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Preschool Playdough Mats: Farm Shape Playdough Mats

August 23, 2018 by Selena Robinson 5 Comments

I love teaching shapes to early learners. It’s just plain fun.

There are shapes all around us! So, once you introduce basic shapes to your preschoolers, expect them to point them out everywhere they look.

*Pointing to a window* – “Look, Mommy! A square!”

*Pointing to a plate* – “Look, Mommy! A circle!”

*Me pointing to the toddler bed in which mine should take a nap* – “Look! A rectangle! Don’t you want to get in it?”

(Doesn’t work, by the way.)

These farm shape playdough mats are great for building fine motor skills and shape recognition. And they’re a nice, quiet learning activity for your kids to work with on their own.

Toddlers and preschoolers love to work with preschool playdough mats, such as our Apple Tree Playdough Mat and our Beach Number Playdough Mats.

And these shape playdough mats are tons of fun too! Kids can use dot markers or playdough to make shapes all by themselves.

Read on to see how to get yours! And don’t miss our list of farm books for kids to read!

Printable Farm Playdough Shape Mats

To use these Farm Playdough Shape Mats, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are provided in this post For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This product includes four mats featuring all four basic shapes:

Triangle
Circle
Square
Rectangle

You can print them and let kids use dot markers to fill in the shapes! Or if you prefer, you can laminate them and let kids use them with playdough!

You could also try using stickers instead of markers or laminating them and using them with dry-erase crayons or fingerpaint. There are tons of ways to help kids use these and work on fine motor skills!

One thing about laminating these if you plan to use markers. The ink will smudge, so let your child stand up and use the dot marker. You can just rinse it off afterward and reuse it later!

Hint: These are great for busy bag work too. Just print them two to a page to make miniature shape playdough mats you can place in a busy bag for on-the-go fun!

Scroll down to get your set of Farm Shape Playdough Mats!

Add more learning ideas to your farm unit with these posts!

Plus, see even more ways to teach preschoolers on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

To get your copy of our Farm Shape Playdough Mats, click the image or the link below to grab them from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>>Farm Shape Playdough Mats – Teachers Pay Teachers<<<

Ocean Commotion: Number and Literacy Playdough Mats

May 3, 2018 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the coast. I grew up near it and the smell of sea air is basically the best scent on earth (in my humble opinion).

Kids love the ocean too! And that’s why I thought that the ocean would be a fun theme for a new set of number and literacy playdough mats for preschoolers. These are so perfect for summer alphabet and number learning!

Little ones can use these playdough mats and their favorite playdough colors to form all of the uppercase and lowercase letters from A to Z and the numbers from 0 to 9!

Read on to see how to get your copy of these alphabet and number ocean playdough mats! And, for more early literacy fun, check out our printable rhyming word puzzles! Plus, check out all of our fun playdough mats for kids while you’re here!

Ocean Commotion: Literacy Playdough Mats

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

Printer (with ink)
Printer Paper
Laminator (recommended for best results)
Playdough

This set of ocean playdough mats includes 36 different printables:

26 mats featuring uppercase and lowercase letters from A to Z
10 mats featuring numbers from 0 to 9

To use them, let the kids choose their favorite playdough colors and form long ropes.

Once they make the “ropes”, they can connect them to trace the letters and numbers on the mats.

It’s also fun to use ocean-themed playdough colors for this activity!

Working with playdough is an excellent way to build fine motor skills, because it allows little ones to practice molding and forming – a great introduction to the skills they’ll need for writing later on.

Plus, they’re excellent for quiet play!

Scroll down to get your set of our Ocean Number and Literacy Playdough Mats!

Don’t miss these other early literacy activities for kids!

For more early learning ideas, check out my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

To get your copy of our Ocean Commotion: Number and Literacy Playdough Mats, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>> Ocean Commotion: Number and Literacy Playdough Mats <<<

Preschool Playdough Mats: Ladybug Playdough Mats

March 19, 2018 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

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.

