Clinical Skills Confidence: Preschool Party!

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Who loves working with preschoolers? I generally consider preschoolers to be 3-5 year olds. I love working with children of all ages, but I find children this age to be pretty entertaining and fun to work with. These little ones are starting to exert their independence (and boy do they sometimes) and figuring out the world around them. 

Though not exclusively, I've worked with this age group since I graduated. Here are my favorite, inexpensive things to use with this age group: 

1. Balloons: Oh, the fun you can have! I like to blow up a balloon, hold it up and say, "ready, set, go" before letting it fly all around the room. The look of delight on their faces is priceless. Fair warning: they always want one to try blowing it up themselves, so I have extras on hand. If I have a child who is working on expanding utterance length, I will often prompt him/her to say "blow...blow bigger...blow more..."

2. Pill boxes: These little compartments are great for lots of different things. I sometimes put buttons or other little things inside and prompt the kids to say things like, "open, shut, I see ____, I found ____." I put velcro or something over the day/time. 

3. Stretchy book covers: Small confession - I like back to school time when all sorts of school supplies are in stores. I found these soft book covers on clearance once and have used them for different things. I purchased a bunch in different colors. If you invert one of the sides, they can be hung over the backs of chairs. You can have the kids do sorting, vocabulary, WH questions, or other activities this way. They are really soft too, so I've had kids who just like putting their hands in them and twisting for a mini-sensory break.

What are your favorite inexpensive things to use with this age group?