Are you starting a patriotic theme in your preschool classroom or homeschool? Keep reading for the best Amazing America preschool activities around!
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PRESCHOOL PATRIOTIC ACTIVITIES
Patriotism is such an important theme to teach (whether you’re homeschooling or teaching in a preschool or kindergarten classroom). It’s never too early to instill a sense of pride for our country. Amazing America will help your little ones learn about our country and all the ways we celebrate it, whether it’s Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Flag Day, or any other patriotic holiday throughout the year!
Keep reading for 10+ Amazing America activities for your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. These ideas include literacy, math, and hands on activities. Grab your printables for math & literacy here. Oh, and there’s a freebie, too!
If you want a copy of my yearly themes (including an editable version where you can type in your own themes), check out this freebie. (*Please note: You will need to download this file to your computer and then open it with Adobe in order to add your own themes. You cannot add your themes from your web browser.)
PRESCHOOL PATRIOTIC ACTIVITIES: LITERACY
Before you get started with your Amazing America theme, make sure you have your books ready to go! For this unit, we’re going to use our patriotic book list, which has over 30 books for you to choose from! Check out some of our favorite preschool patriotic books that can be used for a variety of American holidays. Make sure you request these from your local library (or order from Amazon) a few weeks before you start your theme.
Phonological awareness skills are the key building block to reading success, which is why they should be practiced a little bit every day. In order to keep things fresh & engaging, I like to use phonological awareness games that go along with my current theme. Click here to check out these Amazing America phonological awareness games that will help your little ones become strong readers in less than 10 minutes a day (and with zero supplies!)
You’re definitely going to want to start your Amazing America theme with these vocabulary cards! Do your little ones know what the Statue of Liberty is? Have they ever seen a picture of the Liberty Bell? Have they ever gone to see fireworks for the 4th of July? These cards are the perfect way to introduce your little ones to the 15 America-related words they’ll be learning about over the course of this theme. You can use these vocabulary cards in your writing center, in a “Write the Room” activity, or in a “Color the Room” activity (which is a variation of “Write the Room” that is better suited for younger kids.)
If there’s one skill that our students need more practice with to set a strong foundation for reading, it’s rhyming. In this activity, little ones will name each picture on the patriotic spinner. Then they will spin and, for whichever picture it lands on, they will need to produce a rhyming word. They will repeat both words to hear that they rhyme and fill in the box above the picture. If that’s too advanced, you can offer two words to them and ask them which one rhymes with the picture on the spinner. Keep going until one picture wins!
This activity can be used in various ways to practice letter recognition and more. Little ones will choose a letter card and tell you its sound. They will then decide if it is uppercase or lowercase and place it above the White House or the United States Capitol. Other activity ideas: they can put the letter cards in alphabetical order; they can look for objects around the room, decide what letter the object’s name starts with, and place the object below that letter card; they can use the cards to play Memory or Go Fish, where they try to match uppercase and lowercase letter cards; you can tape the letter cards on the wall and have little ones say the letter name and sound as they throw bean bags at them; etc. The possibilities are endless! Remember…the more they practice their letters, the more fluent & proficient they will become!
These popsicle cards are a COOL way to practice beginning letter sounds of words! Each stick has a letter on it. Little ones will say the names of the pictures on the popsicle and decide which ones start with the same letter on the stick. They can use clothespins to mark the ones that start with the same letter (or mark the one that does not) to help develop their fine motor skills.
PRESCHOOL PATRIOTIC ACTIVITIES: MATH
For this activity, little ones will choose a patriotic hat card, count the stars, and find the flag card that matches that number. They will put the matching cards together to complete the puzzle. For more interactive play, you can hide the flag cards in a sensory bin or around the room for them to find. There are also firework tally cards included for little ones who are ready to practice tally marks.
After discussing different feelings with your little ones, they will describe the feelings that the firecrackers’ faces are showing on the mat. For younger littles, they can use simple words like “mad” and “happy,” but older ones should try to give more advanced descriptions such as “grouchy” and “joyous.”
Little ones will roll the firecracker feeling cube and place a small manipulative in the circle above the matching feeling. When one feeling reaches the top, have them count how many covered circles each feeling got. Then you can come up with more questions about the data which will help them develop mathematical thinking skills.
This is a fun activity for little ones to practice their shapes and develop fine motor skills. Little ones will choose a shape card, name the shape, and mark the matching shapes around it with a clothespin. They could also color the matching shapes in blue and the non matching shapes in red or use a hole punch to mark the matches. Are they able to guess a shape name if you give them the characteristics of the shape?
One of the main math skills little ones work on in kindergarten is addition to 10. This is a fun way to introduce this skill in preschool and show our students that no matter which number is first, the answer in an addition problem will stay the same. Little ones will choose an “I can make 10” card and add blue stars to the Ten Frame for the first number and then add red stars for the second number. Then they will write (or place numbers) on the lines to complete the addition problem. There are cards included that have the numbers in the opposite order to introduce them to the Commutative Property of Addition.
This FREE activity is perfect for your patriotic preschool theme! First, you will add the patriotic pictures to a sensory bin. Then little ones will find three pictures that are the same. Have them lay those pictures on the mat in the correct spots to show the size order from largest to smallest. There are 8 sets of pictures for them to put in order. You can download this freebie from this post!
AMAZING AMERICA: HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES
There are two ways to make this tasty, patriotic snack for your little ones to enjoy while working on your Amazing America unit. Both use graham crackers for the base, but you can spread the cracker with either white icing or cream cheese (depending on your preference.) The stars can be made from sprinkles or blueberries and the stripes can be made from string licorice or strawberry sections. Either way, it’s sure to be a new favorite treat!
In keeping with the patriotic theme, this sensory bin is filled with pasta that you will dye red and blue. Add any red and blue toys available and let your little ones PLAY! They can sort the toys by color or type or make color patterns. Let them use their imagination! Check out this post for more ideas for how to use this sensory bin with your preschooler.
AMAZING AMERICA PRESCHOOL & PRE-K FUN
I hope these ideas helped you fill-in your Amazing America lesson plans for your preschool classroom or homeschool! All of the printables for this unit can be found in my Amazing America Activity Pack.
What types of patriotic preschool activities do you plan for your little one? Do you have any fun activities that would be great to add to this list? Comment below or find me on Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and let me know!
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Happy Learning!
