Free Preschool Activities

A few days ago, I wrote a post on teaching preschoolers about recycling.  Here’s another way you can recycle materials - make them into a recycled kite! This kite is cool for another reason too. Usually store-bought kites need an adult to fly them. This one is perfect for preschoolers to fly all by themselves!

What you need:

• plastic grocery bag from your recycling box or bin
• string, 4 - 6 feet long
• streamers (create your own from colored paper in your mixed paper recycling box)
• tape
• markers to create a design on the kite

What you do:

1. Tie the string around the handles of the bag.
2. Tape streamers to the bottom of the bag.
3. Decorate your kite with markers.

Your recycled kite is ready for its test flight!

Have your preschooler run with the kite. It will lift a little bit when your child runs. On windy days, it goes even higher! As your child gets used to running with the kite, you can add a longer string for more excitement.

Remember running around outside with pinwheels when you were small? The wind would catch them and they turned as you ran. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to help your preschooler enjoy that same experience. Here’s an easy pinwheel craft you can make with your preschoolers.

What you need:

• Colored construction paper, or colored paper (Your preschooler’s favorite color, of course!
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Thumb tack

What you do:

Cut your piece of paper into a square. (Hey, this could be a GREAT time to talk to your preschool about the differences between squares and rectangles!)

From each corner, cut a straight line to the center of the square, but don’t cut all the way to the center. That’s where the thumb tack will go.

Fold corners to the center.

Attach the whole thing to a pencil with a thumb tack.

Let your preschooler loose to catch the breeze!

For a sparkly pinwheel, find a colorful pencil and paper to use.

Spring is here! Where I live, that means we still have a little bit of snow, and LOTS of wind!

Here is a fun wind chime craft you can make with your preschoolers to celebrate spring, and explore how the wind makes things move.

What you need:

• 12 bells
• disposable pie tin with a hole punched out at each quarter turn. (This is where you’ll be attaching the cords)
• 4 pieces of small cord, each at least 12″ long. scissors

What you do:

Tie 3 bells onto each of the 4 cords. They should be evenly spaced apart. The bottom bell can be at the very end of one edge of the cord.

At the top of the cord, leave enough room to attache the cord to the pie plate.

Secure the bells in place by tying knots in the cord.

Then tie the cords to the pie plate in the holes you punched out.

Punch another hole at the top of the pie plate and attach a cord to hang it with.

Enjoy hearing the bells tinkle on your next windy day!

Today is my mom’s birthday. (Happy birthday mom!) The kids and I are taking Grandma out for a special lunch to celebrate.

She always says the best present my family can give her is spending time with her… but this year I found an easy craft we can make and have ready by the time we meet her for lunch.

We’re making flower photos. This would be a great gift idea for mom or grandma on any occasion, and perfect for Mother’s Day. Or you could even create a beautiful bouquet for your own home.

If you’re working with young preschoolers, they will need some help with the cutting, but other than that, this is a great project for little hands.

What you need:
Construction paper, colored card stock or patterned scrapbook paper
Glue or glue stick
Photos
Pencil
Scissors
Clear tape
Green chenille stems

What you do:

1. Cut photos into circles. To make it easier, try putting a 50 cent piece, spool of thread or other small, round object on top of the face you want to cut out and tracing around it. Then cut around the circle you drew.
2. Draw the outline of a flower on a piece of card stock or construction paper, making sure you’ll have plenty of room for the photo in the middle. Cut out.
3. Trace around your original flower on paper in other colors to make as many flowers as you like. Cut them out and set them aside.
4. Glue a photo onto the center of the first flower. If using liquid glue, take care not to use too much. Wipe any excess off with a paper towel.
5. If you like, draw more flower shapes on patterned paper or contrasting colors of construction paper or card stock. Make these about 1/4 inch larger than the first ones. Glue the flower with the photo on it onto a larger flower shape, centering it so that it makes an even border.
6. Attach a chenille stem to the back of the flower with tape. Trim the stem if needed.
7. Repeat with the rest of your flower cutouts to make a beautiful photo bouquet.