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!

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.)

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.

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.

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

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

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!

Printable Activities for The Grouchy Ladybug

March 1, 2018 by Selena Robinson 8 Comments

Spring is finally here! And it’s a great time of year to read one of our favorite children’s books: The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. As we read the story, we talked a bit about how ladybugs are beautifully designed with colorful spots and lines.

And that’s when I decided to share a few printable activities for The Grouchy Ladybug that help kids learn to work with numbers and fractions!

$Ladybug Counting and Math Activity$

Ladybugs are so perfectly divided into quarters that they make wonderful math counting frames and fraction templates. And that’s what you’ll see in these printable ladybug math activities!

Read on to see how to get this set for free! And for more fun with ladybugs, don’t miss our easy coffee filter ladybug craft!

$These printable ladybug math activities are perfect for sharing with the kids this spring!$

Reading The Grouchy Ladybug with Kids

Our kids love reading The Grouchy Ladybug. They always laugh at how cantankerous the ladybug is at the beginning.

He’s just mean and stubborn and unnecessarily contentious.

But after an encounter with a much, much, much larger animal (a whale), he is sufficiently chastened to show a little gratitude to his fellow ladybug.

Printable Math Activities for The Grouchy Ladybug

To do these printable activities for The Grouchy Ladybug, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

$Printable Ladybug Math Lesson for Kids$

To take the ladybug theme a bit farther, we created a couple of hands-on math activities for kids.

In one of the math activities, we had the boys color ladybug fraction templates.

They took turns creating basic fractions on their ladybugs.

They could show 1/4.

Or they could show 3/4.

Or they could work with the halves and show 1/2. You can also have kids use all of the pieces to discuss what the word “whole” means in mathematics and that fractions are simply “part” of a whole piece.

$Printable Ladybug Math Lesson$

Then we started working with our ladybug “spots”.

After laminating the pages and cutting them out, we used spots on either side of the ladybug to practice counting, basic addition, and subtraction with the ladybug spots.

As they added up the number of spots on each side, they learned a few ways to add and reach 10. Plus, there are a few extra spots in case of any whoopsies while cutting.

Scroll down to get your copy of our printable activities for The Grouchy Ladybug: Ladybug Math Activities!

Don’t miss these other great posts!

And for more bug-themed fun, try these ideas!

Get plenty of inspiration for teaching preschoolers in your homeschool on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

$Ladybug Learning Math Activities$

To get your copy of our Ladybug Learning Math Activities printables, sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll get access to this printable, and lots more, in our exclusive Subscriber Library!

This post is part of the “A Book and a Big Idea: Spring” linkup at iHomeschool Network! Stop by and see how our fellow bloggers are learning about spring with their families this year!

Preschool Worksheets: Snowflake Preschool Matching Worksheets

January 18, 2018 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Winter is not my favorite season, but I absolutely love the beauty of snowflakes. Since we don’t see snow often in the South, a snowfall is still a big event down here.

In fact, we got a steady snowfall for a day last month and the kids just sat in the front of the living room window watching. It was basically our Super Bowl. 🙂

One of the most incredible things about snowflakes is that, as far as scientists can tell, no two snowflakes are alike! So it’s really difficult to find two similar snowflakes in nature.

But these snowflake preschool matching worksheets let kids find pairs of similar snowflakes in no time!

Since matching similar objects is a major preschool objective, these winter printables are perfect for practicing this skill with your little ones!

Read on to see how to get your set of these preschool worksheets! Then check out our winter literacy playdough mats for more fun winter preschool learning!

Preschool Worksheets: Snowflake Preschool Matching Worksheets

To use these snowflake preschool matching worksheets, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links provided below. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This set of preschool worksheets features two color snowflake matching printables…

and two black line snowflake worksheets. So you don’t need color ink to use these!

