How to Make a Presentation Interesting for a Kindergarten Class

If you expect an audience of kindergartners to pay attention to your presentation while you lecture them and provide oh-so-exciting bullet points of information, think again. Kindergartners can make effective audience members when you present them with things that stimulate their senses. A hands-on experience, a visual display and even the incorporation of sounds can transform your presentation from a snoozer to an exciting activity. If you want your group of kindergartners to pay attention to your presentation, make it interesting from the perspective of a child.

Design an attention-grabbing introduction. Depending on what you are presenting to the group of kindergartners, examples of interesting openers include songs, a movie clip or a quick game that is relevant to the material being presented. This is an important step because is draws your kindergartners' attention towards you and your presentation from the get-go.

Offer visual displays. You might use posters that you hold up for the class to see, or a visual slideshow from your computer that is projected at the front of the classroom.

Make your visual presentation colorful to keep it interesting. A colorful presentation is more stimulating to kindergartners than black-and-white. If you use a computer slideshow program, such as PowerPoint, consider the incorporation of special effects, like twinkling page borders and moving graphics.

Keep kids engaged. Structure your presentation so that you do not talk at them the entire time, but rather involve them in the presentation by asking them questions and calling on them to help explain something. For instance, rather than showing a picture of a lion and saying "this is a lion," ask your students "what type of animal is this?" The kids will shout out the word lion. Then you can ask "what sound does a lion make?" And the kids will roar back at you. This is interesting for kindergartners.

Use props whenever you can. If you are teaching kindergartners about animals, bring in a real animal that they can see and hold, such as a hamster or bunny, or get a stuffed animal and pass it around the room. Giving kids a hands-on lesson will allow them to remember the experience and retain the information they learn from it.

Give your kids a break. Do not expect kindergartners to be able to sit through a long presentation without becoming restless. Kids may need to get up and stretch, wander around, use the restroom or let out built-up energy.

Provide food, if it ties into your presentation. You can interest kindergartners with yummy snacks. This is a good idea for presentations about cultures, geography or historical holidays. For instance, if you are teaching kids about African deserts, you might make them a special African snack and bring it in for them to eat as part of your presentation.