prek homeschooling Archives

Free Printable Flashcards Alphabet Animals Cards

March 16, 2021 by Selena Robinson 22 Comments

If you’ve been enjoying our free printable flashcards series, we hope you’ll love today’s entry!

So far, we’ve featured flashcards for learning colors and shapes, but this set of free printable flashcards alphabet animals cards lets you teach the letters from A to Z with animals!

Most kids love animals and, in this set of free printable flashcards alphabet cards, you can use an animal to introduce each letter – from A to Z!

Printable Alphabet Animal Flashcards for Early Learners

These are so fun for young learners! Plus, they’re an excellent introduction to beginning letter sounds.

Read on to see how to get your set – free!

And, if you want to help kids begin practicing their handwriting, check out our companion Alphabet Animals Notebooking Pages for letter writing practice!

Help early learners to recognize letters and letter sounds with these Alphabet Animal Flashcards!

What’s In the Free Printable Flashcards Alphabet Animals Set?

To use these free printable flashcards alphabet animals cards, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are included in this post. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer Paper
Scissors
Laminator (useful for keeping the cards intact)

In this set, you’ll find free printable flashcards for every letter of the alphabet – each one featuring a different real or imaginary animal!

Featured animals include:

Alligator
Elephant
Monkey
Orangutan
Xiphias (Swordfish)
And 21 more!

You can use the cards to help kids learn animals, letters, letter sounds, or all three concepts!

You might even want to use the set as an introduction to an animal unit.

Try teaching the kids how to make each animal’s sound or how to move like each animal.

Printable A to Z Animal Flashcards for Kids

For the imaginary animals, ask the kids where they think an animal like that might live or how it might interact with people.

Place each card on a binder ring for easy use again and again!

Get a look at the alphabet animal flashcards in action in the video below.

Scroll down to get your free printable flashcards Alphabet Animals Flashcards!

Resources for Learning the Alphabet

If you’d like to even more resources to teach your children the ABCs, try these alphabet books and activities for little learners!

Books for Teaching the ABCs

Alphabet Crafts and Activities for Kids

Try these other ideas for early readers!

These alphabet animal notebooking pages are a fun way to practice handwriting!

Learn how to spell in American Sign Language with these printable sign language alphabet flashcards!

These printable cookie and cupcake alphabet worksheets are so fun for helping early learners practice letter recognition!

To get your set of our A to Z Animals: Alphabet Animals Flashcards, click the image or the link below!

You’ll get the cards sent to your inbox – plus, you’ll get our weekly newsletter this weekend!

>>> Printable Alphabet Animal Flashcards <<<

25 Super Easy Preschool Crafts You Can Make in 10 Minutes

May 28, 2020 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

I love to make crafts with my kids, especially when they’re very young.

What I don’t like is having to buy a whole lot of supplies (and expensive ones, at that!) for a project that I’ll only do once.

So, when I make a craft with my preschooler, I always prefer to do one that I can get done in 10 minutes or less.

After all, Pre-K kids have pretty short attention spans.

If you’re looking for some simple crafting fun for young kids, try this list of super easy preschool crafts you can make in just 10 minutes!

This list is full of easy PreK crafts for each season.

Some work well for spring, others for summer or fall, some are perfect for winter – and some are great any time of the year!

Read on the see the full list. And for more simple preschool ideas, check out my list of 10 preschool learning activities you can do in 10 minutes!

