preschool craft

Letter A is for Ant Egg Carton Craft and Preschool Lesson

Learning the alphabet is much more exciting to preschoolers and kindergartners when you explore each letter using a great visual aid. “A” is for Ant is a natural starter. Ants are creepy, fascinating creatures that will capture the interest of any 3 – 5 year old. Couple your exploration with a real live ant farm, and you have a real winner.

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This year I used a cardboard egg carton craft where the children were able to make their own ant.

Tip #1=> Paint does not dry nearly as fast as you may want it to. So, start this craft first thing in the morning, so that it will be dry by the afternoon. Or, you may even want to schedule “part 2” for the following day. My class meets just once a week, so we had to get it done the same day.

Cardboard Egg Carton Ant Craft

What you will need:

Cardboard egg cartons

Washable tempera paint (black, brown, gray or red)

Paint brushes

Pipe cleaners

Googly Eyes

Glue sticks

Pre-cut egg cartons into 3 humps: head, thorax, abdomen.

Cut out the triangular edge on the side in between each egg holder-shell to better define the body parts.

Make holes for the legs. To assure that the holes are opposite each other,

use a cooking skewer to poke the holes directly through to the other side.

Tip#2=> I got a little smarter the second time we did this craft. Use a single HOLE PUNCH instead of a skewer. It works great and is safer, too!

Paint the egg carton an “ant” color. In this case, we used black.

Let it dry.

Thread a long pipe cleaner through each egg carton shell and

bend the ends to look like legs.

Using a glue stick, attach the googly eyes, and you’re done!

Cute, huh?

In addition to our egg carton ant craft, I created a fun ant counting game which I will share with you in a soon-coming post.

Have you taught preschoolers about ants?

What other “A” lessons have you used?

Share your ideas with us!

Ants (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 1)

Letter A is for ANT cardboard egg carton craft is FUN! #preschool #ants #kindergarten #kidscrafts #ece Share on X

Enjoy!

Little ant toys for kids!

Real insects to see up close. 15 different bug specimens!

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Letter N is for Nest – Fun Preschool Craft

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This craft combines a simple science / nature lesson with this fun preschool letter N craft. The letter N is the tree. Then the children will build a nest on it using strips of paper bag and glue the little eggs on top. Add a bluebird paper cutout with a yellow wing and you have a really great craft!

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Read your little children a story about a bird building a nest and add a little question / answer time:

What is a nest?

Who builds the nest?

What is it for?

What is it made out of?

Where do you usually find bird nests?

Education Activity For Kids: How To Make A Bird’s Nest

N is for Nest Preschool Craft

You will need:

Crayons
Glue Stick
Child-safe scissors
Brown paper lunch bag
(cut into strips)

Letter N Coloring Page

(printed on card-stock)

Construction Paper

(yellow and blue pictured here)

Laminated Eyes* – Beak – Bird Eggs Page

(free printable below)

*or you could use googly eyes

This activity will help your preschooler with his/her cutting skills (essential for Kindergarten readiness.) Your child also will have fun with coloring, gluing and following directions. Make one in advance as an example of what the final product can look like but, when children do it, allow for lots of creativity. I’ve seen birds eggs with eyes and beaks!!! LOL

Directions

Prepare the lesson by printing the Letter N page on card stock for sturdiness. Draw the body on one color of construction paper or colored copier paper. Draw the wing on a different color. Allow your child the fun of cutting them out.

Print your Eye-Beak-Bird Egg page on card-stock and laminate it for durability. Again, your child can cut some out or you can join in and help on this one. Your call. I try to have them do as much as possible themselves.

Your preschooler should color the letter N first and then glue the bird on. Using shredded paper lunch bag, the child glues a patch for the nest. Glue the eggs in the middle of the nest and it is done! A masterpiece.

Bird watching over her eggs in the nest. Letter N is for Nest preschool craft.

FREE Printables Here:

Eyes Beak Bird Eggs Printable
Bird Body
Bird Wing
Letter N Coloring Page

More Fun Preschool Lessons:

Collection Here

Letter N is for Nest preschool craft! Your little ones will make the letter N into a tree, glue scraps of paper on for a nest with eggs in it and add a bluebird! #crafts #preschool Share on X

Enjoy!

