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Uppercase and Lowercase Cupcake Letter Matching Activity

March 30, 2020 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

Working with a kindergartner is kind of like walking on a tightrope.

They don’t want to do anything too “baby-ish”, but they’re not quite ready for “real school” either.

Except for my four-year-old.

She wants to do EVERYTHING her older siblings are doing, including learning subjects and predicates, as well as order of operations.

Fun Hands-On Cupcake Letter Matching Activity

Naturally, I’m trying to put the brakes on a little, especially since she’s our last child we’ll ever homeschool.

But she’s ready to go on to more advanced concepts and there’s no stopping her!

So I thought she’d love this fun cupcake-themed letter matching activity for learning about lowercase and uppercase letters!

Cupcake Letter Matching Puzzles for Letter Recognition

And she did.

She thought it was one of the most awesome activities we’ve done yet!

Read on to see how to get a copy of this printable alphabet activity for your little ones and score a digital drag and drop version too!

And check out our cupcake playdough mats for even more fun PreK learning!

These cupcake letter puzzles are such a cute way to practice recognizing uppercase and lowercase letters!

Cupcake Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching Activity

To use this cupcake uppercase and lowercase letter matching activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

  • Printer (with ink)
  • Printer paper
  • Laminator (for durability)
  • Scissors

To get started, just print out the cupcake pages. Then cut out each cupcake.

Cupcake Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching
Cupcake Letter Matching Activity for Kids

Finally, cut the “frosting” with the lowercase letter away from the “cake” bottom with the uppercase letter.

Printable Cupcake Letter Matching Activity for Preschool

How to Use the Cupcake Letter Matching Activity

Once you cut apart the uppercase cupcakes and the lowercase frosting pieces, just mix them up and hand them to your eager early learner!

Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

Piglet wasted no time in getting started matching up each frosting and cake combination.

Cupcake Letter Match

As she found each matching letter set, she’d reassemble the completed cupcake.

Cupcake Letter Matching for Kids

It didn’t take long for her to start working her way through the entire alphabet.

Fun Letter Matching Activity for Kids

And making quite a lovely batch of cupcakes!

Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching Activity for Kids

This was such a fun and cute letter matching activity!

And, as you can see, she absolutely loved it!

Cupcake Letter Matching Activity for Kids

Ready to try this with your kids?

Early learners will have a ball with this fun cupcake letter matching activity featuring uppercase and lowercase letters!

Scroll down to pick up this cupcake-themed alphabet matching activity!

Don’t miss these other fun early learning ideas!

Grab these fun busy bee scissor skills printables to help little ones practice using scissors!
Help your preschooler love reading with this preschool homeschool reading list!
Overwhelmed by planning your kindergartner's homeschool lessons Try this simple homeschool kindergarten program instead!

To get your copy of our Cupcake Letter Matching Activity, check it out below!

Want to score the printable activity and a digital version you can use on your computer or tablet?

Stop by my Teachers Pay Teachers store to get the printable + digital bundle of this cupcake letter activity for preschoolers!

Get a printable cupcake letter matching activity for little ones and a digital version you can use online! Great for early ages who are distance learning!

>>> Printable + Digital Cupcake Letter Matching – Teachers Pay Teachers <<<

Filed Under: Homeschooling Printables, Teaching Printables Tagged With: alphabet, kindergarten, learning alphabet, letter matching activity, prek homeschool

Preschool Playdough Mats: Ladybug Playdough Mats

March 19, 2018 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Ladybug Preschool Playdough Mats
These printable ladybug playdough mats are so fun for preschool motor skill practice!

Preschoolers (and adults, for that matter) love playing with playdough! And, by the way, when you need something to occupy your kids quietly, playdough is a wonderful resource. It’s quiet, it’s easy to clean up, and it’s affordable.

On a personal note – I just want to know: Are my kids the only ones who mix up ALL the playdough colors? I really struggled to find some dough that looked decent for this post and it was tough! Out of the 20 cans of playdough in our house, I found one that was actually the color on the lid. One. Someone please tell me this is normal.