25 Super Easy Preschool Crafts

1. Toilet Roll Butterfly Craft – Look! We’re Learning!

2. Torn Paper Fall Tree Craft – Hands On As We Grow

3. Easy Snowflake Craft – Mama Smiles

4. No-Sew Sock Snowman Craft – Easy Peasy and Fun

5. Easy Wax Boats – Housing a Forest

6. Train Tape Resist Craft – Look! We’re Learning!

7. Easy Craft Stick Snakes – Crafty Morning

8. Coffee Filter Apple Craft – Look! We’re Learning!

9. Easy Shapes Salt Truck Craft – Sugar Aunts

10. Pringles Can Binoculars – Happy Hooligans

11. Farm Paper Bag Puppets – Look! We’re Learning!

12. Easy Paper Plate Watermelon Craft – ABC Creative Learning

13. Simple Fork Print Sunflower Craft – Crafty Morning

14. Simple Farm Craft with Stickers – I Heart Crafty Things

15. Coffee Filter Sun Craft – Look! We’re Learning!

16. Shape School Bus Craft – Look! We’re Learning!

17. Simple Cardboard Tube Construction Set – Inner Child Fun

18. Simple Craft Stick Photo Frame – Living Montessori Now

19. Woven Craft Stick Butterflies – The Craft Train

20. Sea Shell Salt Dough Craft – Teach Mama

21. Farm Shoebox Diorama – Look! We’re Learning!

22. Simple Airplane Craft – Learning 4 Kids

23. Paper Plate Cars – Glued to My Crafts

24. Clothespin Snowman Craft – Easy Peasy and Fun

25. Easy Shape Car Craft – Look! We’re Learning!

Did you like this post? Try these other early learning ideas!

This post is part of the Crafts for Kids Unit Study roundup! Stop by to read other great kids’ crafts posts from my fellow educators!

How to Create a Kids Crafting Kit {Free Printable Shopping List} from Crafty Mama in ME

9 Great Craft Book for Kids from Faith and Good Works

Unicorn Crafts for Kids from Schooling a Monkey

Most Popular Kids Crafts of the Year from The Moments at Home

Letter F Craft: Flamingo Fun! from Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading

Preschool Playdough Mats: Mountain Playdough Shape Mats

October 14, 2019 by Selena Robinson 6 Comments

With Piglet starting on preschool work this fall, we’ve been using a lot of preschool playdough mats.

So this week I’m sharing a brand new printable set of preschool mats: Mountain Playdough Shape Mats!

These are super fun for little ones who are working on fine motor skills, shape recognition, and more!

Plus, they’re a perfect activity for preschoolers who are working on a geology unit along with their older siblings.

Read on to see how to get yours for free!

And don’t forget to stop by and check out some of our other preschool printables, including our Apple Tree Counting Mat and our Beach Playdough Number Mats!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Mountain Playdough Shape Mats

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

Once you laminate these mats, you can use them again and again, so here are a few different ways to use them with your preschoolers.

Give your child a Do A Dot marker and challenge him or her to fill in each shape with a different color. Or each dot with a different color.

You can even ask your child to make a color pattern (one green circle, one red circle, one blue circle, then repeat it).

Hand out circular stickers and let your child stick them into the circles. This is particularly great for toddlers or for times when you want to avoid a potential mess. 😉

Use playdough to fill in the circles. Have your child roll small bits of dough into circles and place them in each circle to form each shape. This is excellent for fine motor practice.

Give your child dry erase crayons and bring the mats along when you’re going to a place you’ll have to wait.

Good choices include the doctor’s office, the drive-through, or a long car ride. Toss a basic washcloth into the car and use it to wipe off the mats for reuse.

Scroll down to get your copy of our free Preschool Playdough Mats: Mountain Playdough Shape Mats!

Don’t miss these other preschool resources!

Plus, get more ideas for working with preschoolers on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

To get your copy of our free Preschool Playdough Mats: Mountain Do A Dot Shape Mats, sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll get these and lots of other exclusive learning printables when you subscribe!

This post is part of the Mountains Unit Study roundup! Stop by to read even more learning ideas about mountains from my fellow bloggers!

Adventurous Mountain Books your Tween will Love from Crafty Mama in ME

Children’s Picture Books About Camping from The Jenny Evolution

Mountain Sequencing Puzzle from Schooling a Monkey

Making a Mountain Out of A Mole Hill from Tales Of Education At Home

My Side of the Mountain Survival Lessons from FrogMom

Preschool Playdough Mats: Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats

February 20, 2017 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Spring is just around the corner! And down here, spring usually means lots and lots of bugs. Some are downright frightening to me (palmetto bugs), but some like caterpillars, snails, and butterflies are just adorable.

