Inside: After reading the book Love Monster, we put together a fun preschool literacy activity that also involved simple counting. The result was a cute love monster craft! We love tying our activities to favorite children’s books! When my co-teacher showed me her newest book called Love Monster, she said she was putting together a fun craft that would be done afterwards. Oh my goodness. I cannot wait to show you the Love Monster counting craft she put together for preschoolers!...

Inside: Add some action to your preschool Valentine’s activity by moving marbles across doily hearts, making paint tracks. Fun action art that even the busiest kids love! Another holiday is coming up! And there are so many cookie cutter crafts available. But whenever I can squeeze in some child-directed process art, I do. This marble Valentine heart activity for preschoolers is all process art, and yet because it’s in the shape of a heart, it fits right in with Valentine’s Day....

Inside: Movie Theater Dramatic Play Printable Packet for Toddlers and Preschoolers – 23 Printable Pages for Pretend Play Fun! Imagine you’re at a movie theater with this printable cinema set! Fun for the toddler and preschool classroom or for movie nights at home. We’ve created 23 pages that include signs, concessions menu, coupons, tickets, a movie review drawing sheet, and concessions order matching cards. A fun way to learn through play!...

If you’ve been following Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds, you might have noticed how much I love suncatchers! Perhaps it’s because we don’t have a lot of color here in the winter, but I also just love how they look. Plus, they are an easy way to work on fine motor skills, and I am always good with that! For these particular suncatchers there the only prep work was cutting the Contact (sticky) paper, making it one of our easier suncatcher crafts to date....

10 Awesome Preschool Science Experiments Check out our favorite science toys and materials: Putting together science experiments in preschool is an exciting part of teacher planning. We acknowledge that young children love to be involved in hands-on exploration. They want to see it, touch it, work with it. They love to know what happens next, and will often add their own ideas. In our classroom, we have a science shelf where we put together a display that the children can explore....

15 Fun Winter Ice Activities for Preschoolers CLICK HERE to find fun winter science activities! The cold weather is here. We love to explore ice this time of year! While planning winter theme, I found 15 fun activities that involve ice. These are engaging, hands-on ideas that can be done in the classroom and at home. Ready for some winter fun? No time to read this now? Pin and save for later!...

Inside: Looking for gift ideas? This amazing collection of over 40 favorite toys for preschoolers was put together after I polled parents. They shared mostly non-tech toys that are open ended, allowing children to use their imagination as they play. The holidays are coming and I wondered if I was out of the loop as to what toys preschoolers loved these days. It’s been quite awhile since we’ve had young children in our home....

While I am always sad when summer ends, I do love the burst of color that fall brings to our area. Most of this color comes from leaves before they fall from the trees. During our fall theme we love to collect leaves and place them on our science table, where we explore them with magnifying glasses and sort them by color. Since our classroom has huge picture windows, suncatchers are very visible....

I make sure all the signs are up, laminated so that I can use them year after year. If you include a gingerbread man theme in December, add this cute gingerbread bakery to your toddler and preschool dramatic play center. Children can pretend to be bakers as they use the mixer, putting cookies in the oven, and selling cookies to friends. Gingerbread Man Kinetic Sand Sensory Bin Gingerbread Man Ice Painting Gingerbread Man Collage Art...

Inside: Creating a preschool summer camp in your school or home is easy when you use Camp Kindness. 6 weeks of fun activities for kids 3-8 that are meaningful and fun! Let’s hear it for summer! But oh, what to do with the kids. How about creating a fun Camp Kindness with the Kindness Elves? Even if you only have a few weeks left until school resumes, you can add some of these camp ideas in your home or summer preschool....

Inside: When it comes to separation anxiety in preschool, you need these helpful tips, given by parents and teachers with experience. Separation anxiety is tough. You parents who are going through it are nodding, perhaps through tears. It’s so hard to leave your babies, especially if they are clinging onto you, not wanting you to leave. And even if you do finally say those good byes and leave, you might find yourself going through the whole thing again the next day, perhaps being even worse....

Inside: These easy snowflake sugar cookies are so fun to make with kids! Add some simple counting while measuring and pouring and strengthen fine motor skills with spooning and pouring. A nice addition to your winter theme! This year I decided to make it a goal to do more cooking with our 2 and 3 year olds. I have good intentions every year, and start out strong, but tend to fizzle....

How to Plant Seeds for an Easy Kids Gardening Activity CLICK HERE for 12 more gardening activities! Planting seeds with kids is one of my favorite nature activities. Preschoolers love to be part of the process, such as when we made our terrariums awhile back. They are fascinated how the seeds are tucked into the soil and they take great care by watering them daily, waiting for them to grow. When the first sign of green pops through the soil, the biggest smiles erupt from their faces....

Learning About Day and Night with Preschoolers What happens in the daytime? What happens at night? Our preschoolers love to talk about this. In fact, often when we read a story, they will notice if it’s day or night. Once we introduce nocturnal animals, they are amazed that some animals sleep during the day! Learning about day and night can provide a lot of hands-on activities, some of which I will be showing you in this post....

During our gardening camp, I decided to invite the children to make nature stick necklaces. I love to use natural materials and was inspired by a similar activity I found floating around Pinterest. I wanted to add a bit more, so I decided to add some fine motor by threading dyed macaroni pieces. What a fun activity this turned out to be! This post contains affiliate links for your convenience....

Inside: Preschool Christmas Learning Activities – 39 Pages of Hands-On Printables! Looking for Christmas learning activities that are easy to put together and build a variety of important skills? These hands-on printables hands-on and fun and use at home or in the classroom! Can be used as table activities, small groups, and during circle time. A great addition to the Christmas theme! Preschool Christmas Learning Activities Printables Here’s what you get in this 39 page printable packet:...

Penguins are an animal that I find myself just as fascinated with today as when I was a kid first learning about them. Their ability to keep their egg carefully balanced on their feet for about 2 months through harsh icy winds is amazing! This list of penguin activities provides some great additions to your winter time classroom as your little ones learn about animals in cold climates- from fine motor to color recognition....

Inside: Put together a pumpkin science table and invite your preschoolers to explore what’s inside. Scooping out the seeds is a fun fine motor and sensory activity! Let’s explore pumpkins! A favorite fall science activity is opening and exploring what’s inside a pumpkin. After removing the top, toddlers and preschoolers can use scoops and tongs to remove what’s inside. While this activity is at the science table, it also works on sensory and fine motor skills....

When the cherry blossoms bloom in the trees each spring, I cannot wait to add them to our art table with our preschoolers. Well, our toddlers, too! We love to bring nature into our classroom all year long. We have containers, baskets, and trays with natural materials. While the preschoolers and toddlers painted these cherry blossoms, they were able to explore the colors and textures. They viewed the blossoms and branches carefully as they painted them on paper....

Inside: These 15+ activities are great for teaching circles to preschoolers. Great for young toddlers who are just beginning to learn shapes! Throughout the school year, we focus on different shapes with our little ones. At the beginning of the year, our toddlers are still very young, so we like to keep things simple. That’s why we start off with the circle as our first shape. Circles are pretty easy for preschoolers to identify- they do not have to count any sides to know which shape it is....