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After painting a paper plate and an empty kitchen roll the kids have to stick the sunflower seeds to help their fine motor skills.

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Keep reading for some fun The Tiny Seed activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. These activities are sure to be a hit with your littles!

We are a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post contains affiliate links. Click HERE to read our full disclosure.

Our April story of the month is called The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. You may know Eric Carle from some of his other classic books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear or The Very Hungry Caterpillar. (I also created a book project for his book Little Cloud.)
For more spring books, check out this post!
The Tiny Seed has the same impressive illustrations. It's an engaging story about a seed's journey through the different seasons of the year.
Click on the picture to learn more about this fun book!

After reading this story, check out these The Tiny Seed activities for preschool and kindergarten that include a snack, a craft, and a FREE flower rhyming activity. These activities would be great to use at home with your own littles or in your classroom with your students. Adding these activities to your spring plans will bring learning to life for your kiddos!
Looking for more spring preschool activities? Check out this post!
FLOWER PRETZEL BITES

If you've been reading here for awhile, you know how much I love to add snacks to our stories! To go along with The Tiny Seed, we made Flower Pretzel Bites that everyone in our family loved! These didn't last very long in our house!

Ingredients: Directions:

Lay out parchment paper on a cookie sheet

Melt the vanilla almond bark in the microwave (melt on low and go very slowly...otherwise it'll burn!)

Once it is melted, use a spoon to coat one side of the waffle pretzel and place it on the parchment paper

Add M&Ms to create a flower (make sure you add your M&Ms right away because the vanilla almond bark will dry hard)

Eat them once they're dry! And try not to eat them all at once...they are seriously amazing!

Looking for more spring-themed snacks? Check out this post!
SUNFLOWER CRAFT

I may not be the craftiest girl around, but my daughter sure is! She loves making crafts, so I do my best to find simple, easy-to-complete activities that we can enjoy together. And this Sunflower Craft was just that!

Supplies: Directions:

Have your little one paint the paper plate yellow and the paper towel roll green. Set aside to dry.

Once dry, help your little one glue sunflower seeds onto the plate. Note: We used hot glue for this. I put the glue on the plate and my daughter added the sunflower seeds. Parental supervision required when using hot glue.

While gluing on your sunflower seeds, you can talk about the seed from the story and its journey through the seasons.

Last, use hot glue to add the paper plate to the paper towel roll. I completed this step for my daughter.

Hang up your little one's sunflower and see how proud they are of their work!

FLOWER RHYMING ACTIVITY

The ability to hear different sounds in words ( phonemic awareness) is a crucial skill for little ones to master on their journey to reading. Rhyming is one of the most fun ways to practice this skill, as it helps your students focus on hearing the same ending sound in different words.

For this activity, have your students match the picture on the flower to the correct ending sound on the stem (called a word family). Each word family has two flowers that match to it. Your students will also practice building words by adding the correct letter to the beginning of each word family to spell the names of the pictures.

Want to increase the engagement? Add the flowers to some "soil" (a sensory bin of black beans) and have your students "pick" the stems before finding the rhyming flower tops. This is a great way to add to the fun!

Click here to check out another spring sensory bin that's perfect for your preschoolers!
This activity is free to download from our FREE Activity Library. The FREE Activity Library is password protected. If you'd like to get access, join our email community HERE and the password will be emailed to you as a thank you for joining! If you're already subscribed, you should already have the password. The password is updated every so often, so make sure you stay subscribed so you don't miss any of our freebies!

Have you read The Tiny Seed? What's your favorite preschool or kindergarten activity to go along with this book? Comment below or find me on Instagram (@littleslovelearningblog) and let me know! love these ideas? pin for later!

Did you miss any of our past Story of the Month posts? Click HERE to check them out!

Looking for other spring activities? How about activities for other seasons of the year? Click HERE to see all of our posts that go along with the seasons!

Happy Learning!

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The Tiny Seed Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten + FREEBIE

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Keep reading for some fun The Tiny Seed activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. These activities are sure to be a hit with your littles! We are a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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Creating and interpreting a bar graph has never been so much fun! In this educational game kids will create a bar graph by sorting the Fuzz Bugs.

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(We used the spring flowers silhouttes printables)

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Spring starts tomorrow and I am so excited to share our SPRING PRESCHOOL MATH AND LITERACY PACK. These are designed for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and kids ages from 3 to 6 years old. The pack contains 30 activities and it includes activities for improving fine motor skills, color matching, learning numbers, letters, phonics, and much much more!

To give you an idea what you will be getting in this learning material check out the previews below for details.

Learning about flowers is a must have in all spring activities! This is the time where we see colors and life after months of cold and dark winter. My kids love identifying and naming the flowers as we see them around in our place so I added these 3 part cards of beautiful hand-painted spring flowers in our learning pack for kids to enjoy! They're just so beautiful and definitely a favorite activity in our printable bundle.

I was surprised that this learning activity was a bit challenging for Vito. But he loves challenges so he truly enjoyed this one.

I love how this activity turned out! Vito was so engaged in this one. He practically sat there quietly, counting, and observing the cards then sorting them out.

Once assembled, the rainbow colored cards are so gorgeous. These look like watercolor rainbows with numbers! You'll definitely want this in your classroom and home school. Such a beautiful material to learn about different number representations and can go along with any season too!

Because spring brings about life and kids love animals, I decided to add these cuties in the learning bundle pack. I got the idea from the book " Are You My Mother?", which Vito loves.

We used glass gems to match the baby animals instead of pegs. You can use any manipulatives available for this activity.

Because we see tulips always lined up on the side of the road (and daffodils too), here's a beautiful measuring activity of tulips flower beds. Use 2-cm snapcubes on this one as unit of measure and let the child measure the length of the flowerbeds.

Mostly, Vito would look at the cards, and then "estimate" the number of snapcubes that would measure up the flowerbed. If your child is like this as well, don't stop them from estimating. It's the best opportunity for you to teach them to compare estimated guess and the actual length of things.

This learning activity teaches the child to identify patterns by recreating the color pattern of birds using manipulatives. There's also a set included in the learning pack where the child can fill-up and continue the pattern. So the printable will definitely grow with your child. It adds up challenging activities as your child progresses.

We also have learning activities for kids who are obsessed with playdoughs. Here's a learning activity about shapes while playing and molding playdoughs!

Still on playdoughs, what about creating pictures and spring icons or objects with these playdough mats? The boys had so much fun working on these mats! (We are using Play-Doh)

I received a lot of feedbacks from our Fall / Autumn Preschool Unit Pack that they love our lacing cards so I added spring lacing cards in our Spring Preschool Unit Pack too!

Of course we have ten frames counting clipcards for those who are still learning and loves to count. This set is counting from 1 to 20.

Beginning letter sound from A to Z sorting activities. The child will name the pictures in the flowers and identify their beginning sound. Then he/she will sort the flowers according to the lettered-pot they belong to. This one is really fun to do specially as a group activity!

If you are working with a group of kids, you can set up a game of taking turns. They will truly enjoy this activity! Or if you are a homeschooler, you can just work with two or three letters at a time so as not to overwhelm the child.

I love adding fun games in our preschool unit learning packs and this sorting activity of spring character faces is one of them. I designed it to form a rain cloud and each cloud has about 6 raindrop matching faces.

And the last preview of this learning material is about these beautiful uppercase and lowercase letter clipcards. This is actually one of my favorite in the pack and it took me awhile to finish. Your kids will absolutely love this one. You can work on these cards all year round and not just in springtime.

So these are just some of the activities that are included in our SPRING PRESCHOOL UNIT LEARNING PACK. There are 30 activities in the pack, complete with math and literacy plus fine motor skills activities.

You can also checkout our other popular Preschool Unit Learning Packs below!!!

Pin this for later!

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Spring starts tomorrow and I am so excited to share our SPRING PRESCHOOL MATH AND LITERACY PACK. These are designed for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and kids ages from 3 to 6 years old. The pack contains 30 activities and it includes activities for improving fine motor skills, color matching, learning numbers, letters, phonics, and much much more!

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Practice counting with our fingers in this counting activity.

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Help toddlers and preschoolers practice counting with these fun and FREE printable counting activity for kids! Toddler, preschool, prek, and kindergarten age kids will have fun practicing counting to 10 with these free printable Fingerprint Counting worksheets. There are five different finger painting worksheets to choose from.

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It is really easy to do and the kids love watching the flowers change color. We think it is the perfect science activity for spring!

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I just love this color changing flowers science experiment! It is really easy to do and the kids love watching the flowers change color. We think it is the perfect science activity for spring! I even created printable recording sheets that kids in preschool and early elementary can use to show their observations.

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Get the kids moving by playing Simon Says with these fun yet physical activities.

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Feed the caterpillar pom pom drop activity for toddlers. This will also help colour sorting

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Feed the caterpillar pom pom drop is a fun twist on the classic pom pom drop activity for toddlers. This is the BEST indoor activity for spring!
RELATED...Pom Pom Drop Activities
Pom Pom drops are an amazing way to entertain toddlers. I wish I could hug the mom or teacher that come up with this fantastic and easy activity. This was perhaps one of the first activities I did with the original happy toddler and I quickly saw why it's one of the best and easiest ways to entertain toddlers.

So why change something that is already pretty fantastic? Because I'm an activity mom and I love making great activities even better.

Just like adding water or ice to toys can make them more entertaining for toddlers adding googley eyes can make almost any activity more fun!

How to make your caterpillars

To make my coloured toilet paper caterpillars I used paint sticks. But if you don't have paint sticks at home you can use paint or construction paper taped around the tubes or markers. I like using paint sticks because the colour is vibrant like paint and it dries quickly.

I don't paint the entire tubes just the front part.

Then I attached the googley eyes to the top of the toilet paper tube. If you want you can also add a mouth to create more of a face.

Finally, attached your tubes to a wall or a kitchen cupboard or anywhere you want to entertain your child.

Grab your pom poms and let your toddler loose!

How to play Pom Pom drop

The goal of this activity is to colour sort. Grab a Pom Pom and place it down the correct Pom Pom caterpillar. My guys loved the caterpillars and couldn't wait to start sorting.

My guys liked it when I gave each caterpillar a voice. After they drop a Pom Pom down I would pretend that they are had just eaten the Pom Pom. Then I pretended to be another caterpillar and asked them to feed it a certain colour Pom Pom. They loved this game.

Get creative with the caterpillars and incorporate pretend play games that your know your toddler or preschooler will love. This will make learning colours fun and easy for them. You can also incorporate counting into this activity by counting the Pom Poms as they feed the caterpillars.

LOVE THIS? TRY THIS Pom Pom Drop Activity

Supplies

(This post and list contains affiliate links for your convenience. If you make a purchase using one of these links, I may earn a commission. Please visit my disclosure policy for more information.)

Pre-order your copy of Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids: 60 Easy Creative Play Projects that Boost Brain Development, Calm Anxiety and Build Fine Motor Skills

WILL YOU TRY FEED THE CATERPILLARS: POM POM DROP WITH YOUR TODDLER OR PRESCHOOLER THIS SPRING? Pin it for later!

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Feed the Caterpillars: Pom Pom Drop - HAPPY TODDLER PLAYTIME

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Feed the caterpillar pom pom drop is a fun twist on the classic pom pom drop activity for toddlers. This is the BEST indoor activity for spring! RELATED...Pom Pom Drop Activities Pom Pom drops are an amazing way to entertain toddlers. I wish I could hug the mom or teacher that come up with this fantastic and easy activity.

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Have fun with these edible Milk Toast Rainbows.

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Kids are going to love this fun kids activitieswhere they are actually encouraged to play with their food before they eat it! This Milk Toast Rainbows is a great activity for Saint Patricks Day, spring, weather unit, or a color unit for Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade kids.

Spring Activities for Kids

This is such a bright colorful activity kids love! Not only is it a great activity for spring, but it makes a yummy snack too! This activity is great for kids from Toddler, Preschool, and Kindergarten, to 1st-5th grade too.

Rainbow Activity for Kids

All you need for this activity is bread and some dishes filled with sweetened condensed milk with food coloring.

Kids paint their bread to make rainbows or pictures. Then blot the bread with a paper towel to remove any excess "paint"

Now pop your painted bread in the toaster. This step is optional, you can just have milk bread if you like, but we enjoyed ours toasted.

Note: We did not have any paint get in our toaster; I think blotting the bread with a paper towel is the success. When it comes out it may be slightly moist in some areas, that's okay. So yummy!

It was as yummy as it was pretty!

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Kids are going to love this fun kids activities where they are actually encouraged to play with their food before they eat it! This Milk Toast Rainbows is a great activity for Saint Patricks Day, spring, weather unit, or a color unit for Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade kids.

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Make this flower craft for spring using a dot marker.  Dot markers also helps kids develop hand-eye coordination

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Do-a-Dot Flower Craft for Kids: Preschool Spring Craft Activity

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As the last of winter disappears and signs of spring begin to pop up all around us, we turn our crafting to all things spring: kites, flowers, rain clouds, rainbows, butterflies, and so much more. We love our Do a Dot Markers and were excited to pull them out and make this flower craft for spring.

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This growing flower craft is to help the kids learn about how flowers and plants grow in spring.

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We adore everything about spring time, especially watching our flowers and bulbs sprout out of the ground every year and begin growing. If you have toddlers or preschoolers who are learning all about how flowers and plants grow this spring, this paper plate growing flower craft is a perfect compliment to add to your preschool learning unit.

Preschoolers and toddlers will love having the interactive experience of assisting their flowers grow right out of the soil up towards the sunshine.

This simple spring flower craft only requires a few materials you probably already have on hand at home like paper plates, paper, paint and markers, so it makes an especially easy craft for preschoolers and toddlers to create with a little assistance.
This paper plate growing flower craft idea is from our contributor Shikha from The Joys of Sharing. Make sure to stop by her website and follow her on Instagram to keep up with her latest arts and crafts ideas.
This post contains affiliate links to the products mentioned.

