Explaining units of time to a preschooler

When we think about time as far as preschool standards are considered, we generally want to make sure that children can sequence daily events (i.e. breakfast comes first, then lunch, then dinner) and understand their own personal histories (“I’m four years old, but my birthday is tomorrow and then I’ll be five”).  Because preschoolers don’t have a grat understanding of specific time concepts, explaining the idea of a new year can be really difficult.  In the past I just kind of blew over it, not wanting to confuse them, but it felt wrong not to use a common holiday as a teachable moment, so last year I created this What is a Year? set to help give my kiddos a visual understanding of different units of time and how they all fit together.

This entire set is really meant to focus on the vocabulary of different units of time.  I want my children to know what a month, day, year, minute, etc. are and be able to use the words correctly.  I also want them to understand that there are different words for different lengths of time.  The set includes vocabulary cards, fill in the blank cards (which you could use as a wipe off or a worksheet), a ring book, and a jumbo dice for dice games.  The activities give children the opportunity to practice each of the words in multiple ways, so that they can build understanding through variety and repetition.

You can get your set here, and while you’re at it, here are some other great New Year products that I’ve created, and some fun preschool activities for a New Year’s party.