Basic Concepts to Teach Your Preschooler

“What should my preschooler know?”

This question often gets asked by parents. Many want to understand what basic concepts their 4-year-old should know in order to be prepared for Kindergarten.

If you are one of those parents who would like to be informed about what your preschooler should know, you’re in luck! I have compiled a list of basic concepts that are beneficial for preschoolers to understand. This is different from skills that they should be able to do which is found in this post: Preschool Skills Checklist. Both lists are just guidelines to help you out. Every child is unique and learns at a different rate so it’s fine if your child doesn’t know all of these by the time he starts doing Kindergarten level work. You can always cover the basic concepts that he didn’t learn as a preschooler then.

Basic Concepts to Teach Preschoolers

• ❑ Colors
• ❑ Shapes
• ❑ Numbers 1-10 (mainly counting from 1-10 although identifying at least 1-5 is helpful)
• ❑ Same and different
• ❑ Does not belong
• ❑ One-to-one correspondence


• ❑ Pattern recognition
• ❑ What comes next in a sequence of events
• ❑ Up and down
• ❑ Above, below, and beside (next to)
• ❑ Front and back
• ❑ Over, under, and in the middle
• ❑ In front of and behind
• ❑ Closed and open
• ❑ First, next, and last
• ❑ Inside and outside (in and out)
• ❑ Backward and forward
• ❑ Top and bottom
• ❑ Before and after
• ❑ High and low
• ❑ Big and little
• ❑ Largest and smallest
• ❑ Tall and short
• ❑ Wide and narrow (fat and skinny)
• ❑ Medium sized
• ❑ Long and short
• ❑ Same size
• ❑ Fast and slow
• ❑ Basic feelings such as happy, sad, mad, and glad
• ❑ Empty and full
• ❑ More and less (fewer)
• ❑ Many and few
• ❑ Part and whole
• ❑ Night and day
• ❑ On and off
• ❑ Loud and soft
• ❑ Hot and cold
• ❑ Hard and soft
• ❑ New and old
• ❑ Early and late
• ❑ Times of the day such as morning, afternoon, and evening
• ❑ Weather
• ❑ Seasons
• ❑ Simple categories such as food, clothes, animals, and toys
• ❑ Family members
• ❑ Parts of the body
• ❑ Stranger safety
• ❑ Full name
• ❑ Parents’ names
• ❑ Home phone number
• ❑ Birthday
• ❑ God
• ❑ Jesus
• ❑ Heaven
• ❑ Earth
• ❑ Angels

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Many blessings,

P.S. If you need some inspiration, you can find a list of more than 250 preschool themes to teach your child here: The Ultimate List of Preschool Themes