Supplies for Paper Plate Flower Craft:

Growing Flower Craft Instructions:

1. Grab a paper plate and mark the section for soil. Paint the soil section with brown paint.

2. Make the roots of the flower plant using a dark brown marker as shown in the picture below.

3. Now, it's time to make the sun. Cut out a circular shape from yellow paper and glue it on the paper plate. Make sun rays using a black marker.

4. Draw a simple child figurine holding a watering can (you can also use real picture of the child for more fun!). Color the child's clothes, hair and watering can using colored pencils or markers.

5. Glue the girl figurine on the paper plate and draw water droplets flowing from the can using a black or blue marker.

6. Make 2-3 fingerprint flowers of different colors on white paper. Cut out the flowers carefully and glue buttons in the center of the flower making the pistil.

7. Cut out a few leaves from green paper.

8. Glue the flowers and leaves on a green craft stick to create your flower.

9. Carefully make a slit on the paper plate along the edge of soil such that the craft stick with the flowers and leaves passes through it comfortably.

That's it! Your paper plate growing flower craft is complete!

Now this fun and interactive spring craft is all set for kids to have some playful fun.

To play with the craft, have the child use one of their hands to hold the side of the paper plate to keep it stable. Then using their other hand, move the craft stick coming out from the back of the paper plate up and down to see their flowers sprout and grow up out of the soil.

More fun interactive paper plate Spring Crafts for Kids

Kids will love watching and making their butterfly flutter around the fingerprint flowers on this fun paper plate spring craft.

You won't believe the cuteness and fun of this paper plate frog craft. Kids will have a hoot of a time making the frogs tongue move in and out of the paper plate.

Spring is a fabulous time for bird crafts! This pop up hatching bird craft is simple to make and oh so fun for toddlers and preschoolers to play with.

Paper plates are the perfect base for making all sorts of things like silly paper plate bird hats! Kids will adore creating their own unique bird hat to wear around all afternoon.

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Paper Plate Growing Flower Craft - I Heart Crafty Things

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We adore everything about spring time, especially watching our flowers and bulbs sprout out of the ground every year and begin growing. If you have toddlers

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In this game your preschooler uses their fine motor skills to help a clothespin bird catch pipe cleaner worms.

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In this game your preschooler uses their fine motor skills to help a clothespin bird catch pipe cleaner worms.
I found this idea on Babblin Brooke.
I created this game for our Binder of Fun for a road trip. My three year old really liked it.

I cut a piece of green construction paper into a "nest". I scribbled some grass squiggles on it. If I was organized enough to be able to find my easter grass I would have hot glued that on there.
I hot glued little sparkles on for eyes, used black sharpie to draw little feet, and used a red sharpie to draw a beak. You could also make paper wings, or glue on feathers.
Cut pipe cleaners in half to make worms.

Have your child use a clothes pin bird to catch worm snacks, using fun om nom and tweet tweet noises, and drop the worms on his grassy mat.
Your child may need to use both hands. Smaller siblings can use their fingers as the bird.
Later you can pick up the worms in rainbow order.

To extend this activity you could make a construction paper basket to use as a nest.
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We hope you enjoyed our The Early Bird Gets The Worm Game for Preschoolers post

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The Early Bird Gets The Worm Game for Preschoolers - More With Less Mom

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In this game your preschooler uses their fine motor skills to help a clothespin bird catch pipe cleaner worms. I found this idea on Babblin Brooke. I created this game for our Binder of Fun for a road trip. My three year old really liked it.

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Three fun counting, matching and ordering numbers games can help children learn to count objects and recognise numbers 1 to 10.

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Ladybird Spots includes counting, matching and ordering numbers games aimed at children who are learning to count and recognise the numbers and number words up to 10.

Designed to offer differing levels of difficulty these three fun games, all with a ladybird theme, give children opportunities to:

1. Put a specified number of spots on a ladybird.

2. Count spots on ladybirds up to 10 and match each ladybird to a number.

3. Order ladybirds from either smallest to largest or largest to smallest depending on their number of spots.

All these counting and ordering numbers games are suitable for use on computers or tablets, in the classroom or home. Questions are randomly generated so that children can play the games repeatedly.

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Ladybird Spots includes counting, matching and ordering numbers games aimed at children who are learning to count and recognise the numbers and number words up to 10. Designed to offer differing levels of difficulty these three fun games, all with a ladybird theme, give children opportunities to: Put a specified number of spots on a ladybird.

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By sticking a cupcake liner on a craft stick and putting it in an empty kitchen roll, the children will be 'planting' flowers.  Do not forget to write numbers on the liners.

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Spring Has Come! | Bedtime Stories | PINKFONG Story Time for Children

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Last updated on

Make a cardboard hopscotch for a fun indoor activity for toddlers and preschoolers. Great way to burn off steam when you're stuck inside on rainy days.

When the weather is nice and we're playing outside, the kids get lots of gross motor activity doing all of their favourite things in the backyard.

It's not so easy for kids to burn off their energy and use their muscles in a big way when they're indoors though.

This cardboard hopscotch gives kids the perfect excuse to hop and jump and move around when they're cooped up inside. And if you're like me, and you like making homemade toys and games for your kids, you'll have fun with it too.

Gather up some cardboard and I'll show you how it's done.

Supplies:

Cardboard (large cereal boxes and frozen pizza boxes perfect)

Scissors

Pencil

Acrylic Craft Paint

Paintbrushes

Making your Cardboard Hopscotch

Figure out the design you want for your hopscotch and how many squares you'll need. Ours is 9 squares and a half circle with the number 10 on it at the top.

Then I drew my numbers on the cardboard squares and painted them with acrylic craft paints. I outlined the numbers with a thin liner brush and black paint.

You can find number templates here to print and trace if you're not comfortable drawing your numbers free-hand.

Arrange your squares on the floor and get hopping!

Letting your child re-arrange the hopscotch is a great way to work on counting skills and number recognition.

We used our hopscotch on carpet downstairs and also on the mat that you see here on the main floor, and our squares didn't slide around too much.

If your hopscotch squares are slippery

If you're going to try this on a wood floor, make sure you test to see how slippery it will be first.

You can always run a few lines of puffy paint along the back of the squares if you're concerned about the cardboard sliding. I know several moms who use this method to "slip-proof" their children's socks.

Homemade hopscotch markers

Don't forget the bean-bag "hopscotch stones". If you want to sew some cute ones, I used the pattern for these sweet pyramid beanbags from The Artful Parent.

And that, my friends, is all there is to making an indoor cardboard hopscotch for your toddlers and preschoolers.

What a great way to get the kids moving when the weather's too nasty for them to be outside!

Happy Hopping!

For more fun indoor play ideas, check out this awesome collection of 30+ stuck inside games and activities by Kids Activities Blog!

Follow the Hooligans on Facebook

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Make an Indoor Hopscotch for Rainy Days - Happy Hooligans

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Last updated on Make a cardboard hopscotch for a fun indoor activity for toddlers and preschoolers. Great way to burn off steam when you're stuck inside on rainy days. When the weather is nice and we're playing outside, the kids get lots of gross motor activity doing all of their favourite things in the backyard.

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Itsy Bitsy Spider nursery rhyme craft. Perfect for PreK & Kindergarten.

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We're working on our plant unit and I wanted to tie it into our Literacy Snack this week. We're reading a great book by Eric Carle, The Tiny Seed.

"In autumn, a strong wind blows flower seeds high in the air and carries them far across the land. One by one, many of the seeds are lost - burned by the sun, fallen into the ocean, eaten by a bird. But some survive the long winter and, come spring, sprout into plants, facing new dangers - trampled by playing children, picked as a gift for a friend. Soon only the tiniest seed remains, growing into a giant flower and, when autumn returns, sending its own seeds into the wind to start the process over again." -Goodreads

It's a great book to help the students follow the lifecycle of a flower on an easy to understand level. For our snack this week, of course we have to make a beautiful flower that the tiny seeds grows into.

Each student will need

1 cutie orange

A small amount of sunflower seeds

1 small celery piece cut in half

2 spinach or salad leaves from a bag

To assemble the flowers, first have the students peel their cutie oranges and separate the orange segments. Place the orange segments around the little pile of sunflower seeds. Use the celery as the stem and place the leaves next to the stem. So pretty and perfect for spring!

As the students are enjoying their flower snack, I made a free printable for them to work on. They will get to color and number the boxes in the order they happened in the story. It's also get review of the lifecycle of a flower that we've been working on.

You can download the free printable below.

I hope you kids enjoy making these beautiful, yummy flowers!

See you next time!

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Literacy Snack Idea Flowers + Free Printable - Primary Playground

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We're working on our plant unit and I wanted to tie it into our Literacy Snack this week. We're reading a great book by Eric Carle, The Tiny Seed. "In autumn, a strong wind blows flower seeds high in the air and carries them far across the land.

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This is an activity to practice the value of numbers.

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Hey, hey! Today, I've got several Spring activities for prek, preschool, and kindergarten teachers. As usual, if you don't teach prek or kinder but have friends that do, please share this post with them. I owe you a big 'ole hug!

Alrighty, let's start getting your plans packed with some fun Spring activities! I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking.
SPRING ACTIVITIES FOR PREK, PRESCHOOL, AND KINDERGARTEN
First up, are prewriting tracing cards, letter identification/tracing/writing activities.

This Spin and Cover center is a favorite. Simply spin the spinner, name the letter that the spinner landed on, cover it on the mat with a pompom (to create a flower), and then trace/write it on the recording sheet. SO MANY SKILLS in one activity, y'all!

Next, is letter / sound identification:

For the Garden of Sounds activity, students match the letter to the correct beginning picture sound to complete the puzzle. There is this puzzle + another one available in the Spring centers pack, here. I copied the recording sheets (there are several included) front to back and laminated it. Once students finish the front, they flip it over and complete the back. This also helps save paper!

Let's take a look at some phonics activities...

I love this rhyming activity because it incorporates fine motor with the use of plastic Easter eggs. Students crack open the egg, say the word for the picture, and color the egg that rhymes on their recording sheet. Perfect activity to get those finger muscles up and running!

Again, another activity that incorporates fine motor skills by pushing cubes together for each syllable they hear in the word.
Name building & writing activity:
This Name Nest activity is great for fine motor (do you see a theme here, haha?!) because they are tearing/cutting, gluing, writing! These make an adorable hallway display. You could create a large tree as a background with the title "Welcome to our NEST" or something like that! Too cute!

Another fun activity is to take your learning outside and practice writing names with egg shaped side walk chalk! Can you imagine the excitement?! (affiliate link)
Number sense activities:
These Number Peeps subtilizing puzzles are FREE , here! Say what?!?
Addition and subtraction activities: Shape activities:

Non-standard measurement and graphing:
Fine motor art activity! These makes adorable gifts for family or friends.

colors:

and these fun visual discrimination activities:

You can find ALL of these Spring activities for prek, preschool, and kindergarten, here.

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Spring activities for prek, preschool, and kindergarten - Smitten with First

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Hey, hey! Today, I've got several Spring activities for prek, preschool, and kindergarten teachers. As usual, if you don't teach prek or kinder but have friends that do, please share this post with them. I owe you a big 'ole hug! Alrighty, let's start getting your plans packed with some fun Spring activities!

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It’s a simple counting mat.  Print the mat and provide your child with objects he can stack up to ten.

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Today I'm offering a quick Spring freebie!
(This post contains affiliate links.)
A few months ago I shared our giant Spring theme - it's over 300 pages of printable books, games, and more for preschool and kindergarten! Today I'm sharing a quick freebie from the pack.

It's a simple counting mat.

Print the mat and provide your child with objects he can stack up to ten. I'll admit that my Four wasn't at all interested in doing a learning activity with me today, but when I told him we could use coins, he was game.

Simply count the correct number of coins and stack them on the corresponding numbers.

Getting all those coins to stand tall is a great fine motor activity, too!

Other objects to use:

© 2016 - 2018, Anna G. All rights reserved.

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Free Spring counting mat - The Measured Mom

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Today I'm offering a quick Spring freebie! (This post contains affiliate links.) A few months ago I shared our giant Spring theme - it's over 300 pages of printable books, games, and more for preschool and kindergarten!

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This apple tree counting activity uses clothespins for added fine motor practice.

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This apple tree counting activity uses clothespins for added fine motor practice. Children will practice counting, 1:1 correspondence and subitizing.

My son enjoyed this Christmas tree counting activity we did last year, so I thought I would make an apple tree version. I like to use them to work on numbers 1-10 with Evan, but you could focus on smaller numbers for younger preschoolers. I plan on using mine to work on numbers one and two with my toddler. So it is very adaptable.

This simple apple counting activity is a great busy work for preschoolers. The use of a clothespin as a tree trunk also adds some fine motor practice to the activity.
Supplies Needed: This post contains affiliate links.
1. Draw tree tops on the green poster board and cut them out.

2. Add red dot stickers to the tree tops.

3. Write coordinating numbers on the end of each clothespin.

Learning Numbers With an Apple Tree Counting Activity

I kept the tree tops separate from the clothespins and showed them to Evan. Then I asked him if he could match the correct clothespin tree trunk to the matching tree top. I order to do this, he needed to count the apples on the tree and then find the clothespin with that number written on it.

He knew exactly what to do because he remembered the Christmas trees. You may want to help your child with one or two of the trees first before handing it over to them for independent work.

We have been adding lots of fine motor practice to our activities, so I was happy to see that he was easily able to attach the clothespins to the tree tops. It wasn't that long ago that he would have struggled with this task.

Overall, it was quite a successful activity. I like that I can pull it out and reuse it over and over again. My toddler is even getting use out of it!

Get the Apple Activities Mega Bundle!

This apple activities mega bundle includes 10 printable activities that help children learn the alphabet, letter sounds, sight words and word families (rhyming words), numbers and number sense! They are all hands-on and interactive.