You can bundle your bouquet together with a ribbon, or stick them in a flower pot with some floral foam. If you don’t have chenille stems, you could also add a magnet to the back and stick it on the fridge.

Here is an easy preschool Bible craft that can help your child remember and apply the Bible verse, “Sing unto the Lord.” Psalm 95:1

What you need for each child:

• 1 8 1/2″ x11″ sheet of construction paper - in your preschooler’s favorite color, of course.
• Printed lyrics to favorite Sunday School songs. You can find the tunes and words to many favorite Sunday School songs here. http://www.ebibleteacher.com/children/songs.htm
• Crayons or coloring pencils
• A stapler

What to do:

Fold the construction paper in half to make a cover for your songbook. Help your child print “Sing unto the Lord” on the cover, or encourage them to create a cover design of their own.

Give your child the printed lyrics to their favorite songs. These should be pre-cut so they fit inside your songbook cover. You can invite your child to add illustrations for each song.

Staple together.

Hold a sing-along and have fun singing unto the Lord together! Add lots of actions to your songs… if you can’t think of any ask your preschoolers for ideas.

Ready to Learn Some New Favorites?

When you’re ready to add some new favorites to your repertoire, you might also want to check out Gospel Fun Songs for Kids.

You already know that recycling is good for the environment and good for your preschoolers. After all, you would like their children to have green spaces to play in and clean air to breathe one day. In our family, Saturday is recycling day. Today we’re hauling all the recyclables from the week to our nearby recycling bin.

I thought I would share some of the ways you can get your preschoolers involved in recycling on your own recycling day, and every day.

Preschool Crafts - How to Build Your Own Recycling Depot

To help organize your own recyclables, get out some big boxes and the colored markers. Your preschooler can design designated boxes to sort your recyclable throughout the week. In our house, we have boxes for mixed paper, newspaper, milk jugs, glass, and plastics. You can show your preschooler examples of each to give them ideas of how to decorate the boxes.

You can also make recycling posters with your preschooler to decorate your recycling area.  Talk to them about why we recycle, and the benefits of it. Then help her draw posters to remind her (and everyone else in your family) of why recycling is important. For example, my daughter drew a picture of polar bears, because our recycling is helping to protect them. My son drew a poster of all the different objects we can recycle, to remind him of what not to throw away.

Preschool Activities for Recycling

Now that you have your own recycling depot at home, help your preschooler sort recyclables each day. This does more than keep the earth green - it also helps teach your preschool sorting, organizing, and classifying skills.

Recycling plastic milk jugs can be a lot of fun. In our city, we have to remove the lids, rinse out the jug, and squash it. You can turn this into a game where your preschooler shakes the jug to rinse it, and jumps on it to squash it.

On your own recycling day, bring your preschooler along to the big recycling depot and have them help you depot your recyclables into the big bins. This helps them understand that it’s not just your family, when they recycle they’re working with your community to make the world a cleaner place. It’s also really exciting to see the recycling truck show up and empty the bins.

If your recycling is picked up, you can still have your preschoolers help you get it out to the curb and have fun watching for the recycling truck to roll around.

If You Want More Preschool Recycling Fun…

If you want to have more recycling fun with your preschooler, I found the most adorable little book you might enjoy sharing with your kids,  The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling. It will also help them understand the recycle process, and the part their own recycling plays.

Recycling is good for your preschooler, your community, and for the earth. Have fun teaching your preschooler how to keep the earth a cleaner place!

This morning I was looking for a new activity to do with the kids, so I spent some time looking for homemade soap recipes. I found some really easy ones (my favorite kind!) that I’ll share with you in a moment.

The reason wny I was thinking about soapmaking is because I’ve just realized that Mother’s Day is almost here. They wanted to make something special for their grandmothers and me.

Reasons Why You Should Make Soap with Your Preschoolers

Not only does homemade soap make a nice gift, it can become a preschool science project. And your preschoolers will be more likely to use it because… after all, they made it. Anything to make them happier about washing their hands!

There are a few more benefits to making your own soap with your preschoolers. The price, of couse, is one. We can make soap much cheaper than we can buy it.