Preschool Craft: O is for Olympics

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O is for Olympics has to be one of my favorite preschool lessons. This craft is just right for 3 and 4 year olds to do. My preschoolers are such a sweet group. I love how each of them approaches a project in their own way.

Aliyah is a perfectionist. She takes her time to get every detail right. Due to her meticulous nature, we often have to wait for her to finish up.
Caleb goes for accuracy. He wants his project to look just like mine or like the real thing, such as when we did our lion craft. He didn’t want the mane to be orange and yellow. A lion’s mane is brownish-tan and that is exactly how his looked. (Beautifully done, I might add.)
Evan takes everything on with gusto. He had glue all over the page before he noticed that it should only go on the ringed outline of the “O”. No worries. Glue dries and he had fun.

It was letter “O” week. Though logic said “O is for Owl“ was the way to go, Katie, my assistant, said “No, we HAVE to do the Olympics!” She had a great idea.

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Letter O is for Olympics preschool craft with Fruit Loops! #kidscrafts #preschool #olympics Share on X

Our craft was inspired by a preschool lesson that I found pictured on Pinterest. Don’t you just love Pinterest? It is like visiting the World Library of Ideas.

We glued Fruit Loops™ onto a page to form a letter “O” as well as completing the Olympic rings. [Any colored cereal in a circle will work but I found that the colors of the generic version were not as bright as real Fruit Loops.]

This is the template that I used.

How’d it go? After 14 weeks with my students, I have come to know them pretty well. If I gave them ALL the cereal at once, those rings would never have been made. Katie agreed. Rings first, big “O” later.

So, I came in prepared with snack-size zip bags, one of each color. I called upon my “Teachers Helpers” to go around and leave one piece with each of their fellow students.

Everyone carefully glued them into the Olympic rings. Not all of the rings were the right color but, no biggie, this is preschool! When I heard the familiar “Teacher, I need more Fruit Loops” it was time to give them the rest of their cereal. It worked very, very well.

Busy little hands making their “O’s”

Fruit Loops cereal for crafts or eating!

Fruit Loops Cereal has the brightest colors for this craft.

O is for Olympics Preschool Craft

Supplies
Fruit Loops™ cereal
“O” template printed on card stock
Elmer’s® glue
little cup for the glue
cotton swabs

Directions

Squirt some glue into a small cup.

Using a cotton swab, dab the rings of the Olympic symbol with glue and attach a piece of cereal in each.

Now, rub glue onto the big “O” and attach cereal all around.

Some children will go “multi color” and others may want to separate it into groups of color.

Love this craft? Take a look at the OTHER Olympics games and activities we did with our O is for Olympics lesson:
O is for Olympics Preschool Lesson

Enjoy!

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Letter I is for Insect Preschool Science Lesson and Fun Bottle Cap Craft

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Some letters of the alphabet lend themselves to an assortment of great preschool lessons – to me, I is not one of them. Sorry, dear letter I, but I was scraping for something to do.

I is for Ice was OK but as a stand-alone topic, it is short on attention grabbing activities for 3 and 4 year olds. Plus, ice was slated to be part of my W is for Weather theme later in the year. So, finally it came to me – we’d do I is for Insect. I was happy indeed!

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The facts about insects that you will want to teach preschoolers involves how to recognize them – after all, not every creepy crawly is an insect. Some bugs, such as spiders, for instance, are eight-legged creatures called arachnids.

So, how do we recognize an insect? An insect has six legs, three body parts – head, thorax, abdomen – two antennae and most of them have wings.

Click here: Fun Insect Facts for Kids

I wanted my little kiddos to see an insect up-close and personal but it was December. No insects outside to capture this time of year. While cleaning my house, I discovered a couple of deceased stink bugs behind a chair. Yippee! That was my answer.