This bundle includes:

Apple Tree Beginning Sounds Matching

Apple Tree Word Family Matching

Apple Tree Sight Word Building Activity

Apple Letter Sounds Puzzles

Apple Tree Number Matching (numbers 1-20)

Apple Number Sense Puzzles (numbers 1-20)

Apple Tree Counting Mats (numbers 1-20)

Apple Counting Clip Cards (numbers 1-10)

Apple Number Sense Clip Cards (numbers 1-10)

Apple Addition Mats (adding numbers to equal 2-12)

That's 150 pages of printable apple activities that you can do with your students or kids this fall!

The best part is that the pack is differentiated and able to meet the needs of students at a variety of ability levels.
Click the link below to buy the Apple Activities Mega Bundle! Here are some related posts I think you will enjoy! Ten Apples Up on Top Counting Activity Apple Tree Roll and Cover Math Game Apple Tree Alphabet Game Apple Tree Letter Matching

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Apple Tree Counting Activity with Clothespins

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This apple tree counting activity uses clothespins for added fine motor practice. Children will practice counting, 1:1 correspondence and subitizing. My son enjoyed this Christmas tree counting activity we did last year, so I thought I would make an apple tree version.

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These Q-tip daisies are an adorable kid's craft for the spring and summer and are great for working on fine motor skills.

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These Q-tip daisies are an adorable craft and are great for fine motor skills.

Cotton swabs are not just for your ears. We use them in art projects often. They are great to paint with. They are fun to craft with as well. We used bare Q-tips to make these simple daisies for the spring, but you could also dip the Q-tips in paint and create other colorful flower creations.

We started by cutting a handful of cotton swabs in half.

My daughter and I both rolled a chunk of yellow play dough into a ball with our hands.

Once we formed our balls, we flatten them slightly between our palms.

I showed my daughter how to press the swab halves into the play dough around the outside to form the petals.

When she finished, she poked a green pipe cleaner into the side of her play dough to form her stem.

She put her flower in a vase and then made another daisy to go with it. She has a mock restaurant set-up in her playroom and used these in her restaurant for ambience.

My daughter kept her flowers loose, while I chose to press mine into a sheet of blue paper.

I trimmed a green pipe cleaner and then inserted it into the flower and glued the pipe cleaner down to the paper. I used the remaining piece of pipe cleaner to form a leaf and glued that to the paper too.

My daisy looked lonely, so I made one more daisy and added it to my picture. These were very easy to make and great for letting those little fingers practice their fine motor skills.

Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

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Q-Tip Daisy Craft - The Pinterested Parent

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Cotton swabs are not just for your ears. We use them in art projects often. They are great to paint with. They are fun to craft with as well. We used bare Q-tips to make these simple daisies for the spring, but you could also dip the Q-tips in paint and create other colorful flower creations.

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The Same and Different donut Game is a pre-school activity to practice identifying objects that are the alike and not alike. Kids compare donuts based on shape, color and combinations of shape and color

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The Same and Different Donut Game is a pre-school activity to practice identifying objects that are the alike and not alike.

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Shape patterns is a fun way for kids to practice identifying patterns. Help the monster truck get across the bridge by correctly placing the missing shapes in the pattern.

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Shape patterns is a fun way for kids to practice identifying patterns.

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Flower Fine Motor Counting!

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With just a few common household items, you can watch colors blend to create your own beautiful climbing rainbow. Setup is quick and the results are different every time!

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Cold, snowy days often mean more time spent indoors. Check out this easy and colorful water science experiment to brighten up even the drabbest day!

With just a few common household items, you can watch colors blend to create your own beautiful climbing rainbow. Setup is quick and the results are different every time! Keep reading to find out how!

Climbing Rainbow Science Experiment

If you have children in your home, then you've likely got everything you need to create your own climbing rainbow. Have you tried the crazy cool walking water science experiment? This experiment is a fun expansion on that activity and the concept of absorption.

Supplies:

Sandwich sized plastic food container

Markers

A small wooden dowel or pencil

Paper towels

Scissors

Tape

Water

How To Create Your Own Climbing Rainbow

Cut a strip of paper towel approximately 2×5 inches in size. On a short edge, use markers to make a strip of blocks in the colors of the rainbow. (We used this opportunity to talk about ROYGBIV.) Let the marker dry. (We found that if the paper towel is still wet with the ink the experiment does not work as well!)

The next step can be done two different ways. You can tape the top of the paper towel to a vertical surface and put only one end in the dish.

Or you may opt to create an arch using a small wooden dowel or pencil. Rest it lengthwise across an empty sandwich sized plastic container. Drape the paper towel strip across the dowel with the colored edges just touching the bottom of the container. (This way requires both short ends to have colored edges.)

Gently pour water into the bottom of the container and watch what happens!

As the paper towel absorbs the water, the capillary action will carry the water along with the marker ink up the paper towel. After the colors climb up or meet in the middle, you have your very own rainbow!
Variations

Don't want a rainbow? Use just two or three colors and watch how they mix.

Experiment to see which brand of paper towel lets the water travel the fastest or slowest.

After the experiment, let your paper towel dry out. Laminate it to make a cool bookmark or Suncatcher.

Want more rainbow science fun?

Try these experiments!
Crazy Cool Walking Water Science Experiment for Kids Kids Love This Crazy Cool Milk Rainbow Science Experiment
Andie Jaye is a former preschool teacher turned stay-at-home mom of 4 kiddos. Her blog, Crayon Freckles, focuses on creative learning and play ideas, as well as parenting topics. Andie strives to be honest in her approach and experiences in parenting to let other moms know that they are not alone in their struggle. In her free time, she writes children's books in hopes of publishing someday. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

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Cold, snowy days often mean more time spent indoors. Check out this easy and colorful water science experiment to brighten up even the drabbest day! With just a few common household items, you can watch colors blend to create your own beautiful climbing rainbow. Setup is quick and the results are different every time!

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Puddle jumping gross motor game is a fun way to get the kids moving this Spring!

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I love Spring! Living in Minnesota, the winters are long, and nothing is better than seeing that white stuff disappear! I don't even mind the muddy mess or puddles that come with the melting snow. It's actually a lot of fun. I've been letting my son go crazy playing in them. It's resulted in several clothes changes, but one happy kid. We're planning on playing a puddle jumping gross motor game to get the kids moving this Spring. This game is fun for the classroom or at home.

Puddle Jumping Gross Motor Game

This game is similar to the St. Patrick's Day Clover Hop that I played in March. It was a success so I thought we'd keep the fun coming with puddles. Now as great as it would be to jump in real puddles, we can't always do that. If you can, go for it! Instead I created puddles for the kids to jump on. Let's Play!

1. Lay puddles out on the floor with movement words and actions written (and now also pictured) on the puddles. Have the same amount of clovers as you do kids on the floor. Get the puddles in the shop as part of the Spring Themed Brain Breaks, Yoga, and Games. Laminating is a good idea, that way you can use them again and again.

2. Have music available. Movement and music go hand in hand!

3. Turn on the music and let the puddle jumping begin. Have the kids jump from puddle to puddle while the music is playing. If walking works better for you it can be done that way too!

4. When the music stops have the kids perform the action written (and now also pictured) on their puddle.

5. Start the music again and play resumes.

This can easily be modified to a musical chairs like game. Have one less puddle then students playing. When the music stops the student who is not on the puddle is out.

Spring Themed Brain Breaks, Yoga, and Games

Think about how great it would feel to have the puddle jumping game created and ready for you to use today? Feel confident your kids will love this game that incorporates physical activity! On top of that, no more searching the internet or trying to create resources on your own. Save time, money, and effort when you purchase the Spring Yoga, Brain Breaks, and Games package and get everything you need for the puddle jump game and more!

More Gross Motor Ideas

I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

Let's connect! Pink Oatmeal is on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram!
Follow Pink Oatmeal's board Gross Motor on Pinterest.

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Spring Gross Motor Game - Puddle Jumping

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I love Spring! Living in Minnesota, the winters are long, and nothing is better than seeing that white stuff disappear! I don't even mind the muddy mess or puddles that come with the melting snow. It's actually a lot of fun. I've been letting my son go crazy playing in them.

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This is an activity to learn about measurement and counting.

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Join Molly on her magical adventure in search of the rainbow!

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Join Molly on her magical adventure in search of the rainbow! Children will get to choose what path Molly takes, as well as other fun things along the way in this interactive create-your-own adventure activity.

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Shape Patterns is a sequencing game where children need to complete the pattern of different coloured 2D shapes.

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Shape Patterns is a sequencing game where children from 3 to 8 years of age need to complete the pattern of different coloured 2D shapes. It is a multiple choice game with three levels of difficulty. It is excellent for shape recognition and for problem solving.

In the easier levels children need to continue the pattern but in the more challenging level 3 children are presented with a sequence with the missing element in different positions. This level in particular, is an excellent problem solving activity.

For the best experience press the full-screen icon in the top right corner of the game. As with all of our games, Shape Patterns is tablet friendly and it works well on an interactive whiteboard.

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Shape Patterns is a sequencing game where children from 3 to 8 years of age need to complete the pattern of different coloured 2D shapes. It is a multiple choice game with three levels of difficulty. It is excellent for shape recognition and for problem solving.

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Banana-Graham butterfly snacks. Cute, easy and kids will love them!

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Last updated on

Make snack-time fun with our Banana-Graham Butterfly Snacks! It's a healthy snack to accompany a butterfly craft or activity or to serve at a kids spring party.

We all know that kids love snacks that are fun. Even the pickiest eaters are more likely to try a new food, or a food that they don't like if it's served in a fun shape.

If your child isn't big on wholesome snacks, try making butterflies with a banana and graham crackers. Add a little peanut butter and decorate the wings with fruit! They're tasty, they're cute, and they provide a healthy serving of fruit and protein for your child.

I'm sharing two versions of our butterfly snack with you today. Feel free to use whatever you like to decorate your butterfly snack. Some suggestions are:

Banana-Graham Butterfly Ingredients

one banana

2 graham crackers

2 chocolate chip "eyes"

smarties or m&m's, or sliced fruit, nuts, coconut, raisins, dried cranberries, blueberries etc.

peanut butter

antennae: toothpicks, straws, or coffee stir sticks

Time needed: 5 minutes.

How to Make Banana Graham Butterfly Snack

1. Prepare Banana
Peel a banana and cut a slit into each side. With the tip of your knife, scoop out a small amount of the fruit. Set the banana aside for a moment.

2. Make Wings
Spread a small amount of peanut butter on each graham cracker, and top with fruit, nuts or sweets.

3. Add Wings to Banana
Gently press each cracker into the slits that you've cut into the banana.

4. Add Eyes and Antennae
With a tiny amount of peanut butter, attach the chocolate chip eyes to the front of the banana butterfly. Press antennae into top of the banana.

Assemble your butterfly snacks:

Enjoy!!

Get my latest e-book: Fizz, Pop, Bang! Playful Science and Math Activities

40 hands-on, learning activities for kids ages 3-8. Recipes, experiments, art projects, printables and play ideas with links to 80 activities not featured in the book.
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Adorable Banana Graham Butterfly Snack for Kids - Happy Hooligans

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Last updated on Make snack-time fun with our Banana-Graham Butterfly Snacks! It's a healthy snack to accompany a butterfly craft or activity or to serve at a kids spring party. We all know that kids love snacks that are fun.

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Animated film

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Official Animated Film | Made For Kids | Eric Carle Book

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Your kids will love to create their very own butterfly with this creative science activity with balloons!

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Surprise your little scientist with this caterpillar and butterfly science activity with balloons. All it takes are a few items from around the house to create this science experiment!
Are you ready for this Butterfly STEM challenge?
Butterfly Science Activity for The Very Hungry Caterpillar

It's Butterfly Week at the Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids. Our featured book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It could not be better timing as we just had some monarch caterpillars arrive in our backyard on the milkweed. I can't wait to watch them eat and grow along with my girls.

Have your ever grown milkweed to attract monarch butterflies in your yard?

Here's how you can Make your own butterfly garden and how it can provide many chances for Learning Activities with Butterflies for your child.
This post contains affiliate links to amazon.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Click here for more Butterfly Book we LOVE!
One of my favorite things to do each year in my classroom was to order Caterpillars and watch them grow as a class. Then we added milkweed to our garden and have monarchs visit often to lay eggs and we get to see them grow again and again.

It's really quite magical every single time. We thought it might be fun to see if we can create our own STEM Challenge to turn caterpillars into butterflies and found a fun twist on this balloon science activity.
Are you ready to see how it's done?
Caterpillar to Butterfly Science Activity with Balloons

The kids will want to do this again and again, which it great since it only needs a few items from your kitchen. Here's what you'll need to get started.

Materials for Butterfly Science Activity

Directions for Butterfly STEM Challenge

1. DRAW a butterfly onto a balloon on one side.

ADD A SURPRISE ELEMENT: The first time I did this with my girls I hid the butterfly and just showed them me attaching the filled caterpillar to the bottle so it was a surprise when the butterfly showed up. They were so surprised!!!

Something to think about to add to the FUN FACTOR of this Science Activity. Then, of course, they wanted to create their own and I allowed them to play around with levels of amounts to create a Challenge for them.

2. Draw a caterpillar onto this same balloon on the other side.

3. Fill the empty plastic container with vinegar. You only need a little bit to make this reaction.

4. Then fill the balloon with baking soda by inserting a funnel into the opening and placing a spoonful into the funnel to fill inside of the balloon.

5. Attach the balloon to the plastic container with vinegar. Careful not to spill any of the baking soda inside of the container. When you hang the balloon be sure to hang it on the caterpillar side and talk about how the caterpillar forms a chrysalis that hangs.

6. Now it's time for the STEM Challenge!!! Can make your butterfly grow?

Encourage your child to LIFT UP the caterpillar balloon and allow the baking soda to fill into the container. WATCH and see what happens next!!!!

7. SURPRISE! You balloon will fill up with the gases released from the chemical reaction between the vinegar and baking soda.

How does it work? When baking soda and vinegar mix, they release carbon dioxide (this is the same gas that is in the bubbles in your carbonated drinks).
* LIKE IT? PIN IT!! * Want more Butterfly STEM Challenges?
Take this Science Activity a step further into STEM design by encouraging them to...

