Visual Discrimination Skills

Hi!  I'm Jamie from Play to Learn Preschool and I am so excited to be blogging here at The Primary Pack for the first time!  

I have owned a small preschool for the past 10 years, and prior to that I taught second grade and earned my Masters in Reading Education.  Teaching early emergent reading skills to preschoolers is fascinating.  We can see their brains at work every day as they are beginning to develop print and word concepts.

One of the skills that preschoolers work on in order to be successful readers when they enter elementary school is Visual Discrimination.

As our students turn 5-years-old during their Pre-K year, it is critical that their visual discrimination skills are solid so that we can really work on learning letters and numbers.

Each morning when our preschoolers arrive in the classroom, they complete a file folder game for a couple of minutes while everyone gets unpacked and settled.  We differentiate these morning work activities so that students are working at their own pace.

Students who need practice with Visual Discrimination work on matching folder games.

We also have Visual Discrimination games set up for them to play during center time.  At this center, the student places a little pumpkin toy on the picture that is different.

Games like "Memory," books such as "Where's Waldo" and activities that require students to sort like items (by color, shape and size) are all great practice with Visual Discrimination skills.

If you have students who could benefit from practice with this important skill, please help yourself to these 2 free games.

Stay tuned for more bright ideas from the Primary Pack bloggers tomorrow.  I'll be back on November 23, or stop by and visit me at Play to Learn Preschool!