For preschool children, play is more than just fun; it’s the foundation for crucial life skills. One of the most essential of these skills is the ability to initiate interactions and invite peers to play. As special educators, empowering our students with this skill is invaluable, which is why we’ve included this free preschool play skills PDF activity for download!

Why Play Skills Matter

Play skills, especially in early childhood, serve as the foundation for:

1. Social Interactions: Through play, children learn how to communicate, cooperate, and understand emotions.
2. Cognitive Development: Play enhances creativity, problem-solving, and attention span.
3. Emotional Growth: It helps in understanding feelings and managing emotions.

Making that first move to ask a friend to play is a big step in a child’s social journey.

Asking a Friend to Play Lesson Plan

Objective:

Equip preschool students with the skills and confidence to ask their peers to play.

Materials:

• Puppets or dolls
• Play areas with toys
• Free PDF worksheet, “Practicing Asking a Friend to Play” from Everyday Speech

Step-by-Step Activities:

1. Story Time (5 minutes)
   • Use puppets or dolls to enact a simple story where one character wants to play with another.
   • Emphasize the positive outcome of asking a friend to play.
2. Role-Play (10 minutes)
   • Pair students and have them take turns asking each other to play.
   • Give positive feedback and gentle corrections as needed.
3. Everyday Speech Worksheet Activity (10 minutes)
   • Distribute the free PDF worksheet from Everyday Speech.
   • Discuss their answers as a group, reinforcing the different ways of asking friends to play.

4. Free Play (5 minutes)

• Students to practice what they’ve learned by engaging in free play.
• Observe and take notes on interactions for future reference.

Sample Video

Students learn best from watching real students their own age model skills. Try out this sample video-modeling lesson below. We offer our entire Social-Emotional Learning platform free for 30 days here!

Related Blog Posts:

Preschool Play Skills Lesson Plan

Teaching Problem-Solving Skills through Social-Emotional Learning