These are great for learning to pay attention to detail. Some of these snowflakes look very similar at first, but as kids look more closely, they’ll spot the differences.

This set also includes a full answer key, so kids can check their own work afterward!

Scroll down to get your set of our Snowflake Preschool Matching Worksheets!

Don’t miss these other winter learning ideas for early grades!

See even more winter lessons and activities on my Winter Activities for Kids Pinterest board!

To get your copy of our Preschool Snowflake Matching Worksheets, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>> Snowflake Preschool Matching Worksheets <<<

100 Fun Learning Activities for Preschoolers

November 6, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

When you take on the responsibility of teaching toddlers and preschoolers at home or in the classroom, it can be a challenge to come up with new activities that will hold their attention.

We’ve gotten to homeschool four little ones in our homeschooling journey and each one of them has been different.

They’ve had different interests, different learning styles, and very different personalities.

So the activities that worked for one preschooler didn’t necessarily work for the next or the next or the one after that!

And that’s why it’s good to have a huge variety of preschool activities that you can go to at anytime.

Read below to get some inspiration from this list of 100(!) fun learning activities for preschoolers!

These activities feature plenty of practice with early concepts in math, literacy, fine motor skills, and even science!

If you try some of these, let me know which is your favorite!

And be sure to check out our list of fun preschool worksheets and activities for more hands-on learning!

100 Fun Learning Activities for Preschoolers

Image c/o: yanlev / depositphotos1. Preschool Color and Number Sorting Worksheets – Look! We’re Learning!

2. Early Childhood Science Activities – Susan C. Evans

3. Five Senses Unit – Some Random Lady

4. Fall Preschool Worksheets – Look! We’re Learning!

5. 3-Step ABC Sensory Bin – This Outnumbered Mama

6. Printable Emotions Daily Check-in – Totschooling

7. Static Electricity Butterfly Experiment – I Heart Crafty Things

8. Preschool Farm Counting Worksheets – Look! We’re Learning!

9. Butterfly Math Mat – Look! We’re Learning!

10. DIY Color Matching Activity – Natural Beach Living

11. Printable Farm Shape Matching Activity – From ABCs to ACTs

12. Fall Preschool Alphabet and Number Playdough Mats – Look! We’re Learning!

13. Simple Scissor Practice – This Outnumbered Mama

14. Squishy Snow Sensory Activity – Coffee Cups and Crayons

15. Preschool Fall Memory Game – Look! We’re Learning!

16. Autumn Leaf Suncatcher Activity – Fantastic Fun and Learning

17. Saltwater and Waves Experiment – Gift of Curiosity

18. Preschool Pumpkin Ordinal Number Worksheets – Look! We’re Learning!

19. Are You My Mother? Unit Study – Susan C. Evans

20. Apple Preschool Matching Worksheets – Look! We’re Learning!

21. Ocean Animal Literacy Game – The Letters of Literacy

22. Preschool Butterfly Life Cycle Lesson – Pre-K Pages

23. Apple Harvest Preschool Scissor Skills Printables – Look! We’re Learning!

24. Teeth Mini Unit – Some Random Lady

25. DIY Bubble Frames – Brain Power Boy

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Preschool Worksheets: Fall Preschool Worksheets

October 5, 2017 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Fall is such a wonderful time to be a preschooler. I vividly remember my “nursery school” (we didn’t have preschool back then) and going there in the fall was so fun. We read fun books, we ate fall snacks (apples, of course), and the air was crisp and I just loved it.

These days, kids receive a structured education earlier than they used to, but we can certainly make it fun! And that’s why I’ve rounded up some new preschool worksheets: fall preschool worksheets! These are perfect for simple, age-appropriate autumn learning that kids will love!

If you like this list, be sure to check out our collection of fun preschool worksheets and activities you can use with your kids! We’re adding more all the time!