Use Technology to research how caterpillars really change inside of their chrysalis into Caterpillars

Use Engineering to build their own butterfly that stands or flies.

Use Math to calculate the rate of growth for the caterpillar in ratio to the amount of baking soda and vinegar used.

Once you think about it the ideas grow and grow for STEM focused activities with this project.

Butterfly & Caterpillar Activities for Preschoolers

Here are a few more activities to go along with the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Have fun learning about Butterflies with your child!

Butterfly Activities for Kids

Try these Virtual Field Trips for Spring!

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Caterpillar to Butterfly Science Activity with Balloon

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Surprise your little scientist with this caterpillar and butterfly science activity with balloons. All it takes are a few items from around the house to create this science experiment! Are you ready for this Butterfly STEM challenge? It's Butterfly Week at the Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids.

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It looks like I'll be in "butterfly world" for a while with my grandma's party and all. My son' preschool class recently studied butterflies, even grew some from caterpillars (something I plan on doing here after we get back from vacation later this Spring). I had seen this example of an edible butterfly cycle. I decided that we would try it in our house for an interesting snack. I look forward to trying some of her stuff with the Very Hungry Caterpillar as well. We drew the four basic stages on a plate as my son told me about each in detail. It was his job to put everything in the right category. He's a pretty good teacher!

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It looks like I'll be in "butterfly world" for a while with my grandma's party and all. My son' preschool class recently studied butterflies, even grew some from caterpillars (something I plan on doing here after we get back from vacation later this Spring). I had seen this example of an edible butterfly cycle.

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The children are to match the colors and use whatever items they want. This activity develops fine motor skills and color recognition too!

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We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Bugs, butterflies, creepy crawlies...What do they all have in common? The opportunity to have fun while learning using them as themes! Here is a color matching butterflies activity that will be perfect for your preschoolers preparing to go to kindy!

For this color matching activity you will need:

the free printable(instructions to access our Freebies page to download at the end of the post)

any small items in the colors of the butterflies(buttons, pompoms, beads, bells etc)

tweezers

Originally I wanted to use pompoms only, but then I thought to give more options in terms of small items, just to make it more intetersting. (NOTE- this is not for young kids or those who will mouth small objects.)

Ask the children to match the colors and use whatever items they want. This activity develops fine motor skills and color recognition too! The perfect activity to set up this Spring!

This printable is FREE for a limited time only and part of our Bugs Preschool Pack!

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Bugs, butterflies, creepy crawlies...What do they all have in common? The opportunity to have fun while learning using them as themes! Here is a color matching butterflies activity that will be perfect for your preschoolers preparing to go to kindy! For this color matching activity you will need: the free printable(instructions to access our Freebies [...]

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar Song | Fun Story Song for Kids

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THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR COUNTING MATS

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THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR COUNTING MATS

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These mats are perfect for working on pre-math skills (counting and number recognition). Also they are a fun way to work on fine motor skills.

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You are going to love these The Very Hungry Caterpillar counting mats! Since the weather started to get better and the butterflies are flying around my daughter is obsessed with butterflies.Her favorite book has become once again The Very Hungry Caterpillar .

"...and then he was a beautiful butterfly" she recites the very hungry caterpillar to me, to her dad and to our dog on daily basis. I've been trying to get her to learn the numbers for a long time without any success.She can count to 10 without any problem but she still doesn't recognize the number symbols.

In an attempt to get her interested I decided to combine two of her favorite things: play dough and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. If you don't already own this book, I highly recommend the finger puppet version of the book.

Play Dough Counting Mats For Toddlers

Our toddler counting activities are always popular and these mats are perfect for working on pre-math skills with toddlers (counting and number recognition). Plus they are a fun way to work on fine motor skills.

To make your own The Very Hungry Caterpillar counting mats you will need

Photo paper (I really recommend printing the mats on photo paper to have the best quality of pictures)

Laminating sheets (so that the playdough doesn't stick to the printables and you can use them more than once)

Laminator

Play dough in different colors (I love as it's great value for money, or you can make your own using )

Instructions

Step 2. Print the very hungry caterpillar counting mats (I recommend using photo paper)

Step 3. Cut the cards and laminate them.

Time To Play

Once your mats are ready, invite your toddler to make little play dough balls (if you have a young toddler you can help him make the little balls). Making play dough balls will help strengthen your toddler's hand muscles.

With young toddlers sit and count together the balls as you put them on the holes the caterpillar made on the fruits.

My daughter can already count so I was just there to remind her the number symbols.

Other Fun Ways To Play With The Counting Mats

Don't laminate the mats and invite your little one to use do-a-dot markers to paint on the holes (I recommend the washable do-a-dot markers for obvious reasons!)

Get buttons in all the colors and use them to fill the holes. It would be a fun color matching practice!

For older toddlers you can set an invitation to play with pompoms and tongs - these ones are perfect for toddler hands! . This would be not only fun but a great way to work on fine motor skills.

If you have enjoyed this activity, you'll love our collection of other The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities .

About the Author

Isabel Arango is the owner of - a multilingual parenting website full of great toddler and preschool activities, with a hands on Montessori approach. You can follow Isabel on , , and .

If you enjoyed this activity here are some more that you may enjoy:
ABC Activities for Toddlers Counting Activities for Toddlers counting printable playdough mats

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar Counting Mats

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You are going to love these The Very Hungry Caterpillar counting mats! Since the weather started to get better and the butterflies are flying around my daughter is obsessed with butterflies.Her favorite book has become once again The Very Hungry Caterpillar .

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Jennifer's Little World blog - Parenting, craft and travel

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Recently, Emma from Adventures and Play invited me to join in with her Tuff Spot A-Z Challenge. During March and April 2015, every weekday a blogger shared a blog post on either their own site or as a guest blog on the Adventures of Adam featuring sensory play based around a different letter of the alphabet. If you're not familiar with Tuff Spots here's an example - Tuff Spot

(affiliate link) - it's basically a large mixing tray which you can use for all sorts of messy play and activities.

For our Tuff Spot play I chose G for Gardening. Of course, indoor gardening play isn't a substitute for real gardening, but while it's still too early in the season to start actual planting outdoors, we've been doing the next best thing!

I'm bending the rules of the challenge a little bit, as we don't actually have a real Tuff Spot. Instead, for our large scale sensory play I use a big tray, which is the lid from our outdoor sand and water table. It has a nice rim around the edge to keep everything reasonably contained, and it's the perfect shape for two children to use at once. I usually place it on the floor on top of an old table cloth, or else I have an old shower curtain that I use if we are playing with wet materials. You can also see it in action as Dinosaur Island.

The base material for our sensory play was cheap rice which I dyed black. It's very easy to dye rice, just mix it all up with some food colouring and leave to dry for a very short while. Dyed rice keeps for years and you can always reuse it - even if lots of different colours get mixed together the children don't mind at all!

One thing I've learned about sensory play is how much little children enjoy spooning and mixing different materials. So I provided plenty of plant pots for them to fill. There's a little terracotta one (obviously keep breakable ones for older children to use!), a few plastic ones and lots of new cardboard seedling pots. I put in a couple of our child-sized garden tools, and I also added some spoons for easier filling. I also added some seed markers and some different sizes of coloured pom poms.

Then I gathered together some old pumpkin seeds still going strong from my Halloween sensory tub and made some little seed packets to present them in. For the seed packets I used this fab printable from Twinkl - Create your own Seed Packets (free download). There are several different packets to choose from, and they have a blank front so you can add your own pictures. I found some pumpkin pictures in this Twinkl resource Editable Halloween Pumpkins (free download), and I printed off a couple of pumpkins to glue to the front of the seed packet.

Finally I once again turned to Twinkl to make some simple cards to use for matching game. I created this resource myself using the Twinkl Create function which is available to Premium users. I chose a selection of garden themed pictures, printed them out to make pairs and laminated them.

I used the cards with Mia to play a memory matching game, and we hid them in the rice to hunt for pairs which she really enjoyed.

Both children were so excited to see the gardening play all set up, and it reminded me that I should do this sort of play much more often! They both dug straight in, quite literally, and were soon completely absorbed.

Harry was very interested in the seed packets and he took his play very seriously, filling up his plant pot and planting his pumpkin seeds.

He wanted to know how we would remember what had been planted, so I gave him a pen to write the names of the plants on the seed markers. A great way to sneak in some writing practice, and his writing was so neat that he'll definitely be helping me when it comes to writing out the real ones!

On the other hand, Mia's first reaction upon seeing the cardboard plant pots was 'ice creams'! She busied herself with filling the pots up with the rice and popping a pom pom on top to make ice cream cones. Perhaps not quite the play that I had imagined, but I loved seeing her little thought processes at work and she had such fun! She also caught on that the pom poms could represent flowers that had grown, and was busy filling up flower pots. She came home this week from nursery with a real bulb planted in a flower pot and is most annoyed that it hasn't started growing yet, so at least this was some instant planting gratification for her!

I must admit that I had worried that at 6 Harry was getting a bit old for sensory play, but I was wrong. Both children played beautifully together for ages, even though they tended to play their own games independently with the shared materials! They both sat their narrating their own play, yet enjoying the other's company.

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Recently, Emma from Adventures and Play invited me to join in with her Tuff Spot A-Z Challenge. During March and April 2015, every weekday a blogger shared a blog post on either their own site or as a guest blog on the Adventures of Adam featuring sensory play based around a different letter of the alphabet.

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You can help this cute caterpillar grow! Collect the numbers in sequence and watch it get bigger.

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Help your kids the basic understanding of static energy

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Static Electricity is a fascinating subject, especially for preschoolers. Every once in a while someone in my household will touch another family member after unintentionally rubbing their feet on the carpet and will give them an accidental shock. It stirs up all sorts of fun conversations about electricity. My Mom used to be a school teacher and I remember her using this fun static electricity experiment where children charged a balloon and could magically make butterfly wings flutter up and down. I decided to give it a go with my children and it was oodles of fun!
How does Static Electricity work?
Usually, an atom has an equal number of protons and electrons. Electrons have a negative charge of electricity and protons have a positive charge of electricity. Opposite charges attract, so when materials rub together and one material becomes negatively charged and one is positively charged, static electricity results.
Our Experiment:
To demonstrate the effects of static electricity. What will happen if we charge a balloon by rubbing it in our hair, and then hold it over tissue paper wings of a butterfly?
Check out our guide on how to draw a Sun Flower!
Supplies you will need:
1. Start by cutting a square of cardboard. I made mine about 7 inches x 7 inches.

2. Use your pencil to draw butterfly wings on your tissue paper. Since my cardboard square was 7″ x 7″, I just made sure to make them smaller than my square. Cut them out and set them onto your cardboard. glue them onto the cardboard!

3. Cut a butterfly body out of your cardstock paper and glue it down the middle of your butterfly and overlapping it onto your cardboard. Again, DO NOT glue the tissue paper wings down. You will want the wings loose like shown in my picture below. Glue your googly eyes down onto your butterfly. I should have drawn antennae on our butterfly but I just didn't think about it at the time. You can add those if you choose.

4. Now comes the fun part. Blow up your balloon. We used water balloons that we had leftover from this summer so they were small in size, but using regular sized balloons would have been even better.

5. Rub your balloon in your hair to give it an electric charge. Now hold the balloon on top of your butterfly, close but not touching it, and watch the wings raise and lower as you move the balloon closer and farther away.

My preschooler loved this! If the charge starts to fade, simply rub the balloon in your hair again and it's ready to make your wings flutter all over again. It was a little difficult to get great pictures of the butterfly in action because my daughter moved so quickly.
Results: Why did the butterfly wings move?
When we rubbed the balloon onto our hair, electrons were lost from our hair and gained by the balloon giving it a static charge. When the negatively charged balloon gets close to the positively charged tissue paper they are attracted to each other, and the pull of attraction is so great that the lightweight tissue paper moves toward the balloon.

This experiment is obviously not limited to only preschoolers. My 9 year old son had a great time experimenting with the balloon and butterfly. He was a little more controlled in his movements so I was able to get a couple better pictures.

This post is part of a collaborative Creative Preschool series where 4 bloggers and myself have joined together to bring you fun crafts and activities based on a common preschool learning theme. This week we are sharing ideas focused on Science Experiments.
Check out the other Science Experiment Ideas from the other Creative Preschool Bloggers:
How to Use the Scientific Method to Investigate Superhero Signals | Handmade Kids Art
Stop by Friday, November 7th for Fall Preschool Posts.

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Static Electricity Butterfly Experiment - I Heart Crafty Things

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Static Electricity is a fascinating subject, especially for preschoolers. Every once in a while someone in my household will touch another family member after unintentionally rubbing their feet on the carpet and will give them an accidental shock. It stirs up all sorts of fun conversations about electricity.

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Craft Materials

Before starting this project, you'll need the following materials:

Egg Cartons, Cardstock, Paint, Paint Brushes

We love reading " The Very Hungry Caterpillar " book in our house.

I thought it would be a great idea to do a caterpillar craft with my oldest son. I have seen a couple different ways to create your caterpillar but my son loves painting with his hands. I thought the fingerprint caterpillar would be our best bet.

Getting Started

I decided to add a little extra to my caterpillar craft. I made it look a little more like the book. Not just a single caterpillar floating on a piece of paper.

I used cardstock and grabbed all my paint colors for this one. I didn't want them to start mixing together so I put them in an egg carton. It worked out great. None of the colors mixed at all!!

Step 1 - Create Your Dots

I had my son create all the dots at the bottom of the page first with his fingers. I let it dry for about 10 minutes before we created the caterpillar so he wouldn't rub the wet paint with his hands.

Quick Tip: I had a wet wash cloth next to him so that he could wipe the paint off his finger after each color.

Step 2 - Create Your Caterpillar

Next, I had him dip his pointer finger in green paint to create the body (gently pressing his finger on the page). The head was next. We dipped his finger tip in the red paint and gently pressed down on the paper. Voila, a caterpillar body!

