More Preschool Activity Trays

Here’s another round of activity tray ideas. See the first post here: Preschool Activity Trays

The cart/tray activities are available in the morning during free play time when children are arriving until it’s time to clean up for a.m. snack. Then we may use them again before group activities or during p.m. free play time. I don’t have a specific rotation schedule for these, but it seems like we’re ready for new ones every 1.5-2 weeks. I change them as I have time and ideas for new activities. The ideas are endless, it’s usually a time issue!

I believe this system has added a lot of fun and meaningful work for my group. They are challenged, introduced to new materials and ideas while playing. It’s also self directed and they are free to choose and play with the materials how they like. Also, I’m able to do observations while watching them work.

Nuts & bolts

Match the shapes mat & buttons. Large shape buttons from Oriental Trading

Orange & brown squares/#17 Mother Goose Time materials

Matching game – this is vintage! I found it at a thrift store. It’s in great shape & all the pieces were present. I matched enough sets to fit in the card holder and limited it to that many pieces for the tray activity.

My little ones especially like the pom pom transfer with tongs.

Wiki Sticks and cards

Color matching bugs in jars.

Shape sorting. These Geometric Connecting Shapes are from Oriental Trading. Great price!

Golf tees + marbles. Bee container from the Dollar Tree (infant feeding dishes)

$1 foam puzzle from Staples. This is tricky for them to complete and hasn’t been used a lot. We haven’t spent much time working together on it yet but I liked the “left/right” idea and the numbers on the fingers.