Ladybug Playdough Mats

Even though kids like to use playdough to make all kinds of wacky colors, playdough can be much more than a time-filler for kids. It can be used to reinforce fine motor skill development, to encourage literacy, and to provide some much-needed sensory input.

So, I wanted to add a few more preschool playdough mats with a fun spring theme: ladybug playdough mats! These are awesome for toddlers and preschoolers who are learning about spring and how to recognize circles!

Read on to get yours free! And check out our Over the Rainbow Playdough Mats for more spring sensory fun!

Work on fine motor skills - the fun way - with these printable ladybug playdough mats for preschoolers!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Ladybug Playdough Mats

To use these playdough mats, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are provided here for convenience. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

  • Printer (with ink)
  • Printer paper
  • Laminator
  • Playdough

Printable Ladybug Playdough Mats

There are three mats in this pack: One with a red and white ladybug, one with a ladybug crawling up a colorful flower, and a third with a black and red ladybug.

Ladybug Playdough Mats for Kids

The graphics on these mats were done by the lovely Red Pepper and they’re so cute! Plus, they all feature circles. So if you’re doing shape of the week or a shape unit, this is a fab circle recognition activity.

Printable Ladybug Playdough Mats for Kids

We formed rough circles out of dough and our preschooler squashed them with her hands to fit the circles on the mats.

Preschool Ladybug Playdough Mats

We also made balls and filled in the mat with those as well. This made a super easy and quick sensory and shape activity for spring!

Scroll down to get your free Ladybug Playdough Mats!

Be sure to check out these other playdough mats!

Kids will love making their own colorful rainbows with these rainbow playdough mats!

These alphabet and number birds and bugs playdough mats are fun fine motor, alphabet, and counting practice for preschoolers!

Try a fun way to teach counting to your preschooler - this Apple Tree Printable Counting Mat!

And for more early learning fun, follow my Learning for Little Ones board on Pinterest!

Ladybug Love Playdough Mats

To get your copy of our Ladybug Playdough Mats free, sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll get these playdough mats, plus lots of other exclusive freebies, in our Subscriber Library!

Filed Under: Homeschooling Printables, PreK Homeschooling Tagged With: homeschool preschool, ladybug playdough mats, playdough mats, playdough mats for preschool, prek homeschool, preschool, preschool playdough mats

Preschool Playdough Mats: Rainbow Playdough Mats

February 3, 2017 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Seasonal allergies aside, I absolutely adore spring. Next to fall, it’s my favorite season. Well, summer might be in the running also, which tells you how I feel about winter. 

We don’t see rainbows that often in our area, but when we do, they are gorgeous. If I happen to see one while driving, I’ve been known to shout “Look, kids! A rainbow!”

They’re just as fascinating to me now as they were when I was a kid.

Printable Rainbow Play Dough Mats for Kids

For our newest preschool playdough mats, I wanted to share one with a fun spring theme. And that’s why today we have our Over the Rainbow Playdough Mats!

Guess what? They’re FREE! Read on to see how to get yours!

To round out your spring unit, check out these adorable spring crafts for kids to make. And for more rainbow fun, don’t miss our Rainbow Number Word Matching Puzzles!

Pick up these printable rainbow playdough mats for some colorful fine motor fun with early learners!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Rainbow Playdough Mats

To use these rainbow playdough mats, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

  • Printer (with ink)
  • Printer paper
  • Laminator
  • Playdough

Printable Rainbow Playdough Mats

You can use these without laminating them, but you probably won’t be able to reuse them a second time if you do.

If you’re waffling on buying a laminator, they’re totally worth it. 

Printable Rainbow Playdough Mat for Kids

This product includes one color rainbow mat and one black and white mat, so it’s a great way to talk about colors with preschoolers as well!

Using a Rainbow Playdough Mat

Since these rainbow mats use several colors, kids can break out many colors of playdough to use together. That’s always fun. 

Rainbow Preschool Playdough Mat for Kids

Work on one color row at a time and make sure that kids can recognize and name each one before moving on.