Note: got stink bugs? Here is a helpful advice from Tips Bulletin on how to get rid of them: How To Get Rid Of Stink Bugs – 8 Simple Home Remedies

I created this little sheet on the computer, printed it onto cardstock and glued the stink bugs on – one so the top side showed and the other exposing the underside. Using a magnfying glass, we played “detective” as we discovered the parts of the insect body on real insects!

preschool activities, kids science, insects, stink bugs, bugs

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In addition to learning about insects and seeing real ones under a magnifying glass, we read insect books and made an insect craft.

This craft is so easy and fun. Oh, I just have to share this. My students come up with the funniest things -they make me laugh. Take a look at the bottle cap insect I made in the craft below. They said exactly what I thought they would. They thought the black pipe cleaner antennae were eye brows or a mustache! LOL I was prepared for that and drew a smile on each one for them (picture below) Problem solved!

preschool crafts, kids crafts, STEM, ece

I is for Insect Bottle Cap Preschool Craft

Supplies

White cardstock

Leaf coloring page

Crayons

Two colorful bottle caps

White school glue

Cotton swabs

Googly eyes

Black pipe cleaners cut in 1/2 – 1 inch pieces

Black marker

Glitter

Directions

Print a leaf coloring page* on white card-stock paper.

Color the coloring page with crayons.

Dip the open ends of the bottle caps in white school glue.

Stick them to the page where the “legs” are and allow to dry a few minutes so that it adheres.

Using cotton swabs dipped in white glue, stick 2 googly eyes plus 2 pipe cleaners onto one bottle cap for the face.

Draw a smile underneath the eyes….now you know he doesn’t have eyebrows or a mustache LOL!

Put dots on the other bottle cap and sprinkle with glitter for decoration, like a lady bug.

*Tip – I added legs and a title right onto my coloring page but you can just draw the legs on the page.

Letter I is for Insect #preschool science lesson and bottle cap #craft - so much fun! Share on X

The smile makes the difference!

Have you checked out our Directory of Preschool & Kindergarten Websites? It has links to 48+ excellent blogs and websites with tons of age-appropriate lessons and craft ideas for you.

More insect related lessons for preschoolers: A is for Ant – B is for Butterfly – C is for Caterpillar

Enjoy!

B is for Butterfly Preschool Lesson & Craft

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By far, this is one of the best lessons I have taught in preschool thus far. My little 3 and 4 year old students are fascinated with butterflies and loved every minute of it. Preschool butterfly craft and directions below.

We had so much fun learning about the mysterious life cycle of the butterfly. First, I shared it with a diagram, then we watched it happen in a 2.5 minute You Tube video (below.)

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Finally, right before our eyes, we saw it happen. We arrived at school to find that 5 of our caterpillars had successfully emerged from their chrysalises and were flying about the butterfly cage.

Our class meets just one day a week so it was important that we release them in the wild by the end of the day. But three were still getting ready to emerge. We could see them gyrating, struggling to break free. Before the day’s end, two more were flying around enjoying their new lives. (Sadly, one did not make it.) What an unforgettable experience.

Watch the Caterpillar to Butterfly Video Here ...

Butterfly Preschool Craft

This sweet little craft is very prek-friendly. My little ones are only beginning to learn the use of scissors so, to maximize enjoyment and minimize frustration, we adults pre-cut the templates before class.

B is for Butterfly Preschool Craft

Supplies

Card-stock

Butterfly template

2 large marshmallows per child for paint

Tempera Paint

Jumbo craft stick

Googly eyes (2)

Pipe-cleaners (2) cut to about 2 inches

White Glue

marshmallow painting, b is for butterfly, preschool craft, tempera paint, craft sticks, kids crafts

Directions

Our craft consisted of a template of a butterfly, printed on card-stock and cut out. The students decorated the wings with tempera paint dotted all over using a large marshmallow as a “paint brush.” They dipped the end of the marshmallow in one color and dotted, flipped it over and dipped in a different color.

After the wings dried, they glued googly eyes and pipe cleaners for antennas onto a large craft stick. Then the stick was glued onto the middle of the butterfly wing, as the body. Voila! A Butterfly!

In addition to all this fun, we read the book by Eric Carle: Very Hungry Caterpillar and we also went on a Butterfly Picture Hunt – a simple little treasure hunt that 3 and 4 year olds thoroughly enjoy!