Step 3 - Create Your Sun

Then we made that colorful sun next! I just had my son paint a yellow sun with his fingers and added a little bit of orange for the rays.

Step 4 - Finishing Touches

Once all the paint was dry, we added the legs, eyes and nose with a thin paint brush. Ta'da! All done!

There you have it. A very "sweet" hungry caterpillar craft. We had such a great time with this craft.

This book is definitely a favorite around our house. If you have the book, bring it out so they can get a feel for all the beautiful colors and inspiration.

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Make "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" Inspired Fingerpaint Art

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Before starting this project, you'll need the following materials: Egg Cartons, Cardstock, Paint, Paint Brushes We love reading " The Very Hungry Caterpillar " book in our house. I thought it would be a great idea to do a caterpillar craft with my oldest son.

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These butterfly activities help kids develop their fine motor skills, such as pencil control and scissor skills.

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These gorgeous butterfly sensory bottles for preschool or kindergarten kids are perfect for a butterfly or insect theme. The kids will LOVE making them!

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These sensory bottles for preschool are perfect as part of a butterfly theme, or when learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. You can grab the free printable labels at the bottom of this post.

Do you have a preschool theme that you just love teaching in the spring?

One of my favorites is definitely all about butterflies. I was sitting here, trying to think about why that is. I mean, I like butterflies as much as the next person. They're beautiful and just plain fascinating. But that's not the reason.

You know what is? The kids! Their wild enthusiasm about caterpillars and butterflies is contagious. I find myself getting just as excited as the children. And excitement and curiosity lead to some great questions . . . and has such a positive impact on learning.

In addition to reading lots of caterpillar and butterfly books, we love watching the butterfly life cycle first hand when possible. On top of that, I like to plan a variety of other hands-on butterfly activities that let the kids explore concepts they're learning.

These butterfly life cycle sensory bottles for preschool kids would be one such activity you might want to try.
Related: Butterfly Life Cycle Emergent Reader
Butterfly Sensory Bottles for Preschool and Kindergarten

You could definitely make your butterfly sensory bottles a bit differently than this. Or make them exactly the same as we did. Either way, something tells me your students will have a blast. And don't forget the free printable labels at the bottom of this post.

Materials we used

Small pasta shells
Regular pasta shells
Rotini pasta
Farfalle pasta (aka bowtie pasta)
Liquid watercolors
Empty bottles or jars (we used 16.9 ounce Voss water bottles)

Directions to make the butterfly life cycle bottles

These sensory jars were pretty simple to make. In fact, I think it's going to take longer for me to write up all of the directions than it did to put the bottles together!

Dyeing the pasta

First up, decide if you want to dye your pasta or not. We decided to leave the small pasta shells as is, but we went the colorful route for the rest of the pasta.

A few years ago, we made a butterfly life cycle sensory bin with colorful pasta. Since I like to reuse materials as much as possible, I kept that bin in sealed bags between uses. So we used some of the pasta from that bin. It was pointed out to me that we didn't have "all the colors of the rainbow!" so we did end up dyeing some new pasta too.
Related: Super Easy Rainbow Sensory Bin
I prefer using liquid watercolors to dye most sensory materials, but you could use food coloring too. We put some pasta in a small baggie, added some squirts of liquid watercolor, and shook up the bag (after sealing the bag - that's an important step).

Then everything got placed out on trays to dry. I'd suggest placing the wet, dyed pasta on wax paper to dry. If you use paper towels, just make sure the pasta doesn't stick to the paper towels (I may or may not know this from personal experience).

Just a quick note - every little nook and cranny of the pasta might not get covered by color. I don't think that's a big deal, and the children enjoy the process of dyeing the pasta more than a perfect result. However, if this is a problem for you, have the kids grab some paint brushes and let them add a little bit of color to the blank spots. Your butterfly sensory bottles for preschool will still likely be a big hit!

Get the bottles ready

While the pasta is drying, make sure your bottles or jars are clean and dry. Also, make sure your bottles have openings wide enough for the bowtie pasta (or grab mini bowtie pasta).

It was pretty easy to remove the labels from our Voss water bottles, but there was a little bit of sticky residue. Rubbing a drop or two of lemon essential oil on it dealt with that quickly. Then we washed the bottles with soap and warm water.

Make sure the bottles are fully dry before adding anything to them. Any moisture might make the colors run, and water will definitely spoil the pasta.
Related: Butterfly Life Cycle Necklace
Assembling the butterfly sensory bottles for preschool

Now it's time to put everything together! We decided to have one bottle for each stage of the butterfly life cycle. The tiny shells are the butterfly eggs, the rotini represents caterpillars, the regular shells are chrysalises, and the bowtie pasta represents butterflies.

If you have all of the pieces together in one bin, have the kids sort them! Either way, have the children add the pieces into the appropriate bottles.

If desired, add a label to each of the butterfly bottles. You can grab a free printable version of the labels we used at the bottom of this post.

Depending on the age group of your students, you might want to seal the tops of the bottles with a hot glue gun. We didn't bother, but I definitely would for babies or young kids who still put things into their mouths.
Related: Butterfly Name Activities
How to use the butterfly sensory bottles for preschool

There are a few different ways to use the sensory jars. You and your students will likely come up with even more ideas than I have listed below:

Place the butterfly sensory jars out for free exploration. The kids can move them and observe them during center time.

Let the kids pour the bottles out into a big sensory bin. They can scoop, pour, and play with the pieces like that. Then they can work on their fine motor and sorting skills by returning the pieces into the appropriate bottles.

Add some alphabet beads to the bottles. Then have the kids be "letter detectives" and find certain letters in each jar. Extend that by having them write down the letters they locate.

Pair the sensory bottles with number cards. Kids can pull the right amount of pasta pieces out of the bottles to match each card and practice one-to-one correspondence.

Have the kids keep a tally of how many butterflies (or caterpillars, etc.) of different colors they find in each bottle.

Be sure to tell me how you use these butterfly sensory bottles for preschool (or kindergarten, or in your home)!

Preschool Butterfly Lesson Plans

Pop over to Preschool Teacher 101 to check out our done-for-you butterfly lesson plans. It's a week's worth of printable lesson plans, already-planned activities (for whole group, small group, and centers), book suggestions, and coordinating printables.
Get your butterfly lesson plans now
Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers

Label Your Butterfly Sensory Bottles for Preschool

I made small labels for our butterfly sensory bottles. They worked well with the Voss water bottles that we used. I ran them through the laminator before taping them to the outside of the discovery bottles.

The free printable version of these labels are available to members of Fun-A-Day's free email community. If you're already a member, click on the button below and enter your information to get the printable sent to your email inbox.

Not a member? No worries! Click on the button below and enter your information to join us. You'll get the printable sent to your inbox as a welcome gift.

If you can't see the button, click on the highlighted text below instead.

If you can't see the above button, click here to join and get the printable sent to your email.
PLEASE NOTE that many school district computers have firewalls and pop-up blockers that will inhibit your access to this free printable. You might see the pop-up stall out and say "submitting" for an extended period of time, or you might not see the box that's supposed to pop up. If you're on a school computer and run into these issues, this might be the case for your district. Using a non-school computer should solve that problem.

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How to Make Butterfly Life Cycle Sensory Bottles for Preschool

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These sensory bottles for preschool are perfect as part of a butterfly theme, or when learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. You can grab the free printable labels at the bottom of this post. Do you have a preschool theme that you just love teaching in the spring?

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A tasty activity for kids.  We explore our sense of taste and baked some fruit pizza (cookies) together that includes the yummy fruits the hungry caterpillar ate.

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These learning sheets are to work on both scissor and pre-writing skills.

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The kids will determine how many objects are in each box, and then assign the correct numeral. This math game is a great way for children to practice their number sense skills and develop a better understanding of the relationship between numbers and values.

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Preschoolers will have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of numbers 0-10, with this number pictures matching game. First, they will determine how many objects are in each box, and then assign the correct numeral. This math game is a great way for children to practice their number sense skills and develop a better understanding of the relationship between numbers and quantities.

No standards associated with this content.

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Number Pictures Matching Game | Game | Education.com

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Help your kid get a firm grasp on the relationship between numbers and quantities with this colorful matching game.

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This is a fine motor activity by putting objects into a hole or slot, and it makes the task more fun and engaging when you are pretending to feed the frog.

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Feed the Animal Fine Motor Activity - Therapy Fun Zone

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I always love the fine motor activity of putting objects into a hole or slot, and it makes the task more fun and engaging when you are pretending to feed an animal. Plastic deli containers or yogurt containers are perfect to cut a mouth or slit into and draw on a face in order to[Read More]

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The children need to aim to drop as much as bottles as possible. The aim of this game is to throw at a target and swing their arms.

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This Cloud Dough Frog Pond takes minutes to set up and brings so much fun (and learning)!

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Over the years, E has definitely become more picky about the sensory activities she enjoys. She needs to wipe her hands a lot more, and wet sensory materials that stick to her hands and don't form a dough aren't nearly as enjoyable for her as they used to be.

It's not that she has a problem with getting messy, though - she definitely still likes that part 🙂

One sensory material that always seems to work for her is cloud dough. It's messy but it's pretty much dry, it will hold its shape when pressed, you can form it into balls and crumble them - and it only takes two basic ingredients {not counting the optional color}.
Even Baby N likes it!
Recently, I made a simple Cloud Dough Frog Pond for E that she thoroughly enjoyed.

(E was 4 years and 5 months old.)
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
Materials for Cloud Dough Frog Pond:

Flour.

Vegetable oil. {Other types of oil work, too. Baby oil is a popular choice but make sure there's no chance of the cloud dough being ingested if you use it.}

Blue powder tempera.

Frogs and lily pad from the Frogs and Turtles Toob. {Or other plastic frogs.}

Green card stock.

Scissors.

Blue glass gems.

Sensory bin.

Preparations for Cloud Dough Frog Pond:

I made half a batch of my usual recipe for colored cloud dough and added two heaping tablespoons of blue powder tempera.

I put the finished cloud dough into one of our smaller sensory bins and arranged the frogs, the lily pad from the toob and the blue glass gems on top. As an afterthought, I decided to cut a few extra lily pads from green card stock to give the frogs a few more spots to sit. I simply cut ovals freehand with scissors, then cut a small triangle from one of the shorter sides on each of the ovals.

E couldn't stay out of the picture, she was too excited 😉

Playing with the Cloud Dough Frog Pond

She started out checking out the frogs and making them hop across the pond,

and discovered that the plastic lily pad made fun imprints in the cloud dough.

As usual when we play with toob animals, E asked about the names the frogs had engraved on their bellies. We didn't know a lot about different types of frogs starting out, so this was a great starting point for finding out more later on.

After a while, she decided to try her hand at making cloud dough balls - and discovered that it wouldn't work as long as she was holding anything but cloud dough in her hands.

Once she'd removed all the other items, she made a pretty good ball

and squished it almost immediately 😉

She asked me to make some balls for her and delighted in smashing them with her fist.

Suddenly, E jumped up and ran to get a plastic ice cream sundae cup and an ice cream scoop that she uses in the sandbox. She also used these items when we were playing with Sticky Sand - and as she was about to find out, the cloud dough behaved in a very similar way to the sticky sand.

Her first idea was scooping up cloud dough, frogs, gems and lily pads and putting them into the sundae cup.

She remembered the "cakes" she'd made from sticky sand and cleared an area of the sensory bin to make a cloud dough "cake".

Due to the extra items, her cake crumbled immediately.

For the next one, she made sure to use cloud dough only - and it worked out beautifully!

She made several more cakes, experimenting with just how fast she needed to turn the sundae cup over to ensure that the cloud dough stuck together instead of falling out too soon.

As usual, the cloud dough stuck to her clothes but it came right out in the washing machine with no extra effort. The clean up of the area she'd played in was simple, too: She hadn't spilled much and was able to quickly sweep it up with a broom and dustpan.

Have you played with cloud dough? Did your kids enjoy it? Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear your story!

Looking for more cloud dough ideas? Check out these!
Baby Play with Cloud Dough Halloween Cloud Dough Sensory Bin How to Make Cloud Dough
Don't have powder tempera? Try these alternative ways of making cloud dough!

Colored Cloud Dough Recipe from Growing a Jeweled Rose uses candy colors.

Homemade Cloud Dough Recipe from Nurturestore uses chalk.

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Join me in my Facebook group where we discuss simple play ideas for young kids every day!

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Cloud Dough Frog Pond - Simple Fun for Kids

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Over the years, E has definitely become more picky about the sensory activities she enjoys. She needs to wipe her hands a lot more, and wet sensory materials that stick to her hands and don't form a dough aren't nearly as enjoyable for her as they used to be.

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These Frog themed playdough counting mats can be used with other mediums such as blocks, counters or even plastic frogs.

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Fantastic Frog Counting Mats

Today we are continuing our Frog theme with these Fantastic Frog Playdough Counting Mats. I first discovered playdough mats when I was an early years teacher in New Zealand. In fact it would have been when I was a student teacher back at University. I worked placements in different Kindergartens and preschool settings and this is where I learned to not only make playdough but also to create fun and educational counting mats. I'm a fan of frogs and am sure the little ones will love these.

What You Need

Frog Printables
Laminating paper Swingline Laminator, Thermal, Inspire Plus Lamination Machine, 9 Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, 8.9 x 11.4-Inches, 3 mil thick, 100-Pack (TP3854-100)
Let's Make It

All you need to make these fabulous mats is a printer, laminator, laminating sheets and playdough. We have a playdough recipe here if you would like to make your own. I know in the preschool setting it was much more economical to make our own playdough and I was the resident playdough maker for many months.

These Frog themed playdough counting mats can be used with other mediums such as blocks, counters or even plastic frogs. These are available to download and I'm sure your kids will love them.
US Toy Jumping Frog Toy (Lot of 36), Assorted Color Play-Doh Modeling Compound 10-Pack Case of Colors (Amazon Exclusive), Non-Toxic, Assorted Colors, 2-Ounce Cans Learning Resources Mathlink Cubes, Educational Counting Toy, Set of 100 Cubes
Related Products

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Today we are continuing our Frog theme with these Fantastic Frog Playdough Counting Mats. I first discovered playdough mats when I was an early years teacher in New Zealand. In fact it would have been when I was a student teacher back at University.

