Free Alphabet Butterfly Puzzles (Love to Learn Linky #40)

Puzzles are a great hands-on way for kids to learn. They are a favorite at our house! My daughters love the challenge of solving puzzles and putting pieces together to create a picture. With Spring here I thought it would be fun to practice our alphabet and letter cases using this set of colorful, free printable Butterfly Puzzles.

This set includes 26 different butterflies with an uppercase letter and lowercase letter on each wing.

Since all the butterflies are unique, it is a great way for kids to check their own work to make sure the butterflies and letters match up. Great for independent and quiet time!

Click here to download your Free Alphabet Butterfly Puzzles!

LOVE TO LEARN LINKY

Visit my co-hosts to see their posts and features!

Spring Activities for Toddlers & Kids from A Little Pinch of Perfect
Inspiring Kids to Protect Our Oceans: Oil Spill Activity from One Time Through

Now it's time for some more links! I hope you'll join me and a couple of friends for a brand new linky party!

Bloggers, link up your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place.

Almost anything goes, we're just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something. (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting, etc...)

Love to Learn Linky Etiquette:

• Posts should be about educating our kids in any way - science, art, cooking, crafts, behavior, parenting, etc. Please keep them family friendly and please no Etsy shops or giveaways unless they are relevant to the topic.

• Upload your direct post link to the InLinkz widget. Link up to 3 posts.

• Like the hosts on Facebook: Totschooling, A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain and One Time Through.

• Or follow the hosts on Pinterest: A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain, Totschooling and One Time Through.

• Post our button on your site.

• By linking up, you agree to have your images shared with credit.

Link up and grab a button!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Playful Alphabet Garden with Free Printable

I am very excited to announce my next super talented guest blogger: Sue from One Time Through. She has many amazing parenting posts and great educational ideas. Also be sure to check out her (free printable) Parent & Child Connection Coupons! 

Playful Alphabet Garden

Spring is arriving late to my neighbourhood this year, so I decided to get a head start and create a playful alphabet garden for my 3 year old son to plant inside. I'm Sue and you can usually find me blogging about hands-on learning activities for young kids over at One Time Through.

Because I'm a teacher, I often try to find a way to turn fun activities into learning opportunities and I thought this idea would be perfect to share with the Totschooling readers!

I found the idea for a playful alphabet garden at my local early years drop in centre where they often share creative and fun ways to introduce young children to their letters.

My son didn't have enough time to really play with the "garden" that day - so I decided to make my own at home for him to use.

What is the Playful Alphabet Garden?

The alphabet garden is a simple plastic tub filled with play sand, a pair of child- sized garden gloves, some small gardening tools, a few plastic plant pots, a small watering can, and of course, the popsicle stick alphabet "flowers."

The flowers (as well as a few bugs and butterflies for fun!) each have a capital letter of the alphabet on them. I created a printable PDF A to Z set of these that you can download for free {HERE}.

How to Prepare the Garden

You Will Need:

- the Playful Alphabet Garden printable (1 or 2 copies)
- 26+ popsicle sticks
- play sand and a plastic tub/container
- small garden gloves, planting tools, watering can, and plastic plant pots

To set up the garden activity, print off your alphabet flowers and cut them out. I decided to print out 2 copies so that I would have lots of letter doubles. I also laminated mine so that they would last longer. Tape each flower/bug to the top of a popsicle stick.

I also found some small plastic flower pots that I wrote some garden-related words on with a permanent marker, like: water, dirt, rocks, flower, and my son's name (a big favourite right now!)

Garden Play

When my son first played with the bin, I didn't give him any instructions except to put on his gardening gloves. His first instinct was to scoop the sand and fill the pots, and dig, dig, dig! And that was okay with me.

After some exploratory play, I showed him how he could "plant" the flower letters in each pot to match the words on the pots. We did this activity for a little while together - focusing on his name and then one of the plant pot words that he was interested in (incidentally the one that also started with the first letter of his name).

Eventually, his focus moved back to scooping and digging, but the letter flowers now became a part of his pretend play.