Making a Rainbow Out of Playdough

This is also a good fine motor activity, because preschoolers can use their hands to form the playdough into ropes and then mold them to fit the mat pattern.

Preschool Rainbow Playdough Mats

Once kids follow the color playdough mat pattern, they can recreate it on the black and white mat.

Or just come up with their own color scheme instead!

Kids will love making their own colorful rainbows with these rainbow playdough mats!

Scroll down to get your free Over the Rainbow Playdough Mats!

Don’t miss these other preschool playdough mats while you’re here!

Help tots and preschoolers practice letter and number literacy with these spring literacy mats! These are wonderful for welcoming the warmer weather with little ones!

This printable rainbow number word puzzles set is so fun for helping early learners recognize numerals and number words!

And pick up our Spring Sight Word Flashcards to help get preschoolers reading!

Work on early literacy skills with this fun set of printable spring sight word flashcards! Perfect for spring reading!

And see more ways to make learning fun for early grades on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

This free preschool playdough mats rainbow pack is a super spring activity for PreK!

To get your free copy of our Over the Rainbow Playdough Mats, sign up for our email newsletter!

You’ll get these printables, and lots more, in our exclusive Subscriber Library! Just use the widget below to enroll.

NOTE: If you don’t see your welcome email, check your spam folder.

Learning about colors is so fun with these printable preschool rainbow playdough mats! Laminate them and use them over and over again for quiet play!

Filed Under: Homeschooling Printables, PreK Homeschooling Tagged With: free rainbow playdough mats, playdough, playdough mats, prek homeschool, prek homeschooling, preschool, preschool playdough mats, printable playdough mats, printable preschool playdough mats, printable rainbow playdough mats, rainbow playdough mats, rainbow playdough mats for preschool

Simple Harry the Dirty Dog Activity for Tots

April 12, 2016 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Piglet and I read the classic children’s story Harry the Dirty Dog together and she absolutely loved it.

So, we decided to share a simple art activity together that would help her connect with the events in the story.

And that’s how this super easy Harry the Dirty Dog activity came about.

Fun Harry the Dirty Dog Activity for Toddlers

This prewriting activity is simple enough to try with toddlers, tots, and preschoolers and you can prep it in just a few minutes.

Read on to get your copy of this fun toddler prewriting activity free!

And, for more fun with early education, don’t miss our list of 20 fun printable resources for preschool!

Share this fun and easy Harry the Dirty Dog prewriting activity with toddlers and preschoolers after reading the storybook together!

Harry the Dirty Dog Activity for Toddlers

This activity is extremely easy. Honestly. Plus, it’s guaranteed to get your little ones into the story!

What You’ll Need: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

  • The book Harry the Dirty Dog
  • Crayola Dry Erase Crayons
  • A copy of our Clean the Dirty Dog Printable
  • A laminator

Harry the Dirty Dog Activity Supplies

Once you print the Clean the Dirty Dog printable, run it through the laminator.

Then get out your dry erase crayons.

Harry the Dirty Dog Activity Dry Erase Supplies

You’ll only need the black one. 

I like the Crayola Dry Erase crayons, because they come with the cleaning mitt, which you’ll also need.

Harry the Dirty Dog Activity Coloring

In the story, Harry hates taking baths, so he hides his scrubbing brush and runs away from home.

While he’s away, he gets super dirty – running through a construction site, sliding down a coal chute, and so on.

Harry the Dirty Dog PreK Activity

So our first step was to get our white dog dirtied up!

Coloring Harry the Dirty Dog Activity

I just turned Piglet loose with the crayon.

Harry the Dirty Dog Extension Activity

Boy, he really got dirty, didn’t he?

Tot Harry the Dirty Dog Activity

Making our white dog dirty was probably Piglet’s favorite part of the entire activity. 

Clean the Dirty Dog Activity

When Harry returns home, he’s so dirty that his family doesn’t recognize him.

Frightened, he digs up the scrubbing brush, runs into the house, and jumps into the bathtub.

Harry the Dirty Dog Activity for Tots and PreK

Once he’s all clean and scrubbed, the kids know that the black dog with white spots is actually Harry, their white dog with black spots.

