This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.

If you have five minutes to spare, you can teach a preschool lesson to your child!    There are so many times during the day when we have a few spare minutes… enough time to grab a preschool lesson plan & teach our children something great!  

As an early childhood development therapist, I have seen how many times a simple lesson or activity has impacted a child.  Math, science, reading, phonics, and geography lessons can be taught in just a few minutes a day.    Just five minutes.

Quick & Easy Preschool Lesson Plans 

Preschool Lesson Plan in Five Minutes

Ten Preschool Activities that Take 5 Minutes  

 Take advantage of these five-minute opportunities with these visual, audio, and hands-on activities. 

Five minutes before we have to leave.  Five minutes until dinner is done.  Five minutes until your brother is done with his schoolwork.  Five minutes until bath time.   Five minutes to help your child learn and grow. 

1.  SING A SONG

This is the perfect age group for songs and fingerplays!  Your child will love singing with you.  Sing Itsy Bitsy Spider and pretend that the spider is climbing up their leg or up their arm (tickle them for “wash the spider out”). 
                           Related: 5 favorite kid songs that we often forget about

2. HIDE AND SEEK

  Not only is this game fun for them, but it teaches them to count to ten! Make it easy by staying in one room. Teach them how to count with their eyes closed while you hide.

3. PLAY THE “WARMER COLDER” GAME.

Hide a toy somewhere in your house (make it easy the first few times by leaving the toy in plain view to allow them to see it easily when they get near it). Tell them that they are getting warmer when they get close to it and colder when they get further away. They love this game!

4. WEAVE WITH A COOLING RACK

 Just cut pieces of yarn (or paper, if you don’t have yarn or string) and teach them to weave it through the cooling rack. 
Example: A fellow blogging friend, Deirdre, shared this example on her blog & it’s perfect. 

preschool lesson in five minutes

5. DRAW A CIRCLE AND TEACH THEM HOW TO MAKE A FACE.

When our son was two, I can remember him asking me to “Draw Daddy.”    It was a great opportunity to teach him about the features on our faces.   First, we made a circle.  I made it on my paper and he made it on his paper (imitating is an important skill at this age, as it helps them to learn to do as we do.)   
We moved onto the other features and did the same thing while making eyes, a nose, and a mouth. We added ears and hair.
                                Teach:  While you are doing this, teach your child by talking about what you are drawing.  Ask your child “What are these?” while pointing to your ears.   Ask, “What else is on my face?”
You are teaching body parts, shapes, helping their speech, and working on fine motor skills.

6.  SING THEIR THEME SONG.

We ALWAYS sang the theme song to Sid The Science Kid, but we made it our own.  I would fill in our kids’ names and they would show off a new skill or move. 

The song goes,  “I”m looking for a kid. I’m looking for you! Hey, there’s ____! Watch what he can do!”

This is where your child shows off that skill or move.   We do it with all of our kids & they sing it back to me.  They might do a cool spin, pick up something heavy, do a jump, write their name, etc… no matter what, they are happy & proud to show you. 

7.  FLASHLIGHTS AND SIGHT WORDS

This next tip comes from my great friend and college room-mate, Julia. She has letters and Kindergarten Sight Words taped to her daughter’s closet door.
She takes a flash-light and shines them on one letter or one word at a time and says, “Flashlight, shining bright, which letter does Brynn see tonight?”   They talk about the letter or word and move onto another one.  How cute is that?!

             Related: Grab this list of printable & free Kindergarten Sight Words: 
Kindergarten sight word optin

8. BOWL WITH CUPS.  

Line up plastic cups in a triangle shape and roll a ball into them, just like bowling.  (the free plastic kid cups from restaurants are great to save for this activity)

9. GO ON A LETTER, SHAPE, OR COLOR HUNT

Pick a letter, shape, or color, and go on a hunt. Look for that certain shape, color, or letter in every room.
example: A clock is a circle. An Elmo toy starts with an E.

We sing the song “I’m going on a bear hunt” (you can look it up if you don’t know it- it’s cute!) but replace “bear” with what we are looking for.
Example: “I’m going on a circle hunt… to see what we can find.  Round ones, circle ones.  Lots of different kinds!”  (Just invent words to the song, as I do!  Your kids won’t care as long as you are singing it)   
I can’t think of any preschool themes that won’t work for this idea! 

Here is an easy color-hunt activity using an old egg carton.  Our kids LOVE this game.

10. CUT UP AN OLD MAGAZINE 

Our kids love to cut things out of a magazine. Give them a paper plate and let them cut food out of magazines to make dinner for you.  They can glue the cut-outs on (or tape them on) if you have enough time for this. 

When you are done, just “clean up” by throwing it away, the same way that you would if you were cleaning up dinner.  If you didn’t glue it down, it is easy to do this part, too!

preschooler

This is not only fun but also great for improving fine motor skills.

BONUS: If you have spare time, pick up a book and read with your preschooler.  The rewards of this one are endless…

MORE POSTS: 

 

 

Hi there!

I’m Becky, a former elementary school teacher turned certified child development therapist and blogger. I work at home with my husband and together we are raising (and partially homeschooling) our four children in the Carolinas. I love diet coke, ice cream, and spending time with my family.

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

4 Comments

  1. Thank you for this 🙂 I love looking at what other moms/child providers do for children 🙂 My favorite is the Flashlight one and i’m sure my Son will LOVE it 🙂

  2. Great and yet Simple Tips! I love it. Thanks for the advice.
    Malaika@loftandlearn