I thought these cute Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats would be a fun spring-themed addition to our growing collection of Preschool Playdough Mats!

These are a super way to work on fine motor skills, counting, and letters with toddlers and preschoolers!

If you love these, be sure to grab our Rainbow Playdough Mats as well!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats

To use these birds and bugs spring 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 (for keeping the mats sturdy)
Playdough

These preschool playdough mats are a wonderful spring activity for toddlers and preschoolers!

There are 36 mats in all – one for each letter of the alphabet (featuring uppercase and lowercase) and one for each number 0-9.

Kids can roll playdough into long ropes and then use it to trace the outline of each letter and number.

This is great fine motor skills practice and an excellent way to help them learn to recognize uppercase and lowercase letters and their numbers!

Scroll down to get your Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats!

Don’t miss these other spring resources!

Follow our Spring Activities for Kids board on Pinterest for more spring learning fun!

To get your copy of our Preschool Playdough Mats: Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>>>> Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats <<<<<

This post is part of the Free Homeschool Printables linkup from iHomeschool Network! Head over to grab even more freebies for your homeschool from my fellow bloggers!

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.

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!

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

Free Winter Printables for Preschoolers

December 13, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Winter is a great time to get kids excited about learning! Especially when the weather is so awful no one wants to venture outside. 🙂

If you have older kids (like I do), it can be tough to keep your younger ones involved in your homeschooling lessons. Our preschooler always wants to be at the table with her older siblings during class, no matter what we’re learning about. I could be teaching organic chemistry and she’d want to be involved.

So I use a lot of preschool printables to keep her learning along with the older kids. If you enjoy using winter printables with your children, these free winter printables for preschoolers are a fun way to let your younger kids get involved!

And if you love these, don’t miss our printable winter sight word flashcards – perfect for working on early reading skills!

Free Winter Printables for Preschoolers

1. Free Snowflake Counting Flashcards – Look! We’re Learning!

2. Printable Winter Clothes Dress Up Busy Bag – Teaching Mama

3. Printable Winter Easy Pack for Kids – Kids Activities Blog

4. Winter Printable Pack for Toddlers and Preschoolers – Totschooling

5. Printable Winter Nature Walk Trivia – Rain or Shine Mamma

6. Roll A Snowman Printable Game – Kiddy Charts

7. Free Winter Coloring Pages – Crafty Morning

8. Free Winter Printable Activity Pack – A Little Pinch of Perfect

9. Printable Winter Bucket List for Preschoolers – No Time for Flashcards

10. Winter Color by Number Printables – Itsy Bitsy Fun

11. Color the Snowman Buttons Printable – Gift of Curiosity

12. Winter PreK/K Pack – This Reading Mama

13. Arctic Animal Flash Cards – Look! We’re Learning!

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Preschool Playdough Mats: Apple Tree Counting Mat

September 9, 2016 by Selena Robinson 7 Comments

Piglet, our youngest, is starting PreK this year. She is so excited about it.

Of course, she also thinks that she will begin kindergarten immediately after the first day of preschool.

Since she’s working on PreK concepts, I’ll be sharing a lot more preschool resources this year, including preschool playdough mats!

Here in the U.S., we’re all gearing up for fall, so here’s a fun Playdough Apple Tree Counting Mat you can use with your toddler or preschooler too!

Read on to see how to grab this for your students.

And for more apple fun, don’t miss our Apple Alike! Same or Different Worksheets or our Apple Preschool Counting Puzzles!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Apple Tree Counting Mat

Here are the supplies we used for our mats: (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

That’s it! You definitely want to laminate these first so that they can be reused.

Since the apples are grouped on the trees in sets of four, this was a simple way to work on skip counting.

