Parents and teachers can help make every day moments, learning opportunities. Shoes are a great springboard for many academic preschool lessons. Many of these learning activities can take place as you come home from school each day.
For all of these preschool learning activities, you will need a set of shoes of varying sizes, a ruler, and a globe.
Shoe Games for Preschoolers
1. Ordering By Length
This activity is a math skill that requires preschoolers to put the shoes in order by biggest to smallest or smallest to biggest.
2. Measuring with Standard Units of Measurement
How long is a size 7 shoe? Grab a ruler and find out. When someone says, “It’s a foot long,” what size shoe does that really mean? Math is more meaningful when real life materials are used. What are you waiting for – see if you can find out how many inches your shoe is!
3. 1:1 Correspondence and Matching
One of the most basic early math skill is being able to match one object with another. Shoes lend well to 1:1 correspondence and matching because they come in pairs AND each foot needs a shoe.
4. Pretend Play
Children can pretend to own a shoe store. Encourage them to write signs for how much they are selling each pair of shoes for. Will there be any sales? They could write and draw an advertisement. This activity combines pretend play and creative thinking with math and writing skills.
See how PreKinders class runs their pretend shoe store here.
5. Graphing and Data Analysis
If you have a group, then you can sort it! Use a shower curtain to sort and graph the group of shoes by different attribute. Labeling the graph connects literacy to this activity as well. See how PBS Kids Lab teacher does this activity with her preschoolers. Discuss the results of the graph.
6. Colors and Vocabulary
I like combining math, movement, and music to teach preschoolers. Simple songs will stick with them and you will hear them singing the tune everywhere. This one is adapted from a submission by Amy at Everything Preschool and made to review colors. At the end of the song, you can have the children help make a class list of the shoe colors they see in a group writing lesson.
My Shoes(Sung to: “Skip to My Lou”)
I have blue shoes, how about you?
I have blue shoes, how about you?
I have blue shoes, how about you?
Tap your shoes like I do.”
7. Compare and Contrast
Have you ever flipped the shoes over and noticed the treads (the underside of the shoes). There are many different patterns and designs. Encourage preschoolers to compare the treads. How are they the same? Then talk about how they are different. Extend their thinking by asking them why different shoes may have different treads.
8. Rhythm and Rhyme
When we put our shoes on, I like to say the classic nursery rhyme with my preschooler.
One, two, Buckle my shoe;
Three, four,shut the door;
Five, six,Pick up sticks;
Seven, eight,Lay em straight:
Nine, ten,A big, fat hen
Rhymes are great for learning how the volume of spoken words should sound like, hear voice inflection and the rhythm of the English language. They also help with learning the patterns of rhymes.
9. Learn the SH Digraph
Shoe is a good word for teaching the SH digraph. When {s} and {h} sounds are put together they make a SH sound, like you hear in the beginning of the word SHOES!
10. Life Skills
Last, but definitely not least, we need to be teaching our preschoolers how to tie their shoes. This is a life skill that needs to be taught. This is a skill, just like learning to read, that a grown up needs to explain and practice with a preschooler. Most children do not learn how to tie shoes without guidance. Start today and practice.
Here are some articles on teaching kids to tie their shoes:
- Learn to Tie Your Shoes in 5 Minutes from Life Skills
- Learn to Tie Your Shoes with Peter Rabbit from Nick Jr.
- List of Different Ways to Tie Your Shoes from About.com
For more Preschool Ideas here at the Educators’ Spin On It we recommend:
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