Secondly, making it ourselves also gives us complete control over the ingredients, so youcan create a soap that’s perfect for your skin type in a scent of your choosing.

Customizing Your Soap

There are lots of different ways you can customize your soap. To make the best soap for your skin type, you may want to use different oils. Some that are commonly used include olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter and shea butter. The correct amount varies depending on which oil you use, so look for recipes online or in books until you get the hang of it.

Essential oils have therapeutic properties and add fragrance. Oatmeal, cornmeal and other grains can be added as exfoliants. And skin-safe colorants may be used to produce the desired color. These ingredients should be mixed together and added to a cup of the soap mixture, then stirred into the rest of the soap mixture immediately before pouring into the mold.

Making your own soap is easy, and it can be lots of fun. Coming up with the perfect concoction for your skin is rewarding, and sweetly scented homemade soaps make wonderful gifts for any occasion.

Homemade Soap Recipes

Here are some homemade soap recipes I found that would be simple enough to do with your preschoolers:

Homemade Soap made with Ivory Snow Laundry Flakes

Bath Bomb Recipes

Enjoy!

Here are two more easy craft ideas for your young preschoolers. These will take a little more planning and clean up for you. But the nice thing about both of them, is your child will end up with a project they can use everyday. Imagine how proud your little one will be to show their own t-shirt and placemat t0 your family and friends!

Design a T-Shirt

Preschoolers can have a blast decorating a plain white t-shirt with colorful markers. If you use washable ones, they can create a design, wear it, and start over after you wash the shirt. If a permanent design is desired, however, you’ll have to let him use non-washable markers. You can avoid a mess by covering the work area with newspaper and putting a smock on your toddler.

Placemats

Making placemats out of contact paper is very easy. Have your toddler cut shapes out of construction paper and glue them onto a whole piece with a glue stick. He can add detail with markers or embellish with stickers. When he’s done, place the artwork on a piece of contact paper, sticky side up. Place another sheet of contact paper on top, sticky side down.

Most toddlers will only have the patience to make one placemat at a time. But he can make another one tomorrow, continuing until there are enough for the whole table. He’ll be so proud to know that everyone sees his artwork at every meal!

Crafting can help your toddler learn important skills while keeping him quietly occupied. Whether it’s a rainy day or he’s just feeling creative, seize the opportunity to let him channel his imagination into something you can both admire.

I promised you some easy craft ideas you can do with your preschooler. Here are some that are good for older preschoolers, and also toddlers.

Parents of very young preschoolers (1 -2 yrs) often wonder how they can do crafts with their children. Those little people have a lot of energy, but don’t crafts with your toddler can be a lot of fun for both of you, and help your toddler learn how to follow instructions and develop hand-eye coordination.  When you work with toddlers, you’ll need to adjust your expectations. They have short attention spans and they’ll need a lot of adult help.

Here are two craft ideas that are fun and easy to do with preschoolers of any age.

Craft Stick Puppets

Puppets are fascinating to toddlers. Creating their own puppets is easy, and it’s lots of fun. All you really need are some craft or popsicle sticks, construction paper, safety scissors, markers and glue.

Help your toddler cut animal shapes out of construction paper. He can draw faces and other details with washable markers. Glue the stick to the back of the shape, let dry, and he’s ready to put on a puppet show. If you want to make more elaborate puppets, try cutting shapes out of foam. Glue on a pom pom for the nose, and add some googly eyes.

What I love to do with these, is help the toddler tell a simple story with the new characters she just created. Or read a favorite story and have the toddler’s puppets participate.

Paint with Pudding

Kids love to fingerpaint, but it’s so messy. And there’s also the concern about them eating the paint. Even if the paints are nontoxic, it can make cautious parents uneasy. The solution? Let them paint with pudding!

You don’t need different flavors to make different colors. Just use one serving of plain vanilla pudding, divide it up into small portions, and add food coloring to create various shades. Give your child a paper plate to use as a canvas for his masterpiece. When he’s done, he can eat it with no worries.

If you’re working with older toddlers or preschoolers, you can even help them mix the pudding. My kids loved that!

Tomorrow I’ll have some more easy craft ideas for you and your preschoolers.