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Five Little Speckled Frogs | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs

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This content contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

In this post, learn how to make an adorable and fun Paper Plate Frog Craft for summer. This easy frog craft is perfect for helping kids, especially preschoolers, learn all about the life cycle of frogs and toads.
Related: Paper Plate Ladybug Craft
How to Make a Paper Plate Frog Craft

Something very exciting happened this week-we found tadpoles in a puddle. A puddle! So we are guessing they are actually toad-poles (or tree frog tadpoles, seeing as how there aren't any ponds nearby).

We set our critter aquarium up in the kitchen with gravel, distilled water, an aerator, and some spinach leaves, then went back to the puddle to catch some. It's been fun watching them munch and grow as we anticipate them becoming froglets/toadlets.

As we reviewed the lifecycle of a frog, we reinforced concepts through crafting. Shared below is a tutorial for an easy and fun paper plate frog craft.
Related: Paper Plate Turtle Craft
To Make This Frog Craft You Will Need

Directions for Paper Plate Frog Craft

1. After gathering supplies, invite your child to paint the back of their paper plate green.

2. While the paint is drying, invite kids to trace the frog's eyes and mouth using the free printable template.

Trace the large circles on white paper, and the small circles and frog's mouth on black paper. Glue the frog's eyes and mouth to the paper plate.

3. Next, trace your child's hands on the green paper. Cut them out, then glue them to the back of the paper plate.

4. Use scissors or a paper cutter to cut a 1-inch strip of red paper, then round the edges.

5. Next, wrap the paper around a pencil, dowel rod, or straw to curl it.

6. Glue the red paper to the frog's mouth to give the frog a tongue.

7. Last, use the black permanent marker to draw 2 round nostrils under the frog's eyes.

Isn't it sweet? I love how the little hands look like jumping frog legs!

Pin it for Later

Don't forget to save this craft on Pinterest for later! Be sure you are following along with Fireflies and Mud Pies here.

More Summer Animal Crafts

Click the images below to view more creative animal crafts, perfect for summer!

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This content contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. In this post, learn how to make an adorable and fun Paper Plate Frog Craft for summer. This easy frog craft is perfect for helping kids, especially preschoolers, learn all about the life cycle of frogs and toads.

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Learn about The Life Cycle of a Frog with this cute color and make Frog life cycle spinner craft. Help your kids learn all about the amazing life cycle of a frog with this fun, interactive resource.

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Explore the Life Cycle of a Frog with this printable spinner toy for kids to color and make. A great learning resource to teach the frog life cycle.

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This little frog life cycle snack is ALL healthy.  They would also love making it themselves, to let them be involved in the process as much as possible, learning this life cycle.

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Are you learning about animal life cycles? I have the perfect idea for your next lesson on the life cycle of a frog! This is an EDIBLE frog life cycle snack! My kids and I had a lot of fun figuring this cute frog snack out.

This little frog life cycle snack is ALL healthy, so no worries about sugar, allergies, or dietary problems here.

I know there is a step in the life cycle missing, I kind of combined the tadpole with legs and the froglet into one, but it works ok, right?

Frog Life Cycle

There are 5 stages in the life cycle of a frog.

It starts with egg masses. Frogs lay their eggs in the water, most often. They lay a large amount at once, sometimes hundreds!

The next stage is the tadpole stage. A tadpole hatches within a few days! After a few weeks, they begin to change.

A tadpole first grows hind legs. After that the front legs begin growing and the tail starts shrinking.

Next it is called a froglet, which is almost a full grown frog, but still has a small tail, which will eventually disappear.

When the tail is gone it is a full-grown frog.

Along with the outside changes, many changes are happening inside the frog's body as well. The metamorphosis of animals is incredible, and so fun to teach to kids!

Supplies To Make the Edible Frog Life Cycle Snack:

Plain gelatin

Juice (we used lemon)

Honey or other natural sweetener

Green Grapes

Small Spinach Leaves

Green Apple

Raisins

Shredded Carrots (or chow mein noodles would work)

Toothpicks
Semi-Sphere Mold
This first step for this edible frog life cycle snack is the little edible frog eggs. I made a pack of plain gelatin and followed the package directions using lemon juice and water (mostly water, with a few tablespoons of lemon juice added in) plus honey as the sweetener. I just did this to taste.

To make it round, I poured it into the little sphere molds. After about an hour of chilling, I added in the raisins. Waiting an hour prevents them from just sinking all the way to the bottom. Let them chill a few more hours until solid.

You want to be careful removing them from the molds, because they break easily. I found that it worked best to run around the edge with a knife first.

Next, I made the tadpoles. For this I used green grapes and small baby spinach leaves. I just poked the stem of the spinach into the end of the grape to make the long tail. If it does not go in easily, use a toothpick to make the hole bigger.

In the lifecycle there are tadpole with hind legs and froglets. Rather than make both, mine are kind of combined into one. I just added some little pieces of shredded carrots in for the legs. I poked the holes for the legs with toothpicks first to make it easier to put the carrot pieces in.

Then for the large adult frog, I used a slice of a green apple, green grapes, raisins and toothpicks. You'll want to make the kids aware of the toothpicks when they are eating them! I broke the toothpicks in half to fit them in better.

This is such a fun frog snack if you are teaching a frog theme for preschoolers or other younger kids. They would also love making it themselves, to let them be involved in the process as much as possible!

What I love about this edible frog life cycle is that it really is simple to make! Besides the gelatin setting up, it is quite quick to put together! The gelatin is the only thing you will really need to plan in advance if using this in a lesson. The ingredients are inexpensive and easy to access, making it a perfect frog snack for any frog life cycle lessons!

Also, check out this cute edible butterfly life cycle from My Joy Filled Life.

Want mare edible education projects? Check out my post with 100+ Edible Education Ideas.

This is part of the Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids. The theme this week is ponds.

This week's book is In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming.

Another great one to go along with the frog life cycle activity is From Frog to Tadpole by Wendy Pfeffer.

See what the other participating bloggers shared this week:

Frog Coloring Pages and Learning Activities - JDaniel4's Mom

Ducks Matching Game - Mama Smiles

Over Under Drawing and Story Telling Prompt - My Storytime Corner

Frog Hop Phonics - Rainy Day Mum
More Life Cycle Learning Ideas: Dandelion Life Cycle Learning Bird Life Cycle Spinners Pumpkin Life Cycle Activities

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Are you learning about animal life cycles? I have the perfect idea for your next lesson on the life cycle of a frog! This is an EDIBLE frog life cycle snack! My kids and I had a lot of fun figuring this cute frog snack out.

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The Life of A Frog Kermit was living with his small family. His father's name was Breck and his mother's name was Shreck. They used to go to the lake, ...

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The tracing paths are made specifically for toddlers who are still learning to use their cute little fingers.  Among the tracing lines included are zig zag lines, castle lines, vertical lines, loop lines and circle shape lines

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"Oh what a sweet frog!" my kids exclaimed as soon as they see this Spring Frogs Tracing mat.

Well, if your kids love frogs, this one printable is perfect for you.

Spring Frogs Tracing Activity

This Tracing Mat features 7 tracing mats with sweet bright green frogs.

There are jumping frogs, splat on the poodle frogs, frog with umbrella, and frog with Easter egg!

These frogs have tracing path they need to follow to reach their friends, or to reach to the pond, or to get some flowers.

The tracing paths are made specifically for toddlers who are still learning to use their cute little fingers.

Among the tracing lines included are zig zag lines, castle lines, vertical lines, loop lines and circle shape lines (Miss 3's favorite tracing line)

Your kids would also get a chance to play around with tracing some clouds and sun.

Other Materials That Can Be Used to Do Tracing

Did you know that, there are many other ways to do tracing.

Besides from using the usual crayons and pencil color, we can also use these things to help our kids with tracing :

Dot stickers (my kids' favorite) - Stick the dot stickers along the tracing lines

Stamp marker (also my kids' favorite) - Stamp the marker along the tracing lines

Do-a-dot marker - Dot the marker along the tracing lines

Playdough - Roll the playdough and shape it according to the tracing lines

Cut the tracing lines

Bare fingers - Trace the tracing lines using their fingers

Q-tips - Trace the tracing lines using Q-tips

And more.

Get Your FREE Download

This printable is FREE for you. You can grab it by clicking the download button below.
For more Tracing Activities, feel free to check out the following post and Pin them!

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Spring Frogs Tracing Activity : FREE 7 Fascinating Tracing Mats - FluffyTots

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"Oh what a sweet frog!" my kids exclaimed as soon as they see this Spring Frogs Tracing mat. Well, if your kids love frogs, this one printable is perfect for you. This Tracing Mat features 7 tracing mats with sweet bright green frogs.

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Your kids will love playing with this lily pad hopscotch. You will also like this activity as it promotes numeracy, patterns, sorting, and gross motor skills like jumping and throwing.

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A memory game

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My son loves the song "Five Green and Speckled Frogs", so for Fine Motor Fridays this week I made an activity to go with it.
The following post contains affiliate links, which means that at no extra cost to you I can make a tiny bit of money to help support this blog. Thank you!
If you're not familiar with the song "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" (or Five Little Speckled Frogs, as it's also known), then here is a totally adorable video from Kiboomu:

The activity is made from three components - the frogs, the log, and the pool. I made the frogs using an image from Clckr, adding speckles, then printing it five times and laminating it. Laminating it is quite optional but I think it looks nicer - oh and I love using my laminator! Then I used a hot glue gun to attach the laminated frog pics onto some big plastic clips that I bought from the dollar store. (And yes, I know that I have wrecked my cutting mat by using it as a hot glue gun surface!)

For the log I used a sturdy cardboard tube - from kitchen foil rather than kitchen paper as it's smaller and thicker. I cut one end off with a craft knife, and hot glued it onto the top at an angle to make it look more "loggy". Once the glue had dried I painted it with brown acrylic paint and added details with a brown marker pen. I covered a box in brown construction paper and hot glued the log to the box to stop it rolling around.

For the pond I glued some blue marbled construction paper to a piece of cardboard, painting another kitchen foil tube with blue paint, then hot gluing that to the centre. Then I cut some waves from blue card, and glued those on.

It all got rather more complex than I had initially envisaged, but I was pleased with the result.

Just as I was about to show F I realised that I hadn't done anything for the "delicious bugs". Oops! I hoped he would forgive me! As soon as I started singing the song he understood what we had to do! The clips weren't easy to manipulate due to their size, and he needed quite a bit of strength in his fingers to squeeze the ends to get the clips on and off the tubes.

He was pretty pleased with himself when we finished the song and he wanted to do it all over again!

And here are the lyrics:

Five green and speckled frogs sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs - YUM YUM!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were four green speckled frogs.

Four green and speckled frogs sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs - YUM YUM!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were three green speckled frogs.

Three green and speckled frogs sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs - YUM YUM!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were two green speckled frogs.

Two green and speckled frogs sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs - YUM YUM!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there was one green speckled frog.

One green and speckled frog sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs - YUM YUM!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were no green speckled frogs.
Please check out the rest of the Fine Motor Fridays posts for this week for more great ideas!

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Five Green and Speckled Frogs Fine Motor Activity - Craftulate

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My son loves the song "Five Green and Speckled Frogs", so for Fine Motor Fridays this week I made an activity to go with it. The following post contains affiliate links, which means that at no extra cost to you I can make a tiny bit of money to help support this blog.

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Young kids will enjoy this frog counting activity. Use the free pattern to make numbered lily pads. Kids will also enjoy using the number lily pads in a sensory bin or water table.

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Young kids will enjoy this frog counting activity. Use my free pattern to make numbered lily pads. Kids will enjoy using the number lily pads in a sensory bin or water table. They are perfect for your frog theme, pond theme, or spring theme unit and lesson plans in preschool or pre-k.
Here is a fun frog counting activity that you can use with your kids at home or in school. I'm going to show you how I easily made numbered lily pads and will give you a few ideas for using them.

Lily Pad Supplies

To make these numbered lily pads you will need the following supplies:

sheets of green foam

scissors

green permanent markers

Download the Pattern

If you need some help making lily pads, you can download a pattern by clicking the link below:

Print and cut out the pattern and then trace it onto the foam.

Make Your Lily Pads

After tracing the pattern onto the foam, you can cut out the lily pads. I used two colors of foam to mix things up a bit. After cutting out the lily pad, I outlined the shape with a green sharpie. You don't have to do this, but I just think that it makes them look a bit more interesting.

I then wrote numerals on one side of the lily pads and made dot patterns on the other side. Let them sit for awhile so that the sharpie has time to dry thoroughly.

Water Beads are the Bomb!

The lily pads, along with a bunch of small plastic frogs, can now be added to a sensory bin, water table, or a large plastic container filled with water. This is the perfect time to use my favorite sensory material - water beads! I love how these babies feel. Here is my little recycling hint for the water beads....don't throw them away when you are done with them. I add the little gems to my containers of flowers. I am really bad about remembering to water my outdoor containers and little beads really help maintain moisture in the containers. Sorry for that little tangent, but I wanted to share my little tip.

Frog Counting Activities

Kids enjoy counting the frogs as they add them to the top of the lily pads. They enjoy seeing how many frogs can be added to a lily pad before it sinks. Let kids experiment. We found that completely wet lily pads seemed sink faster. Wiping the lily pads off with a towel after they were submerged helped them float better again. Did you make any discoveries?

If kids aren't quite ready for numeral recognition, you can use lily pads with dot patterns. Kids can duplicate the dot pattern with frogs. You can also use the frogs and lily pads to practice one-to-one correspondence (no need for numerals or dot patterns on the lily pads for this) and kids can simply place one frog on each of the lily pads.

