Teaching Aids for Preschool Learners

Types of Teaching Aids for Preschool

Teaching Aids are an essential part of a preschooler's learning process. It helps to create an engaging and interesting learning environment in the classroom. It helps the teacher to attract attention from the students. With the use of teaching aids, the learning session becomes interactive. There are different types of teaching aids that can be used in the classroom. These are primarily the traditional method of teaching aids. Nevertheless, it is an effective medium to make learning exciting and entertaining. Let us see the different types of teaching aids that can be made by the teacher.

Puppets
Different type of puppets can be made as a teaching aid in the classroom for preschoolers. When you use puppets as a teaching aid, ensure that you are using different voice modulation for different characters during the storytelling time. Kids love to hear different voices for different characters. They would be very keen and will focus all the time. To do storytelling you can also use these puppets in a theatre box. Theatre box can be made out of shoe box or any box that is unused at home.

Finger puppets
It is a type of puppet that is controlled by one or more fingers.  It is very simple and can be worn during storytelling in the classroom. They are easy to make and great fun. You need to take a piece of paper and draw a character. The size should be little bigger than your finger.  Once the figure is drawn, color it and outline it. Cut across the entire figure. Take a small strip of paper and stick on the backside to hold the character on your finger. Finger puppet is now ready.

Stick Puppet

Stick puppet is an easy way to grab the attention of your children. All you need to do is draw the character of the story on a paper. Color it beautifully and cut it out. Now take an ice cream stick or a long thin wooden rod. With the help of glue or cello tape, paste it on the backside of the paper. Stick puppet is now ready. It is a great way to make your storytelling time interesting.

Paper Bag Puppet

This is also an easy way to make a puppet for your lesson plans. If you have a monologue planned, you can always make a paper bag puppet. All you need to do is take a paper bag. Draw the character that you want to bring in the class. Make a funny face like big eyes, big mouth, and tongue out. Color and cut it out. Stick the face on the paper bag. This paper bag can be worn in the hand. You can use a different voice to introduce the character in the classroom.

Check this link for easy origami art for kids.

Paper Crown

Paper crown can be made to motivate the children to do better in the classroom. As a teacher, paper crowns can really help you get an engaging classroom. All the kids would want to wear the crown. So they will strive to do better and perform in the classroom. To make the paper crown, you can choose any template from the internet. You can create one using your own imagination.  You need to create the outline on a thick construction paper. Cut it out. Now you can decorate it with glitter, beads, sparkles anything that you want. Punch two holes in the corner so that you can attach a ribbon to tie the crown on the head. You can reward the students who are performing better in the classroom. Be it storytelling, reciting poems, speech etc or even if someone is behaving well in the class, you can always find reasons to reward your students with a crown. I have made the below paper crown based on Disney Movie – Frozen.

Charts
Charts are an important teaching aid for any age group in the classroom. It can be used for explaining topics like body parts, good manners, reward tree, birthday reminders, etc. in the classroom. Unlike other teaching aid, you can stick the charts on the classroom wall for future reference. Every time children look at the chart, they will remember it. While making the chart, ensure that the size is big enough for all the students to see. It should be named properly with colorful pictures. And it should be hung at the right place where the children are easily able to look at it.

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Flipbook
Flipbook is an easy way of presenting a flow of information. It is used for demonstrating collective pictures in a flow. While you are explaining the topic, the kids would be keen to see what is on the next page. So you flip the page and keep on explaining. It is easy to make. All you need to do is take A4 size construction papers. Fold it to make a book. Depending on the topic, stick as many papers you would like to. For example, if you want to talk about means of transport and you choose to introduce Bus, you can make a flipbook to present different types of buses. You can also use flipbook for memory enhancement. You can select topics like colors, shapes, fruits, etc. to explain with the help of flipbook. When you flip the pages, you can ask the children to guess what could be next or what was before.

Flashcard
You can make flashcard of different topics to enhance the memory of your children. It can be used for Alphabets, numbers, fruits, vegetables, colors, animals, etc. Flashcards are very easy to make. All you need is a thick paper that is 20*15cm. Draw the topics or you can take a printout, cut it out and stick on this thick paper. Ensure that you write the name of the fruits, vegetables on the flashcard. It helps the child to recognize the letters and remember them. Flashcards are helpful for a child to focus and use his memory power to remember things. This is a great teaching tool for any teacher in the classroom.


Apart from the above mentioned, teachers can always use modern technology in the classroom. With the fast-paced technology, using videos, audios in the classroom has become the norm. But for preschoolers, above mentioned teaching aids are more useful in building an interactive and informative learning environment at an early age of childhood.

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