Preschool Worksheets: Fall Preschool Worksheets

A quick note here: There’s a lot of backlash against using worksheets in preschool these days. And I can understand why that’s the case. Giving four-year-olds paperwork to fill out all day doesn’t sound like much of a childhood.

In our family, we don’t use worksheets to that extent. We use them as a minimal part of our learning day. And my four-year-old loves them! She also loves to play fun learning games, read great preschool stories, and make fun preschool crafts. We try to keep it diverse. 🙂

And now – for the fall preschool worksheets you can add to your learning day too!

1. Farm-Themed Fall Counting Worksheets

2. Fall Color and Trace Worksheets

3. Apple Preschool Scissor Skills Worksheets

4. Pumpkin Sight Word Worksheets

5. Apple Preschool Matching Worksheets

6. Pumpkins Mini Activity Book

7. Pumpkin Preschool Ordinal Number Worksheets

8. Fall Do A Dot Printables

9. Cookie Counting Worksheets for Preschool

10. Fall Sight Word Worksheet

11. Pumpkin Counting and Tracing Worksheets

12. Fall Color by Sight Word Worksheets

13. Fall Tracing Worksheets

14. Fall I Spy Graphing Worksheet

15. Animal Homes Preschool Worksheets

16. Fall Color by Letter Worksheets

17. Fall Maze Worksheets

18. Pumpkin Spin and Trace Worksheets

Ready to share more fun preschool worksheets with your kids? Don’t miss these!

And see more ideas for teaching young learners on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

You can get exclusive learning worksheets, activities, and resources when you sign up for our email newsletter! Get started with the widget below. 🙂

Preschool Playdough Mats: Alphabet and Number Fall Playdough Mats

September 19, 2017 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

We’ve been enjoying releasing all of our newest fall-themed products lately! Today we’re wrapping things up with a set of Alphabet & Number Fall Playdough Mats!

If you’re teaching toddlers or preschoolers this year, you’ll love using these mats to help them work on fine motor skills and letter/number recognition! Plus, it’s always fun to play with playdough, even for adults! 😉

By the way, don’t miss our other preschool playdough mats, including our apple tree counting mat – another easy fall project for PreK!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Alphabet & Number Fall Playdough Mats

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

This pack includes:

26 letter mats showing both uppercase and lowercase letters
10 number mats showing the numbers 0-9

To use these mats, show the kids how to roll their playdough into rope-like shapes.

Once they form the playdough ropes, they can connect them together to trace the shapes of the letters and numbers on the mats.

We decided to use fall-themed colored playdough as well.

There are mats for each letter – from A all the way to Z! So if you’re using letter of the week with your preschoolers, you can choose one letter per week and work on practicing forming the letters as you go.

Plus, there are printable fall playdough mats for the numbers 0-9 as well!

Be sure to laminate them before you use them with any playdough, especially if you want to reuse them at another time.

Scroll down to get your Alphabet and Number Fall Playdough Mats!

Toddler Books about Fall:

Make this activity into an easy fall pre-k unit with these fun toddler books about fall!

1. Fall Is Here by Frankie Jones

2. Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka

3. I Love Fall! by Allison Inches

4. Fall by Roger Priddy

Homemade Playdough Recipes:

Need some ideas for making your own playdough for use with these mats? Check out these simple recipes!

1. DIY Edible Playdough – Look! We’re Learning!

2. No Cook Playdough – The Imagination Tree

3. Kool-Aid Playdough – Look! We’re Learning!

4. Cotton Candy Playdough – Mama Miss

Don’t miss these other fall activity posts!

See even more tips for teaching young ages on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

To get your copy of our Alphabet and Number Fall Playdough Mats, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>> Alphabet and Number Fall Playdough Mats <<<

P.S. You can get teaching ideas and learning activities for kids in your inbox when you sign up for our email newsletter! Just sign up using the widget below.

Fun Preschool Scissor Skills Worksheets for Kids

August 14, 2017 by Selena Robinson 16 Comments

Learning to use scissors correctly is an important part of early childhood education.