Composing and Decomposing Numbers

With older kids, you can practice composing and decomposing numbers. Find two different colors of frogs to use so that kids can see how many different combinations of the frogs they can use to make a particular number.

No Need For Water

Don't feel like dealing with a watery mess today? Don't worry!.....You can do all of the activities above on a table or on the floor...without water. You can also use jumping frogs or sling shot frogs with the set. Kids can try to land a frog on a numbered lily pad as pictured below. You add some gross motor fun by asking the kids to determine the number on the lily pad and then performing that number of frog jumps.

Hopefully I gave you a few ideas. I'm sure that you can come up with another frog counting activity or two using the lily pads and I would love to hear them.

If you are looking for additional frog activities for your kiddos, check out my frog-themed products in my TPT store.

Below are some items from Amazon that can be used for these froggy activities. The links below are affiliate links. If you happen to purchase something from link, there will be no additional cost to you, but a small portion of your purchase will be used towards the cost of maintaining this website.

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Young kids will enjoy this frog counting activity. Use my free pattern to make numbered lily pads. Kids will enjoy using the number lily pads in a sensory bin or water table. They are perfect for your frog theme, pond theme, or spring theme unit and lesson plans in preschool or pre-k.

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Making fun food for your kids doesn't have to be hard!

These animal sandwiches are a great example of how simple it can be to make a fun sandwich-and a great way to sneak in some veggies too.

Each of these sandwiches takes no more than two minutes to make. My kids loved them and they're sure to be a hit with your kids too!

You Will Need:

a prepared sandwich on bread of your choice with filling of your choice

marble cheese slices

a variety of fresh vegetables-cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, black olives, chives, etc.

How To Make It:

Frog Sandwich

1. Place prepared sandwich on a plate.

2. Use two large cucumber slices with two black olive slices for the eyes.

3. Use half a tomato slice for the mouth - remove the inner flesh and just use the outside.

4. Slice one mini cucumber in half lengthwise and place on each side of the sandwich for legs. Slice two small pieces from your mini cucumber and use them as feet.

Cat Sandwich

1. Place prepared sandwich on a plate.

2. Top the sandwich with a slice of marble cheese.

3. Slice a piece of carrot into two larger triangles and one smaller triangle. The two larger triangles will be the ears and the smaller triangle the nose.

4. Slice three chives into six pieces and use them as whiskers.

5. Finally, cut two thin slices of radish and put them on the sandwich for eyes and top with two slices of black olive.

You'll Also Love: 7 Adorable Animal Snacks

Elephant Sandwich

1. Place prepared sandwich on a plate.

2. Grab two lettuce leaves and stick on either side of the sandwich for ears.

3. Slice a mini cucumber in half lengthwise and put on the sandwich for the elephant's trunk.

4. Thinly slice two radish slices and top with two black olive pieces for the eyes.

Pig Sandwich

1. Place the prepared sandwich on a plate.

2. Slice a radish in half and place the large half on the sandwich for the pig's nose. Top with two small black olive pieces for the nostrils.

3. Thinly slice three slices off the radishes. Cut one in half and use them for the ears.

4. Place the last 2 on the sandwich for eyes and top with black olive pieces.

These fun animal sandwiches are simple to make and are sure to put a smile on your kid's faces. Enjoy!

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Cute And Easy Animal Sandwiches | CBC Parents

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Making fun food for your kids doesn't have to be hard! These animal sandwiches are a great example of how simple it can be to make a fun sandwich-and a great way to sneak in some veggies too. Each of these sandwiches takes no more than two minutes to make.

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Storytime! ~ I DON'T WANT TO BE A FROG Read Aloud ~ Story Time ~  Bedtime Story Read Along Books

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Shapes is a fun educational activity to help children learn basic properties of simple geometric figures. Children will practice looking for differences and similarities between shapes to complete puzzles.

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ABCya! * Shapes! A Geometry Activity for Children

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Shapes! A fun Geometry Activity for Children

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My preschooler and I are having fun learning about birds this week. We started by reading some books about birds and we made this "Life Cycle of a Chicken" craft. I saw the idea in The Mailbox Magazine a while back and I just love how it turned out. Find a list of the books we read to go along with this activity at the bottom of this post.

{This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Read our Disclosure Policy for more information.}

HOW TO MAKE A LIFE CYCLE OF A CHICKEN CRAFT
Supplies you will need:
Directions:
1. Start by cutting an egg shape out of a piece of poster board. Then I printed out a little rectangle label from the computer that said, "Life Cycle of a Chicken" and we glued it to the center. You can also just write Life Cycle of a Chicken with your black marker in the center of the poster.

2. At the top of the egg we talked about how chickens start out as an egg. Then we made a little nest by putting glue all over and adding shredded pieces of brown paper.

3. After the nest was complete, I cut a small oval shape out of paper and my son glued it into the nest. If preschoolers are able to cut themselves, have them do the cutting.

4. Then we discussed how the Mommy Chicken sits on her eggs to keep them at the right temperature, while the birds grow inside the egg. When they are all grown they begin to hatch out of the egg. I cut a larger egg out of paper and my son glued it to the poster board. Then he drew a jagged edge circle on the egg to represent the egg hatching. My son colored the inside yellow and he added googly eyes to represent the chick inside.

﻿5. To keep it simple, I also used another oval egg shape to make our baby chick. My son colored it yellow and glued it on the poster board. Then he added the googly eyes, and a small orange diamond, folded in half for the beak. My son colored on the feet with a marker and I added the wings with a black marker. As an alternative you could also make a handprint chick with yellow paint.

6. Next, we made the grown chicken. I covered my son's hand with our red tempera paint and he placed his hand on the poster board to make a handprint. After the paint was completely dry, my son glued on a googly eye and drew on the feet, beak and waddle. I added the outline of the wing with black marker.

7. To complete our chart, I simply drew arrows between each stage to show that it is an endless cycle and we talked about each stage one more time. It was such a fun project!
Here are some books we read before making this project:

You might also enjoy these crafts:

Google+, Twitter, and Instagram for more crafty fun!

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Life Cycle Of A Chicken - I Heart Crafty Things

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My preschooler and I are having fun learning about birds this week. We started by reading some books about birds and we made this "Life Cycle of a Chicken" craft. I saw the idea in The Mailbox Magazine a while back and I just love how it turned out.

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This game gives children a chance to play about what different feelings look like. And it can give you the chance to talk with your child about all kinds of different feelings.

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Being able to recognize and name feelings is the very first step in helping children manage their feelings. This game gives children a chance to play about what different feelings look like. And it can give you the chance to talk with your child about all kinds of different feelings.

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Being able to recognize and name feelings is the very first step in helping children manage their feelings. This game gives children a chance to play about what different feelings look like. And it can give you the chance to talk with your child about all kinds of different feelings.

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LITERACY
Sensory bins are a great way to extend learning opportunities in a fun and open-ended way. This time letter recognition will be amalgamated with this activity.

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These cards are perfect to new learners who are not ready for independent counting. The kids simply cover each chick picture on the card as they are counting.

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What is it about little chicks that every kid wants to play with one? My kids have been asking to incubate eggs, so that we can hatch chicks. In our very urban area. Probably not going to happen... These cute chick counting cards for numbers 1-10 come incubator-free. Mess-free. Noise-free. Unless you count the noises that the kids are going to make while they enjoy counting with them. I created these as part of the A-Z Busy Bags series being hosted by Teach Me Mommy. We're having fun with the letter 'E' for erasers.

Materials needed for Chick Counting Cards:
Paper and/or card stock Chick mini-erasers Laminating pouches and laminator
To prep: Print and laminate the chick counting cards (download below).

To use: Have your child cover the pictures of the chicks on the counting cards with the correct number of chick mini-erasers.

We love mini-erasers. They are the perfect little math manipulative! Every time Target has new ones in their Dollar Spot, I grab a couple bags. If you miss out on getting these from Target you can get this set from Amazon with lots of different Easter themed erasers.

These cards are perfect to new learners who are not ready for independent counting. The kids simply cover each chick picture on the card as they are counting. That way they know when to stop for each number.

I like to slip our counting cards into a quart-sized Ziploc bag for easy storage. Plus, it makes it super easy to pull out to use as a busy bag when I need my preschooler to work independently (or, at least, more independently.)

We've used counting cards several times and though she isn't ready to count yet, she is starting to get the hang of the matching concept of putting the objects on the pictures.

You can find all of our counting cards here.

Looking for a different theme?

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Free Printable Chick Counting Cards for 1-10 - Life Over Cs

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What is it about little chicks that every kid wants to play with one? My kids have been asking to incubate eggs, so that we can hatch chicks. In our very urban area. Probably not going to happen... These cute chick counting cards for numbers 1-10 come incubator-free. Mess-free. Noise-free.

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Kids will love this rainbow variation on the classic naked eggs experiment. Don't just make naked rubber eggs, make rainbow rubber eggs!

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Kids will love this rainbow variation on the classic naked eggs experiment. Don't just try the rubber egg experiment without color, make rainbow rubber eggs instead!

My kids like colorful, dramatic science experiments for kids. There is nothing tame or boring about making rainbow naked eggs!

This experiment has both the "wow" factor and the gross factor that will make confirmed science lovers for life.

We used this experiment as a fun addition to our St. Patrick's Day STEM activities, but you can also use it for an Easter STEM activity or any time of year as a crowd-pleasing STEM activity.

You can also try the rainbow version of this experiment for any egg in vinegar science fair project.
Related: Creative STEM Activities for Kids
How to Make a Rubber Egg

In just a few hours, you can completely transform eggs and remove the shell.

For more fun Easter STEM Activities, try exploding rainbow eggs, salt crystal Easter eggs, Peeps slime, or make an Easter lava lamp!

What is a Rainbow Rubber Egg?

Did you know that inside of every egg shell is a membrane holding the "guts" of the egg in place?

This membrane is located between the egg shell and the egg white. There are actually two layers of membrane inside every egg (called inner and outer membrane, not to be too on the nose).

The membranes protect the growing chick from exposure to bacteria, but the membranes are semi-permeable, which is how the dye used in this experiment colors the eggs and why they get bigger when placed in water or vinegar.

The egg membrane is strong, which is how you can play with it and bounce it without breaking it (of course, too much pressure will burst the eggs, causing a huge mess!).

Fun fact: There is also keratin inside an egg membrane, which is present in human hair.

When the acid in the vinegar eats through the calcium shell, the membrane is left encasing the egg. The texture feels rubbery, hence, the rubber egg.

NAKED EGG EXPERIMENT STEAM QUESTIONS

Transform this rubber egg science experiment into a STEM project by asking a few extra questions and adding variables.

Will shells dissolve in different materials?

What happens if you use a different kind of dye?

Will eggs change color without the help of vinegar?

Experiment with different liquids, like soda, water with baking soda added, milk, coffee, water, and oil.

After removing the eggs from the vinegar, watch what happens when you let them sit out on the counter without any liquid.

Do they dry out?

What happens if you put the eggs in a salt solution?

Use this egg in vinegar experiment worksheet to complete your rainbow rubber egg experiment and record your results.

What you'll need to make the rubber egg experiment:
This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you for your convenience.
Osmosis Egg Experiment Results

The osmosis egg experiment teaches children how liquid moves through a membrane. The addition of dye to the rubber egg experiment can show how osmosis works.

For the main rainbow naked egg experiment, however, the scientific concept is a chemical reaction and a lesson in dissolving.

The vinegar eats through the calcium shell, but cannot dissolve the egg's membrane, which is how the eggs retain their rubbery appearance after the experiment is complete.

The egg membrane is semi-permeable, which simply means that the liquid vinegar will pass through the membrane into the egg.

When the vinegar is dyed, the dye and the vinegar seep into the egg white, creating fun rainbow colors! The brighter the dye that you use, the brighter your egg rainbow will be!

Rubber Eggs Experiment Directions

Fill each container about 1/2 full of vinegar. Add about 10 drops of food coloring to each jar.

Carefully place a raw egg inside each jar. Let the eggs sit for about 48-72 hours in the vinegar.

Try putting other eggs in different liquids to see if they produce a different or similar reaction.

Over time, the vinegar will break down the calcium on the egg's shell, leaving the egg completely whole, but soft.

When the surface of the water has a weird scummy film, the eggs are ready to come out.

Remove the eggs from the jars (carefully) and rinse them in water.

They are completely colored!

Gently roll and bounce the eggs and watch what happens!

When the kids are done admiring the eggs, break them open. The kids might be surprised to see that the egg yolk is still yellow!

The high protein content of the yolk prevents the egg's cells from absorbing the colored liquid that is absorbed by the rest of the egg.

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Rainbow Rubber Eggs Naked Egg Experiment

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Kids will love this rainbow variation on the classic naked eggs experiment. Don't just try the rubber egg experiment without color, make rainbow rubber eggs instead! My kids like colorful, dramatic science experiments for kids. There is nothing tame or boring about making rainbow naked eggs!

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The Little Red Hen Fairy Tales and Bedtime Stories for Kids in English

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CHICKEN AND CHICKS    LIFT THE FLAP CRAFT 

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CHICKEN AND CHICKS    LIFT THE FLAP CRAFT 

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Hen and chicks craft with lift-able wing! Hide those chicks and count them. Fine motor skills in the making with some math and imaginative play!

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For this weeks fine motor activity we made a mama hen and some chicks!

All 3 kids rather enjoyed this activity even if my 4 year old just inspected the feathers and threw them into the air! My 2 year old and 5 year old had a blast sticking said feathers to the actual chicken.

For this craft you will need:

Craft foam in white, yellow, orange and red.

Paper

Feathers

Glue

googly eyes

Craft stick or two spread the glue

Start by drawing the outlines of the chicks and hen on the white (hen) and yellow (chicks) foam. Cut little triangles from the orange foam for beaks and a head crown for the hen from the red foam. Also cut a flap that resembles a wing from the paper.

Gather all your crafty items and let the kids begin!

My 5 year old is already a pro at using the glue and quickly put his hen together.

Stick down the wing flap.

Add some eyes and beaks to your chicks!