I got this gardening activity out several times this week, and each time my son seemed to get something different out of it. The first day was about exploring, the second day was more about pretending to plant flowers, and the third time was more about matching the letters to the words.

In all cases, he was having fun, learning to recognize the letters, and by talking with me as he played, incidentally learning letter sounds. All perfect practice activities for an early writer!

Meet Sue:

Sue is an Elementary School Teacher currently on leave to be at home with her preschooler son. She shares ideas for connecting and learning with kids through meaningful, play-based activities that nurture curiosity and creativity, as well as positive parenting tips.

Gone Fishing Game for Preschoolers

I can't wait to try this super fun and educational "fishing" game created by Tiffiny from Spark and Pook. Tiffiny is an elementary school teacher turned stay-at-home mom, blogging about playful learning ideas, children's books and traveling with kids. Be sure to check out her (free printable) Make Way for Duckling Matching Activities and her 10 Apples Up on Top Book Activity.

Gone Fishing Game

For my daughter’s third birthday party, I put together a game I call “Gone Fishing” using simple materials I happened to have around the house. The game was such a hit with Pooky and the other kids that I decided to share it with you. The game is quick to set up and provides oodles of educational fun (a win-win in my book).

What you will need:

- Gone Fishing Printable (or draw your own simple fish outlines)
- small dowel rod (you can also use a wooden spoon or unsharpened pencil)
- baker's twine, yarn, or some form of thick string (about 10-12 inches in length for each "fishing pole")
- construction paper or foam sheets in a variety of colors
- paper clips (one per fish)
- dot magnets
- a "pond" of some sort in which to place the fish

Assembly:

1 - Make the fish. I wanted more durable fish, so I printed the Gone Fishing Printable onto plain paper and then used that to trace and cut foam fish in a few different colors.  If you don't have or want to use foam, just print the fish onto colored construction paper, and then cut them out. I created a total of nine fish for our game, but you can make as many as you'd like.

2 - Once the fish are cut out, attach a paperclip to each fish in the place where a mouth would go.

3 - Assemble the fishing pole by tying a double knot of one end of the string to one end of the dowel rod (or the straight end of a wooden spoon). Using the other end of the string, tie a double knot around the dot magnet. (If using foam fish for the game, use two dot magnets together instead of one.)

4 - Place the fish inside their bucket (or makeshift pond).

Ways to Play:

- Since we had multiple players ranging from ages 2-3, I made a "fishing pole" for each fisher. The initial goal was simply for each child to "catch" a fish with their "fishing pole" (without touching the fish with their hands). For toddlers, this takes a good deal of concentration and coordination. Pooky and her friends played this game repeatedly taking turns to catch the 9 fish.

- Once children become skilled at using the "fishing pole," challenge them further by asking them to fish for a specific color. (This takes greater hand-eye coordination.)

- You can practice other skills by drawing shapes, numbers, or letters onto the fish and asking the child to "fish" for specific ones.   (To make the fish re-usable use a small sticky note instead of drawing directly onto the fish.) See the examples below.

- Write numbers on the fish (one on each) and have the child "fish" for the numbers in order. If they accidentally "catch" the wrong number, throw it back in.

- Draw some shapes that your child is familiar with on the fish so that there are multiples of each shape (i.e. three fish with a square, three fish with a circle, etc...) Create a landing spot for each type of fish so the child can sort their fish into the correct shape "bucket."

- Label the fish with some letters your child has been learning. Choose only a few letters and mark one fish with the capital letter and another fish with its corresponding lowercase letter. Then have the child fish for a specific letter and match the uppercase and lowercase into pairs.

Those are the ways we've been playing "Gone Fishing," but I'm sure there are many other ways you could play. Once Pooky knew how to play, we turned it into a Busy Bag activity. I take it out periodically and it's fun and educational all over again. You can find more busy bag ideas here.

Skills addressed with this activity:

- gross motor: hand-eye coordination
- social skills: taking turns
- math: counting, sorting, ordering, matching
- literacy: letter identification

Happy Fishing!

