Developmentally Appropriate Materials for Preschool and Kindergarten Children

(Ages 3-6)
Materials for preschoolers and kindergarteners should support their developing social skills and interest in adult
roles, growing imaginations, increasing motor skills, and rapidly expanding vocabularies. Refer to the table below
for examples of developmentally appropriate materials for preschool and kindergarten children.

T ype of Appropriat e
Examples
Mat erial Mat erials
Picture books, simple and repetitive stories and rhymes, animal stories,
Skill/concept Books/records pop-up books, simple information books, wide variety of musical
recordings
Socially interactive games with adults, such as What If; matching and
lotto games based on colors and pictures, such as picture bingo or
Games dominoes; games of chance with a few pieces that require no reading,
such as Chutes and Ladders; flannel board with pictures, letters, and
storybook characters
Gross Push and pull toys; ride-on toys; balls of all kinds; indoor slide and
Active play
motor climber; rocking boat
Climbers, rope ladders, balls of all siz es; old tires, sand and water
Outdoor
materials
Dressing frames; toys to put together and take apart; cookie cutters,
stamp and printing materials, finger paint, modeling dough, small
Manipulative Fine motor objects to sort and classify; bead stringing with long, thin string; pegs
and small pegs; colored cubes, table blocks, magnetic
board/letters/numbers and shapes; perception boards and mosaics
Fit-in or framed puz z les (for 3-year-olds: from 4 -20 pieces, for 4 -
Puz z les and
year-olds: from 15-30 pieces, for 5-year-olds: from 15-50 pieces);
form boards
large, simple jigsaws; number/letter/clock puz z les
Toys, globe flashlight, magnets, lock boxes, weather forecasting
Investigative
equipment, scales, balances, stethoscopes
Small and large unit blocks; large hollow blocks; from age 4 , interlocking
Construction Building sets
plastic blocks with pieces of all siz es
Workbench, hammer, preschool nails, saw, sandpaper, pounding
Carpentry
benches, safety goggles
Self- Dolls and soft Realistic dolls and accessories; play settings and play people (e.g.,
expressive toys farm, hospital)
Dress-up clothes, realistic tools, toy camera, telephone, household
Dramatic play
furniture
Tactile boxes; auditory and musical materials such as smelling and
Sensory
sound boxes; cooking experiences
All rhythm instruments, music boxes; large crayons, paint, paste, glue,
Art/music chalkboard and chalk, sewing kits, collage materials, markers, modeling
dough, blunt scissors
Natural and Sand and
Sandbox tools, bubbles, water toys
everyday water
 Old clocks, radios, cameras, telephones; telephone books; mirrors;
doctor kits; typewriter; magaz ines; fabric scraps; computer; cash
register and receipts; measuring cups and muffin tins
Excerpt from Creative Thinking and Arts-Based Learning Preschool Through Fourth Grade, by J.P. Isenberg, M.
R. Jalongo, 2006 edition, p. 285.

© ______ 2006, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The
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