Spread the glue on the body of the hen and chicks using the craft sticks and begin adding feathers.

You might even need to cut the feathers which is also great practice with scissors usage.

Once all the sticking was done I put the hen and chicks on a tray on a high shelf to dry for the day.

Once dry the wing flap will lift up and the chicks can be placed under the wing.

One chick, two chicks, three chicks. This makes a great counting game too!

Pin this idea for later!

Looking for more fine motor activities?

Take a look at what my co-hosts are up to!
Follow Nicolette | Powerful Mothering's board Fine Motor Skills on Pinterest.

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For this weeks fine motor activity we made a mama hen and some chicks! All 3 kids rather enjoyed this activity even if my 4 year old just inspected the feathers and threw them into the air! My 2 year old and 5 year old had a blast sticking said feathers to the actual chicken.

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This is stunning simple to make, even Mr Foodie had a go! 😉 Serve inside an old egg box or on top of some salad, for a healthy alternative to all the chocolate around this Easter. This would make a fun breakfast or afternoon snack, for kids and grown-ups too!

Start off by boiling your eggs. Peel them and then and place aside for later.

Next stage, slice the carrot into thin rounds. Using a paring knife, cut a pointed crown into the carrot.

Using a sharp knife, slice into the egg deep enough for the carrot crown to sit comfortably. Place the carrot crown in the egg. Stick chia seeds to egg using water.

Arrange your hens.

Ingredients

Instructions

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This is stunning simple to make, even Mr Foodie had a go! 😉 Serve inside an old egg box or on top of some salad, for a healthy alternative to all the chocolate around this Easter. This would make a fun breakfast or afternoon snack, for kids and grown-ups too!

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Here’s a cute Egg Counting Puzzle Activity with free printable including four fun, hands-on ideas to learn counting from 1 to 10

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Do you have a toddler/ preschooler who's learning to count? Here's a cute Egg Counting Puzzle Activity with free printable including four fun, hands-on ideas to learn counting from 1 to 10. This is perfect for Easter that's just around the corner or dinosaur and farm themes too.

Scroll down for the instructions and watch the fun video tutorial below!
Materials:
Egg Counting Puzzle Printable (download for free right below) - I recommend printing this printable on cardstock paper for more durability. I also recommend doing only numbers 1 to 5 for young toddlers and working on 6 to 10 another time.

Markers or crayons for coloring

Cotton buds

Washable paint or finger paint

A pair of scissors
Click Here to Get Your Free Printable 4 Fun Ways to Learn Counting with this Egg Counting Puzzle Activity Activity 1
Ask your little one to color the eggs and numbers. Make the eggs as colorful as he/she wish! For the older preschoolers, get them to practice writing the numbers by tracing inside the numbers
Activity 2
Ask your little one to place a pompom on each circle and count out loud at the same time. This is a great activity to work those fine motor muscles at the same time. For the older preschoolers, challenge them to use a tweezer or chopsticks to transfer the pompoms.
Activity 3
incorporate some fun process art while learning to count with this third activity. Dot and count the circles on the eggs with cotton buds and paint. Or add in more sensory fun and get your little ones to use their little fingers to dot the circles with finger paint.
Activity 4
Save the printable from the previous activities for this one! Cut out the eggs puzzle and ask your little ones to find the matching egg shells. As they complete the puzzle, point to the numbers and count the circles.

Now who says learning to count is boring? Check out another of my favorite counting game to do with my children, hammer splat painting . Need more fun and engaging activity ideas? Head over to my Counting Pinterest board .

Watch the fun video below to see this cute Easter Egg Counting Puzzle in action and check out more creative Easter fun for kids!

Fynn is a Singaporean mum currently living in California with her husband and two children. Trained a Chemical Engineer, she became a Science teacher and one day decided to dabble in the Arts and became a makeup artist. Her children came along and she switched painting faces for painting cardboard boxes with her children. Driven by new experiences, big dreams and cookie dough icecream, she is always working on something new - learning new skills, exploring new places, creating new toys from trash and making new learning shelves at home. Follow Fynn on her blog Happy Tot Shelf, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive a small affiliate commission. Regardless, we give our promise that we only recommend products or services we would use personally and believe will add values to our readers.

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EGG COUNTING PUZZLE ACTIVITY - Hello Wonderful

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Do you have a toddler/ preschooler who's learning to count? Here's a cute Egg Counting Puzzle Activity with free printable including four fun, hands-on ideas to learn counting from 1 to 10. This is perfect for Easter that's just around the corner or dinosaur and farm themes too.

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Toddlers will love this feeding chickens sensory bin. It's great for learning about farm animals, or just an everyday animal sensory bin. Toddlers and preschoolers will have fun practicing their fine motor skills by scooping feed for the chickens!

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Spring is coming soon which means Easter is too. This feeding chickens sensory bin is a perfect springtime activity and makes a great Easter sensory bin too!

This sensory bin is filled with fun chicken feed, cute little chicks, scoops, and a few options for chickens to fill with feed. My daughter had a blast playing with it. I definitely recommend playing with it outside or on a tile floor as a lot of our chicken feed did end up on the floor.

For younger kids you can also make an easy sensory bottle version. I'll include pictures of that at the end of this post.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of my links I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
We love sensory bins at my house! A new one will be played with for days on end and always in more ways than I can imagine. They can be messy so have a vacuum handy or do them outside.
This bin is not suitable for small kids that will try to eat the chicken feed! While it's technically edible it could be a choking hazard for little ones.
Chicken Sensory Bin Supplies

I was able to track down cracked corn at my local grocery store and pet food stores will have it too. I did have to buy a large bag but we're going to use the extra in bird feeders so it won't go to waste.

Make your Easter chick sensory bin

1 - Fill the plastic tub with cracked corn that will be your "chicken feed". If you can't get cracked corn you could use other bird seed, beans, cheerios or yellow Easter grass. ( The yellow grass should be a last resort as it won't be scoopable.)

2 - Add some little chickens to your bin. You could also use Little People chickens if your kids have a bunch of those figurines.

3 - Add something you can fill. We used these fun chicken toilet paper rolls that we made ourselves. They are perfect for filling with chicken feed.

You can also use chicken-shaped easter eggs if you don't want to make the extra craft.

4 - Finally, add some scoops or spoons.

5 - Let them play! Encourage your child to "feed the chickens" by scooping up the feed. Get hands-on by feeling the cracked corn. They can create their own imaginary play world with the chickens!
While cracked corn is taste safe it could be a choking hazard for small children so please supervise them during play and wash their hands when their all done.
Where to find the supplies

Where did I find these sensory bin supplies? As I mentioned above I found the cracked corn at the grocery store but you could also buy it online.

I picked up the little chicks at Party City but you can also find them online at Oriental Trading.

The chick easter eggs were a little harder to track down. They have this set on Amazon but I actually found ours at our local Michaels store.

I will say this is one of the more expensive sensory bins I've made due to the cracked corn. But, since we're going to reuse it I went ahead with it since it was the perfect material.

Learning Opportunities

Fine Motor Skills

This sensory bin is great for working on fine motor skills as they scoop the feed into different containers.

Want to make a sensory bottle instead?

This sensory bin is tons of fun but it's not suitable for younger kids that want to put everything in their mouth. If little brother or sister want to play along you can easily turn this into a sensory bottle.

I made this version for my 1 year old and she loved shaking it to make noise and finding the chickens inside the bottle. I used 4 colored chickens in hers inside a plastic sensory bottle.
If you don't have a bottle you could do a sensory bag version as well, just place the items inside a large freezer size Ziploc bag and glue or tape the opening shut.
We hope you enjoy this feeding chickens sensory bin. Follow us on Pinterest for more fun craft ideas!

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Feeding Chickens Sensory Bin {Fun Easter Activity}

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Spring is coming soon which means Easter is too. This feeding chickens sensory bin is a perfect springtime activity and makes a great Easter sensory bin too! This sensory bin is filled with fun chicken feed, cute little chicks, scoops, and a few options for chickens to fill with feed.

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Baby Chick Maze is a fun memory-based strategy game for the whole family! Help the baby chick get back to its mother by guiding it through challenging mazes from memory.

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Baby Chick Maze is a fun memory-based strategy game for the whole family!

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Make this cute & easy paper plate chick craft with the kids

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If you're looking for a cute spring craft idea, this paper plate chick craft is perfect! We love so we try to make them as often as possible.

This little hatching chick can be used for lots of different occasions. It's perfect for Easter, spring or even farm animal unit studies.

We've included a free printable template for this chick so you can make it without any problems. Craft it at home or in the classroom!

Because there aren't a ton of pieces, we think this craft is great for preschool, kindergarten and elementary children.

Read our directions or watch our quick video to see how to make it with your kids or students!

Hatching Chick Craft

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. You can read my full disclosure here.

Supplies

Paper Plates

Yellow card stock (optional)

Paintbrush

Scissors

Glue stick

Directions

Download the chick craft template, print and cut out the pieces.

Paint two paper plates the yellow color and let dry completely. One paper plate will be for the chick's body, the other will be to cut out the chick's wings. You could also just paint one paper plate and use yellow card stock for the wings instead.

Glue the two eyes near the middle of the paper plate.

Place the orange beak just below the eyes and glue in place.

Take the lower egg piece and attach it to the front of the paper plate. We used double-sided tape because it sticks to the painted plate easier than the glue stick.

Take the upper egg piece and tape it to the top of the chick.

If you painted two paper plates, trace the chick's wings onto the second plate and cut out the pieces. If you're using yellow card stock, grab those pieces. Glue one wing on each side.

That's it! Isn't this chick so cute?

How Can I Make This Craft Simpler?

If you want to make this chick with really young kids like toddlers, we have a few suggestions to make it easier.

First, you can use yellow colored plates. If you do this, then you won't have to worry about painting, messes and waiting for dry time.

Second, you can skip the shell pieces. This will save you time on cutting and you won't need to have double-sided tape.

Finally, we suggest having all the pieces cut out ahead of time. This way, the kids won't have to wait around for you or another adult to cut out the template parts.

Don't forget to enter your email in the form at the end of this page to download your free chick template!

Share With Us

Did you make this cute chick craft with the kids? We want to see how they turned out!

Take a quick picture and post it on our Facebook page wall or join our private Facebook group and show us in there.

More Farm Animal Crafts

Get All Of Our Favorite Paper Plate Crafts!

Chick Template

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If you're looking for a cute spring craft idea, this paper plate chick craft is perfect! We love so we try to make them as often as possible. This little hatching chick can be used for lots of different occasions. It's perfect for Easter, spring or even farm animal unit studies.

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Grab some yellow pom poms and you can make some adorable chick crafts.

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If you're looking for an extremely simple Easter craft, this is it!! Grab some yellow pom poms and you can make some adorable chick crafts. These would be adorable on a homemade Easter card, etc!

Aren't they cuties?!

You will need a piece of paper, an orange marker, yellow pom poms, and glue.

Start by having the kids glue a small and medium size pom pom on a piece of paper.

After they dry, give them an orange marker to make some legs and a beak! You could also glue on a tiny googly eye too!

If you liked this one, check out my other Easter crafts for kids!

Make sure to follow Crafty Morning on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram or subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter! :)
This post may contain affiliate links, read our Disclosure Policy for more information.

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Easy Pom Pom Chicks Craft for Kids - Crafty Morning

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If you're looking for an extremely simple Easter craft, this is it!! Grab some yellow pom poms and you can make some adorable chick crafts. These would be adorable on a homemade Easter card, etc! Aren't they cuties?! You will need a piece of paper, an orange marker, yellow pom poms, and glue.

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To be able to practice balancing

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This blog uses affiliate links. Basically, I make a small commission when you use these links, at no additional cost to you.

You may be familiar with the walking while balancing an egg on a spoon activity. Well, we put a twist on it by using our Wobbly Easter eggs. Turns out it's the perfect Easter themed boredom buster for toddlers and preschoolers. It requires quite a bit of focus and concentration so it can be quite challenging!

Easter Activity for Kids: Wobbly Easter Egg Boredom Buster

Here's what we used for this activity:

Encourage your child to walk while holding the egg on the spoon.

For older kids, you could even try getting them to transfer an egg back and forth between two spoons. Or try smaller spoons. However, we used large wooden spoons for this activity because they fit the size of the eggs better than regular tablespoons would have.

K was so mesmerized by this activity! When it comes to toddlers, simple is always the way to go.

Married to her high school sweetheart, Dyan is a Canadian stay-at-home mom to two boys, J and K. She is also a part-time piano teacher. She likes board games, video games, Instant Pots, and reading. To stay connected, subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get a copy of the free Weekly Autism Planner and follow along on social media.

Other Ideas You'll Love

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Wobbly Easter Egg Spoon Balancing Activity

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This blog uses affiliate links. Basically, I make a small commission when you use these links, at no additional cost to you. You may be familiar with the walking while balancing an egg on a spoon activity. Well, we put a twist on it by using our Wobbly Easter eggs.

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Make an adorable chick craft using a fork!

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This post may contain affiliate links, read our Disclosure Policy for more information. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, thank you!

I wanted to get creative today so while I was making dinner, I saw a fork and thought it could make a chick! ....and it WORKED! It makes an adorable fluffy chick that kids can make all by their selves. It's the perfect farm or Easter craft to do!

Awww...

You will need yellow washable paint, scissors, a fork, 2 googly eyes, orange construction paper, and glue.

Start by having your child dip the back of a fork into yellow paint (it worked best to have it spread out on a paper plate). Then tell them to make a circle shape, pulling outwards with the fork.

Grab some orange paper and cut out a beak as well as two legs! It's easier to fold a piece of paper in half and then cut so both are the same size.

After the yellow paint is dry, glue on some eyes and the rest to make an adorable little chick! I think it'd be great to put on a homemade card!

If you liked this one, check out my other Easter crafts for kids!

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This post may contain affiliate links, read our Disclosure Policy for more information. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, thank you! I wanted to get creative today so while I was making dinner, I saw a fork and thought it could make a chick! ....and it WORKED!