Even if kids don’t need to cut an object right away, practicing with scissors teaches them how to use hand-eye coordination and helps to improve their fine motor skills.

Plus, scissor practice is just plain fun for little ones!

That is, it’s fun if… you use fun preschool scissor skills worksheets that little ones love.

Fun Preschool Scissor Skills Worksheets for Kids

Which is why I’m sharing some printable cutting skills activities you can use with preschoolers and kindergartners!

Keep reading to get a look at the full list.

And if you like these scissor practice printables, take a look at this Apple Life Cycle Sequencing Mat! It’s a fun way to combine fine motor skills and fall science!

Pick up some of these fun preschool scissor skills worksheets featuring themes for the entire year!

How to Use Preschool Scissor Skills Worksheets

Before you get ready to use these preschool scissor skills worksheets with early learners, these supplies may come in handy. (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

When my kids were very young, I always used plastic-covered scissors with them.

They were very helpful, because I could give them a printable cutting practice worksheet without worrying about them cutting their fingers.

Themed Preschool Scissor Skills Worksheets for Kids

As they got older, we graduated to metal scissors with blunted edges.

It made them feel they were using “real” scissors like Mom, but without the danger of sticking themselves (or a sibling who got too close).

What I love about these printable cutting worksheets for preschoolers is that they’re versatile enough to be used any time of year.

They go well with seasonal units, but they also make good fine motor skills practice any day.

If you try any of these preschool cutting worksheets, I’d love to know which ones your students enjoyed the most!

Fun Preschool Scissor Skills Worksheets for Kids

Make scissor skills practice into a year-long lesson with these different themed scissor skills worksheets and activities for early learners!

You can even use some of them to supplement specific seasonal units, such as fall, apple, winter, or back to school!

While all of these activities are designed for use with scissors for cutting practice, they can be adapted for use at centers or morning tubs and then reused.

Revving Racecar Scissor Skills Worksheets

Early learners can practice getting each racecar to the checkered flag with these cutting worksheets.

Three different scissor cutting lines are included for practice.

Big and Small Flowers! Flower Size Sorting Activity

This flower-themed scissor skills activity is a perfect fine motor strengthener for a unit about spring or flowers.

Students examine the different sizes of each flower and then cut and paste the items on the correct card.

Busy Bee Scissor Skills Worksheets

Get each bee to the correct hive with these beehive-themed scissor cutting worksheets!

Three different cutting line versions are included.

Apple Harvest! Apple Cutting Practice Worksheets

These apple-themed cutting worksheets are perfect for fine motor skills practice during fall!

Students can put each apple into the basket by tracing along each cutting line.

Arctic Animals Pattern Cut and Paste Activity

Use scissors and glue to complete the basic math patterns with cute polar animals!

This activity can also be completed with hook and loop dots if you prefer to reuse it.

School Supply Patterns! Back to School Pattern Activity

Here's another pattern building cut and paste activity that strengthens cutting skills and it's perfect for back to school season!

Each page contains three rows of school supplies placed in a pattern. Students choose which picture to cut and paste on each row to complete the pattern.

Want even more ideas for fine motor skills practice? Try some of these ideas!

Use these city themed number playdough mats to practice forming numbers from zero through nine!

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

Build fine motor skills and letter recognition with these fun forest alphabet playdough mats!

Printable Counting to 100 Flashcards

June 13, 2017 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Remember the Count on Sesame Street? I can’t exactly recall when I learned to count, but I like to think that he played a large role in my mastering that skill. I still say “One, ha, ha, ha!” on occasion.

What I learned from the Count is that learning to count should be fun. When kids have fun learning, they pick up on concepts so much faster!

Which is why I wanted to make some printable counting to 100 flashcards to help Piglet learn to master counting from 1 to 100. And I’m sharing them with my readers today!