Visual Discrimination: One of the most important skills in early childhood

One of the biggest skills that I believe Pre-K and Kindergarten students can benefit from the most is Visual Discrimination.

Visual discrimination skills enable children to be able to identify color, shape, size, orientation, and position, and are vital in the success of our students.

These skills not only help with reading and writing, but also with social interactions such as reading facial expressions and body language.

Paying attention to detail is an important part of developing good visual discrimination skills. So I created a few activities to use in my classroom to work on this.

In this Popsicle Stick Design activity, students will need to pay attention to the color, orientation and position of the popsicle sticks on the cards to be able to recreate the design with real popsicle sticks.

visual-discrimination-popsicle-stick-designs

With the Poms & Cups activity, students are looking at picture of a cup filled with different colored poms and having to recreate what they see using the real poms and cups. I like to also add some tongs or tweezers for the students to use to transfer the poms, so they are also working on those fine motor skills!

This next activity might be a good test of patience for little ones!

In the Stacking Dice activity, students look at the pattern of dice on the card and then recreate by stacking the real dice.

If stacking the dice proves too difficult, the students can always just lay the dice in a line beside the card. :)

In the Poms on Grids activity, students will select a small grid card and recreate the pattern on the larger grid using poms. You can provide tongs so your students can also work on fine motor skills. I like to provide a tray or cookie sheet for the students to work on so it keeps everything contained and neat. :)

Grid Patterns is similar to Poms on Grids, but this time the students are using cubes and both grids are on the same card. Students will copy the pattern from the grid on the left onto the grid on the right side.

Poms in Trays uses an ice cube tray for the students to recreate the pattern on the card. Again, I like to always include tweezers or tongs to add in fine motor work!

In Stacking Shapes, students have to study the picture to see how the shapes are layered on top of each in order to recreate it.

With Cube Trains, students will use cubes to recreate the designs on the cards. I have included two sets of cards using two different types of cubes so you can print the set that matches the cubes you have in your classroom.

Sticks & Cubes is a little more challenging than the other activities. Students will need steady hands, and plenty of patience to recreate these designs using popsicle sticks and wooden cubes.

With Ice Cream Patterns, students will use the ice cream pieces to recreate the pattern on the cards.

Visual Discrimination Ice Cream Patterns

Copy the Design doesn't involve any manipulatives, but students will be practicing their handwriting skills as they draw the lines to match the ones in the examples. If the cards are laminated, students can use them over and over again by writing with a dry-erase marker. There are also worksheet versions as well.

Each of these activities is available individually in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I also have them in bundles to save you lots of money if you like them all!

(click on picture)