Books and Giggles
Fall kids activities & crafts
Inside: Preschoolers can celebrate the harvest with this story-based cornmeal writing tray activity and free printable letter formation cards. Add this to your Little Red Hen unit! This week, I stumbled on a fun, multicultural companion story to read aloud after your kids hear The Little Red Hen. Then, I created a hand-on early literacy…
Inside: Help preschool and kindergarten students practice letter recognition and beginning sounds with a fun bat letter sounds activity perfect for October and Halloween. There’s just something about bats that captures kids’ curiosity. Whether you’re reading bat stories like Stellaluna, making bat crafts, or exploring nocturnal animals, they always seem to draw children in. Plus,…
Room on the Broom, The Scarecrow’s Hat, Stellalua, and Pumpkin Jack are some of my favorite sequencing books for October. These much-loved stories all have structures that work well for putting events in order and retelling. At the same time, telling the story back helps young students with comprehension and oral language. I started creating…
Add these educational hats to your apple unit, and work on science, math, and literacy concepts with your preschool and kindergarten students. It’s apple season! Here’s a fun activity you can use with your apple unit, and it includes a cute free printable that adds a literacy element as well as science and math. Choose…
This Halloween name craft for preschool uses simple materials that you probably already have on hand – so it’s basically free! It focuses solely on the first letter of each child’s name, so it’s perfect for littles early in their learning path. Teaching children about the first letter in their name is a super relevant…
Inside: download these free printable fall letter sound cards and read about some fun ways to use them with your preschoolers or kindergarteners. Fall is in full swing, and we’re loving all things autumn right now! I already have some fun fall crafts and a huge list of apple activities here on the blog. I’ve…
Inside: This fall letter craft takes leaf rubbings to the next level! Find out how we did it, and get a trick to make it easier for little hands. Autumn is finally here, and it’s time for a new fall letter craft! (Or even an old favorite leaf craft!) You can do this letter activity…
Find some new favorite November Read Alouds from this curated list of seasonal favorites, with an emphasis on fall and the lead-up to Thanksgiving. Soon after the excitement of Halloween fades and the sweet treats and candy wrappers are gone, it’s time to prepare for the excitement and anticipation of November and all that it…
Just like in the children’s book Stellaluna, this little hanging bat craft holds on best by its feet, all wrapped up in its wings. It’s almost October, and I’ve been thinking again about bats! You’ll already find a chalk art bat craft and a leaf bat craft here on the blog. I’ve also been working…
Get ready for Halloween with this easy prep pumpkin seed alphabet activity! These free printable cards are a fun way to practice lowercase letter tracing and alphabet letter matching skills. Read on to find out all the ways you can use them… October is one of my favorite months. I love dreaming up costumes, eating…
Inside: Free printable first day of school crowns and tips on helping children learn to recognize their names. I’m a little late posting this – I know some of you have already had your first day of school. But if you’re still getting ready for the beginning of the new school year I have a…
Last year we made a cute chalk art bat craft for preschoolers, and I thought I could check bat crafts off my list here. But sometimes inspiration strikes! These are completely different though… They’re also probably a little faster to make. So if you’re looking for a quick bat craft, this one could be it…
This Stone Soup activity is a fun and delicious science experiment to pair with the classic folktale. You can do this with any age kids, but my focus here is on how you’d do it with preschoolers or kindergartners. I have a weakness for soup. Vegetable soup, chicken noodle, cream of tomato, and my favorite, tortilla soup –…
Name activities for preschool are naturally engaging! Kids are interested in anything involving their very own names. Even better, you can use name activities as a stepping stone to alphabet activities. I like to start with teaching children just to recognize their name in print. Then, you can progress to talking about the letter their…
Inside: free printable first day of online school signs for preschool through 12th grade 2021 Update: Since there are still some students attending online school this year, I’ve updated the file so that the banner at the top now reads “2021-2022 School Year”. Every year, I take First Day of School photos of my kids holding…
Inside: an apple beginning sounds digital activity for kindergarten or preschool students I created this fall digital letter sounds activity back when we were all doing distance learning, but it is still a great activity even when kids are there in person with you in the classroom. Apple Beginning Sounds Activity Do you have an…
All of these Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers and kindergartners can be done in your classroom or at home. Kids will have fun, learn and be ready for Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving Early Literacy Activities Letter recognition is FUN when there’s a spinner! This Thanksgiving resource in my store includes 3 differentiated letter and letter-sound activities, including the…
Inside: 25 pumpkin crafts for preschoolers, categorized by type of material used. I love that look of utmost concentration preschoolers get when they’re busy crafting. They’re working those fine motor muscles so hard! And as little scientists, they’re fascinated with the results. All they need to get started is a little bit of inspiration, plus…
Inside: This apple tree craft is easy enough for preschoolers to do in the fall or when they’re learning about Johnny Appleseed. I’ve been posting seasonal crafts in this space for five years now, and somehow never created our own apple craft! I even wrote a huge roundup of apple crafts but didn’t have my…
These cute Halloween puppets are a fun way to support oral language development and story retelling. You can have the children paint the craft stick bases, and then help them add the unique features to each puppet. If you’re looking for Halloween craft ideas that are inexpensive and have some play value, these craft stick…
We’re kicking off the fall season with an apple theme! In my dreams, the mornings now are crisp, and the apples are ripe. In reality, cooler weather is a long time coming here in Texas. It’s a good thing we can break out some new apple crafts and pretend! Apple Crafts You can pretend (or…
Inside: Letter sound clip cards to include in your Thanksgiving centers Gobble gobble! It’s almost turkey time! These adorable turkey clip cards are an engaging letter sound activity for your preschool or kindergarten Thanksgiving centers. Plus, they’re super-easy to prep. You can also use these clip cards in small groups or even as an assessment tool….
Inside: Bear Says Thanks activities to go with the much-loved Karma Wilson Thanksgiving picture book (Disclosure: Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.) UPDATE 11/13/20 – I added…
Inside: An easy turkey puppet craft for kids just right for inspiring Thanksgiving pretend play. (Disclosure: Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.) We created this cute little…