Just add four apples to each tree and count them.

Use a different color to work on counting and sorting. (How many green apples are there? How many red apples are there?)

Then a little reinforcement. If there are four green apples on this tree and four green apples on this tree, how many green apples are there altogether? Oh, so four plus four is how much?

Next thing you know, your preschooler will be saying that 4 x 2 = 8. 🙂

Scroll down to get your copy of our Playdough Apple Tree Counting Mat!

Check out these other fall learning ideas for preschoolers!

And don’t miss our list of awesome fall books for kids to share this year!

Get more ideas for fall fun with kids from my Fall Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

Grab your copy of our Printable Apple Tree Counting Mat for free when you sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll receive access to this printable, plus loads of other learning resources, in our exclusive Subscriber Library!

This post is part of the Free Unit Studies roundup! Stop by to see more fun posts about Apples and Pumpkins from my fellow bloggers!

Corn Kernel Fall Tree Craft from Play Dough & Popsicles

Kids in the Kitchen: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Crafty Mama in ME

Learning About Pumpkins {Free Printables Round Up} from Faith and Good Works

Books about Pumpkins for Kids from CraftCreateCalm

Pumpkin Recipes for Kids from FrogMom

Harvest Theme Word Search from Tales of Education at Home

Board Books About Apples and Pumpkins for Toddlers from The Jenny Evolution

Pumpkin Science Activities from iGameMom

Apple Read and Play from My Storytime Corner

Pumpkin Preschool Printables from Living life and learning

Pumpkin Patch Alphabet Match from Schooling a Monkey

Apple Sight Word Game from Books and Giggles

Challenge Math – Apple Theme from Planet Smarty Pants

Fun Frog Books for Preschool

May 13, 2016 by Selena Robinson 13 Comments

Are you planning a frog homeschool unit study for your kids soon? Be sure to add in reading! And this roundup of fun frog books for preschool is awesome for helping little learners practice reading skills, learn about frogs, and have fun at the same time!

I’m also sharing lots of frog unit study resources from my fellow bloggers that are perfect for rounding out a frog unit! Read on to grab them!

Fun Frog Books for Preschool

Want more froggy fun? Check out the other frog-themed unit study resources from my fellow bloggers!

Find the Letter F is for Frogs from 3 Boys and a Dog

Frog Life Cycle Free Printables from Natural Beach Living

Frog Books for Preschool from Look! We’re Learning!

Frog Anatomy Worksheets from Living Life and Learning

Frog Hop Activity from CraftCreateCalm

Make a Fun Handprint and Footprint Tissue Paper Frog from Crafty Mama in ME

Free Resources for Frog Life Cycle from Something 2 Offer

5 Easy Frog Exercise Moves for Kids from FrogMom

Children’s Books Featuring Frogs from The Jenny Evolution

Frogs of the Rainforest from Tales of Education at Home

Frog Theme Color Words Book {free printable} from Books and Giggles

Recycled K Cup Frog Craft and Skip Counting Activity from Artsy Momma

Frog Life Cycle for Kids {Printable Set} from The Natural Homeschool

Lots of Learning and Fun with Frogs Sensory Bin from Living Montessori Now

Frog Race Graphing Game from Simple Fun for Kids

Poison Frog activity from Schooling a Monkey

Non-fiction Frog Emergent Readers from Royal Baloo

Interactive Frog Life Cycle App for Kids from iGameMom

Frog Writing Prompts from The Usual Mayhem

Get more unit study study ideas from my Unit Studies board on Pinterest!

Ten 10 Minute Preschool Activities

February 22, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Have you ever spent an evening planning an activity for your preschooler only to find that it lasted all of 10 minutes? I have. It’s extraordinarily frustrating.

I cannot tell you the number of times I made that mistake with Tigger when she was younger. I’d meticulously plan a unit study, complete with books, games, activities, crafts, and more – only to find that she’d lost interest after just a few minutes.