Naturally, we had to clean Harry up too! And that’s where the dry erase mitt came in handy.

Harry the Dirty Dog Activity for Toddlers

Aw…look how clean he is!

To do this art activity with your littles, get a copy of our free Clean the Dirty Dog printable below!

>>> Clean the Dirty Dog Printable Activity <<<

Harry the Dirty Dog Activity for PreK and Tots

Want more book-related learning fun? Check out these posts!

Reading Charlotte's Web with your kids? Bring the story to life with this fun Charlotte's Web craft little ones can make!

Introduce kids to the helpers in your town with these kids' books about community helpers! Great for read-aloud time with early learners!

Hands-On Learning about Taste Buds

This post is part of the Read It, Make It Book + Craft Week linkup from Emma Owl! Get 50 ideas for arts and crafts based on children’s books!

50 Childrens Art and Craft Ideas Themed Around Books

Filed Under: Homeschooling Printables, PreK Homeschooling, Reading Tagged With: children's books, kids books, prek, prek homeschool, reading, reading for kids, tot school

How to Teach Preschoolers to Play Quietly

January 28, 2013 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Are you homeschooling more than one child? If so, you’ve probably dealt with the challenge of getting your preschoolers to play quietly while your older kids are working. When I first started this school year, I envisioned all of my children sitting quietly at the table working together.

Here’s the problem with that scenario: Roo and Pooh are three and four years old, respectively. They’re not going to sit quietly on their own for long.

Instead of peacefully working, Roo took to making faces at Tigger while she was trying to work and Pooh busied himself by asking me a million and one questions. Something had to give.

Fortunately, I learned a wonderful way to teach preschoolers to play quietly and I’m sharing it with you all today!

How to Teach Preschoolers to Play Quietly

How We Taught Our Preschoolers to Play Quietly

What helped us get our preschoolers to play quietly? Morning Time.

When you get a chance, click over and read the post about Morning Time at Hodgepodge to find out what it entails, but it’s basically a training session to help the younger kids get used to working quietly by themselves.

I decided to let them listen to a Bible drama about the 10 Plagues and play with LEGO DUPLO Blocks. It did take a few tries to help them understand that they actually had to be quiet for about 20 minutes, but they got the hang of it by the end.

Tips for Getting Preschoolers to Play Quietly

That picture right there? A thing of quiet beauty and a joy forever. 🙂

We also instituted a list of Quiet Time activities. Since the boys aren’t reading yet, I made a sheet with pictures of quiet activities they can choose from.

They can select which one they want to do and then stick with it for 20 minutes while I finish a lesson with Tigger. It’s working so far!

Quiet Time Activity Cards

If you’d like to use a Quiet Time activity list with your kids, feel free to download our free Quiet Time Activity Cards! You can cut them out, laminate them (here’s an affiliate link for my favorite laminator), and let your preschoolers pick which activity they’d like to do!

To get your set, click the image or the link below to download them!

Learning Printables from Look! We're Learning!

>>>Free Quiet Time Activity Cards<<<

Teach Preschoolers to Play Quietly

Resources to Help Preschoolers Play Quietly:

Here are some more excellent resources to help your kids learn to enjoy quiet play!

  • Big Mazes & More Workbook: Ages 6-8
  • Alma’s Designs My Quiet Book
  • Melissa & Doug Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles in a Box – Vehicles

For more resources for your smallest learners, follow my Learning for Little Ones board on Pinterest!

And get even more ideas for parenting little ones below!

The Best Picture Books for Three-Year-Olds

The Best Picture Books for Three-Year-Olds

Free Printable Flashcards: Alphabet Animals - Look! We're Learning!

Free Alphabet Animals Flashcards

Ten Minute Preschool Activities

10 Ten Minute Preschool Activities


Filed Under: Homeschooling, PreK Homeschooling Tagged With: parenting, prek, prek homeschool, preschool

Hi! I'm Selena, a veteran teacher and homeschool mom to four. I'm so glad you're here!
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