
• Emotional intelligence: Verbal storytelling helps the children understand a range of emotions that they can utilize themselves later on. Moreover, hearing the stories can act as a form of guidance for them as they learn a lot of life lessons through these stories. 
• Gaining social confidence: Being able to speak in a group setting and sharing opinions with each other is not something that comes naturally for everyone. Which is why our verbal storytelling activities act as a medium for the children to gain public-speaking confidence. 

• Basic Science And Exploration Activities 

The curiosity that arises among the children, especially during their preschool phase, should be encouraged. They will want to go through many trials and errors because that is how they want to learn during preschool. We at CMIS also encourage our preschool students to pursue their curiosity by letting them engage in water play, allowing them to mix basic colors to make complex colors and giving them the opportunity to grow their own plants from a single seed. Our purpose for letting them do these are: 

• Broadening their curiosity: Such scientific activities helps the preschool students to ask questions, which is a good thing. We want our preschool children to ask questions as this also helps them to explore for answers, both by themselves and by asking others for help.
• Understanding correlation among things: Basic things such as growing a plant by using water and sunlight helps the students to understand cause and effect from a very young age. 
• Critical analysis: When the students mix basic colors to create complex colors by themselves, they often try to understand the root cause as to why the colors change as they do. Such forms of critical thinking helps the preschool children to develop problem-solving skills from a very young age. 

The Importance Of Learning Through Play

Learning through play and their associated activities is a crucial directive through which children in their early years learn what their education requires them to, in a fun way. Moreover, learning through play helps the children to be attuned to their curiosity, which in turn helps them to discover new things everyday, by themselves or in a group setting. Additionally, they do not feel restricted to a rigid curriculum which helps them feel like they have more freedom and that they are visiting school, not as a responsibility but as part of their daily lives. 

Also, by engaging in playful activities, the children in our preschool program develop critical thinking skills that they would not have developed otherwise. They also become more accustomed to socializing with their peers by learning through play, which psychologically makes them feel like they are not alone in the journey known as preschool. Rather they feel like they are in a home away from home. 

Whether they are partaking in creative arts and crafts, verbal storytelling, or basic science and exploration activities, learning through play helps our preschool students to gain a deeper and comprehensive understanding of the world and its surroundings. Such methods allow our preschool students to be more self-aware and think critically from a young age. 

Why CMIS Has The Best Fun and Educational Preschool Activities

At CMIS, preschool activities are more than just a process to keep our preschool students occupied. They are an important tool that we recognize is pertinent to a young child’s development. Via the integration of fun and educational preschool activities into the daily school routine of our preschool children, our educators support learning through play and while also helping them to develop their cognition, social and emotional skills. 

From utilizing creative arts and crafts to self-experimenting to learn basic science, every single one of our preschool activities are designed in such a way that the preschool students are able to reap the unique benefits that allow them to become well-rounded young individuals. 

Lastly, by diligently curating and implementing these activities that are both fun and educational, we guarantee that our students enrolled in our preschool program are set on a path of effective learning and never-ending curiosity.