When a child is school-ready, they will be introduced to many different children and their social interactions will increase. They will be expected to exhibit social skills such as cooperation, sharing, listening, communicating, using good manners and conflict resolution. This can be a challenge when expectations are placed on them in a classroom environment and some may need more guidance than others. Preschool games can help in teaching and exposing children to the social skills they need to learn.
We will have a look at the different social skills that children need to learn and how these can be facilitated through the use of preschool games.
Appropriate social skills could include; the ability to express emotions, cooperate with others and display independence and problem-solving skills.
When a child has developed the ability to express emotions; they will talk, use facial expressions appropriately, maintain eye contact and exercise manners and courteous behavior.
When children are able to co-operate, they willingly share with others and take turns without major fights breaking out. They also seek to be a good friend by supporting their friends when they are feeling discouraged and helping them when needed. They actively listen to their friend when they speak to them. In a classroom situation, they follow classroom routine willingly. This could include raising their hand to speak and sitting quietly in a group when expected to.
When social skills have developed in a child, independence and problem-solving skills should follow naturally. They will begin to make decisions and realize how their behavior or decisions might affect others. The innate sense of right and wrong will also dictate their actions. Children with good social skills are able to solve conflicts that other children might need an adult’s help with.
When children are in preschool, they often require help to develop their social skills and this is when preschool games can really come in handy. The teacher can make use of many games and activities to help facilitate this development.
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Imaginary Play
Imaginary play is a great way to encourage socialization in children as they are practicing every-day social skills whilst doing every-day activities. These could include dress up, telephone play, playing shop, acting out stories and rhymes and playing house.
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Building a Lego Town
When the teacher makes use of games to encourage socialization, group activities would naturally come to mind as most or all of the children will be involved. The class could work together to build a Lego Town. They will have a common goal and will have to exercise many of the social skills mentioned earlier.
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The teacher could introduce a sharing activity, based on the book ‘Should I Share my Ice-Cream’ by Mo Willems. Each child will make a large paper cone and they will all stand in a circle. They will begin to pass on plastic balls (the scoop of ‘ice-cream’). This is a great activity to practice sharing and exercising good manners as they will need to use phrases such as “please” and “thank you”.
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Kindness Scavenger Hunt
For this game, each child will receive a piece of paper with different ‘kind’ tasks on. These could include “hug someone”, “share with someone”, “let someone go in front of you in the line” etc. Once the child achieves each task, they can tick it off on their sheet of paper. Once they have completed all of the acts of kindness, the teacher can reward them with something that is meaningful to that particular child.
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Paint the Tennis Ball
Lay paper in a small plastic pool, or something similar, that can be picked up by children. Drizzle different colors of paint on the paper. Put a tennis ball in the middle and have the children all stand around the plastic pool and pick it up. They will begin to tip and turn it so that the tennis ball will roll through the paint. This is a great co-operative activity as they are required to work together and communicate, along with many giggles.
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Mr. Manners Says
This game follows the same idea as ‘Simon Says’ however instead of copying actions, the teacher will call out polite and impolite statements. If it is a polite statement, the children should act it out and if it is an impolite statement the children should keep still. The teacher could say things like “shake hands with someone you meet” and the children should then act this out. If the teacher says, “Mr. Manners says tell your mom you didn’t like dinner” they should keep still. This is a great way for young children to identify and use manners, therefore developing their social skills.
Socialization is a very important skill for children to develop and if teachers and schools are willing to implement preschool games that facilitate this development, it will benefit the children immensely. What you might need to consider is finding a preschool for your child which places great value on developing this skill.