These Scotland preschool activities make learning about Scotland fun for your little one and easy for Mom to implement. What a win-win!
Why Teach Littles about Other Cultures
Teaching littles to be empathic to others who may not be the same as them is a lifelong skill they will use.
By opening their eyes to the beauty of diversity and other cultures, you set them up to be empathic and compassionate.
Learning about new cultures is fun! Seeing how others live and the environment others live in helps preschoolers see that not every place is like where they live– and that’s a great thing!
Kids are able to try new activities while learning about a new culture.
So, without further ado, here are some Scotland preschool activities to try with your preschoolers.
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Geography Activities
Activity 1: Dough Map of Scotland
Print out a map of Scotland’s outline. Use salt dough (or play dough) to make the shape of Scotland. You may want to put the map into a plastic sleeve (or gallon-size bag) so the dough doesn’t stick.
The preschooler can roll the dough into a ‘snake’ and use it to outline the perimeter of Scotland, too.
Activity 2: Take a Virtual Tour
Check out Scotland via the internet. Take a virtual tour to show your little ones what it looks like in real life.
It won’t be entirely the same as taking an actual trip, but your little ones can get a sense of how Scotland feels.
What a fun addition to the Scotland preschool activities that help bring Scotland to life for your little ones.
Culture Activities
Activity 1: Make a Sheep Craft
How do sheep tie into Scottish culture? Well… there are more sheep than people in Scotland. This, without a doubt, impacts the culture and how people in Scotland live.
This needed to be reflected in these Scotland preschool activities.
Sheep are rugged animals that can manage to live on land that people can not. The people of Scotland use sheep for wool, milk, and meat.
To make a sheep craft, cut out a large circle. Let your little one glue on cotton balls.
Add rectangles for the legs and an oval for the head. You can then draw on a face and add floppy ears.
Activity 2: Weave a Paper Tartan
Tartan (what the US calls the plaid pattern) plays an important role in Scottish culture. Historically, they were used to show what family or clan you belonged to. Nowadays, not every family has a tartan.
To make a paper tartan pattern, fold a piece of construction paper long ways (hot dog). Starting on the fold, cut horizontally towards the other long side of the paper. Do NOT cut all the way across. The cut should be most of the way across.
Open the paper up and let your preschoolers thread through colored paper strips. Have them alternate if the strip is above or below the paper with slits cut.
On the next strip placed, it needs to be the opposite. So if the first stripe went over the first slit, the second strip added needs to go under it.
Math Activities
Activity 1: Build a Castle
Scotland is the home to MANY castles.
Have your preschoolers build a castle out of blocks. They can count the blocks they use as they go or challenge them to use a certain number of blocks.
You may want to print pictures of Scottish castles for your preschoolers to look at while they are building.
Activity 2: Color Sorting Castle
Take an old box and cut four rectangles on the bottom. Flip it over so the holes are on the top. Color around each rectangle with a different color. Make one hole red, one yellow, one blue, and one green.
Take four toilet paper tubes and wrap each tube in a different color of construction paper (red, yellow, blue, green). Stand the tubes up by each of the box’s four corners to make towers.
Grab some red, yellow, blue, and green pom poms and let your preschoolers sort them into the correct-colored rectangle or tube (both work).
Language Arts Activities
Activity 1: Learn a Few Words in Scottish Gaelic
English is the most used language in Scotland, but Scottish Gaelic is also spoken.
Listen to a video or two on pronouncing some words in Scottish Gaelic. Try words like hello, please, thank you, or even colors!
Try using these new words throughout the day or while doing other Scotland preschool activities like sorting pom poms by color in the castle color sort activity.
Activity 2: Read Folktales from Scotland
There are many wonderful folktales told in Scotland. The tales of the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie) are some of the most popular. This may be a bit scary for some kids, but you know your littles best.
Read a few Scottish folktales and choose which ones you think your little ones will enjoy the most.
Music Activities
Activity 1: Create a Pretend Bagpipe
Many ideas about how to make a pretend bagpipe are floating around the internet.
Simple ones require a brown paper lunch bag stuffed with crumpled newspapers. Toilet paper tubes are then attached to the top and sides.
Other variations require plastic recorders or party blowers (and will be much more noisy).
Activity 2: Listen to Scottish Music
Turn on Scottish music and let your little ones dance the day away. You can also try doing some Scottish folk dances, too. This is an easy Scotland preschool activity that can be done anywhere from the car to the living room.
Cooking Activities
Activity 1: Bake a Scottish Tablet
These sweet treats are a traditional candy in Scotland. The recipe has many variations now, but the first ones were made with only cream and sugar.
Activity 2: Tattie Scones (Potato Scones)
Tattie scones are part of breakfast in Scotland. They are made from potatoes, flour, butter, and salt. The best part about this recipe is that you can use leftover mashed potatoes as long as they aren’t too wet.
Scotland Preschool Activities
Learning about Scotland can be fun and engaging with these Scotland preschool activities. From cooking to math, there are activities for all subjects.