But let’s be real: Preschoolers are not known for their long attention spans. Which means that when it comes to activities, the quicker the better. And if the setup is also simple, then that’s a win-win!

So here are ten 10 minute preschool activities that are fun, easy to set up, and educational! Don’t worry. With these, your preschooler won’t have time to get bored!

Image c/o: dmitrimaruta / depositphotos

Ten 10 Minute Preschool Activities

Pick a part of the human body and do a craft about it. These can be as simple as a cut-and-paste activity. For example, try this simple hands-on craft about taste buds!
Read a great picture book with your preschooler. If you need book suggestions, check out my list of the best picture books for three-year-olds!
Practice scissor cutting skills. Learning to use scissors is an important preschool skill. This set of bee-themed scissor practice printables is simple to set up!
Go on a nature walk. Take your child outside and look at the plants, animals, and insects in your neighborhood. If you have a lot of trees nearby, grab these free leaf identification flashcards and see how many you can spot!
Learn sign language. ASL is a wonderful language for both deaf and hearing kids and you can learn to sign a few words in just a few minutes! Check out this video to learn how to sign weather words in ASL.
Look through a kids’ cookbook and find a recipe to make together. This list of fun children’s cookbooks features some great selections!
Do a simple science experiment. In just a few minutes, you can show your child a scientific principle or two! Try this quick experiment to learn how to make an egg float!
Design a map of the solar system. Use this set of free printable solar system flashcards to set up a universe on your dining room table!
Make moon sand. When the weather’s nice outside, take your preschooler outdoors and make this recipe for colored moon sand together! It’s an awesome play material and a great way to incorporate sensory integration in your day.
Create a batch of edible play dough. This recipe for edible dairy-free play dough is super fun and super easy to make!

Try these other activities for early learners!

Harry the Dirty Dog Extension Activity

How to Teach Preschoolers to Play Quietly

The Best Picture Books for Three-Year-Olds

For more preschool learning ideas, follow my Learning for Little Ones board on Pinterest!

And for more ideas to teach kids of all ages, check out The Big Book of Homeschooling Ideas!

The Big Book of Homeschool Ideas by iHomeschool Network

This post is part of the “Useful Tasks You Can Do in 5 to 60 Minutes” linkup from iHomeschool Network! Stop by to see the other quick tasks you can get accomplished in your homeschool!

Free Printable Flashcards: Colors

August 15, 2014 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

We’re back with another set of free printable flashcards! Last week, we featured free shape flashcards and this week we’re on to colors with a set of free printable color flashcards!

Little hands just seem to like little objects. It’s only natural. 🙂 So these flashcards are a bit smaller than traditional cards, which makes them perfect for toddlers and preschoolers!

If you enjoy using these, don’t forget to check out our other preschool flashcards, including our Sign Language Alphabet cards and our Snowflake Counting Flashcards! And if you’re introducing your kids to Spanish, our Spanish Color Flashcards are perfecto!

What’s In the Free Printable Flashcards: Colors Pack?

To use these flashcards, you’ll need the following:

In the pack, you’ll find printable colors flashcards for the following colors:

Red
Blue
Yellow
Green
Purple
Orange
Black
White
Pink
Brown
Beige
and Gray

The first set includes both color swatches and words, so you can use them to teach the colors. The second set only features the color swatches, which makes them a good tool for a miniature pop quiz!

If your kids are anything like mine, your flashcards can start to look at bit “weathered” after a few lessons, so you might want to laminate them to make them more durable.

To get your set of Free Printable Flashcards: Colors, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

Free Printable Colors Flashcards – Look! We’re Learning! Store

More Resources for Learning Colors

If you’d like even more resources for teaching colors to your toddler or preschooler, check out these great suggestions!

Color Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Books for Teaching Colors

Grab more awesome flashcards for little learners below!

And don’t forget to follow my Learning for Little Ones board on Pinterest for more ideas you can use for early childhood education!