Meet Tiffiny:

I am a certified elementary school teacher turned stay-at-home mom. I’m a foodie, traveler, and avid reader. I love to share these joys with my husband, daughter, and the blogosphere. On my blog, Spark and Pook, you will find tips for traveling with children, children’s book reviews, and learn-though-play activities for toddlers and preschoolers.

Felt Butterfly Craft

My next guest blogger is Monique from Living Life and Learning. Monique is a homeschooling mom of 3, blogging about educational activities for kids. Some of my favorite posts are her (free printable) Dinosaur Counting Cards and her Felt Storyboards for Mo Willems' Pigeon Books.

Felt Butterfly Craft

Spring is in the air, so it's a great time to learn about butterflies. Felt crafts are a great way to get little ones imaginations flowing and it's such a quiet activity. It's perfect for when you need to focus on something like teaching an older child or making a phone call. This felt craft is super easy to put together and if you have any felt lying around the house then you can do it in no time at all. All you need is felt and a pair of scissors and you can make your own set.

Felt Butterfly Craft Supplies:

- purple: wings
- black: body and antennae
- red, yellow, pink and blue: different shapes
- scissors

For this craft I didn't draw out a template but just cut free form. For the wings I folded the purple sheet of felt and cut out the wings so that it would look symmetrical. The black felt was used for the body, head and antennae. I used various colors and cut out diamonds, lines, circles and zig zag patterns. I'm not super creative but I was going for simple and this felt craft is definitely easy to put together.



My felt crafts are stored in ziploc bags so she can take them out on her own to play with them. My daughter was being silly and enjoyed throwing the felt pieces onto a pile on the butterfly. She was very proud of her work and asked me to take pictures of it along with herself as well. My daughter had a blast playing with the felt flowers craft and felt pizza that I've made as well.

Meet Monique:

Monique is a biology graduate, web designer and homeschooling mother to 3, you can find her blogging about homeschooling, activities and printables at Living Life and Learning. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram.

20+ Free Earth Day Printables for Kids (Love to Learn Linky #38)

Welcome to a special Earth Day edition of the Love to Learn Linky. Today I am featuring over 20 educational Earth Day printables and printable packs. Don't forget to check out my co-hosts' Earth Day posts as well as the ones linked up!

Printable Packs:

Earth Day Activity Pack by Totschooling
30 Page Free Earth Day Pack by Happy and Blessed Home 
Earth Day Do-a-Dot Printable Pack by Gift of Curiosity
Earth Day Packs by Royal Baloo
Earth Day Learning Pack by 3 Dinosaurs
Earth Day Printables by Homeschool Encouragement
Earth Day Printables by Wise Owl Factory

Printable Learning Activities:

Sorting Recyclables by Totschooling
Earth Day Letter & Number Puzzles by Totschooling
Waste Sorting Sensory Bin with printable by One Time Through
Earth Day Recycling Sorting Activity by A Little Pinch of Perfect
3-Part Montessori Recycle Cards by Living Montessori Now
Earth Printables for Preschoolers by Life Over C's 

Learning through Fun & Games:

DIY Raisin Box Puzzle with printable by Totschooling
Earth Q-Tip Painting Printable by Totschooling
Earth Day Bingo by Gift of Curiosity
Earth Month Scavenger Hunt by Edventures with Kids
Earth Day Memory Game by Learn Create Love
Earth Day Dominos by Storytime Standouts
Earth Playdough Mat by The Preschool Toolbox
Earth Day Action Reminder Cards by Cutting Tiny Bites
Earth Day Board Game by Play 2 Learn with Sarah

LOVE TO LEARN LINKY

Visit my co-hosts to see their posts and features!

Hands On Learning Earth Day Activities from A Little Pinch of Perfect
Earths Elements for Kids: An Earth Day Activity Roundup from One Time Through
Earth Day Science Activities for Kids from Left Brain Craft Brain

Now it's time for some more links! I hope you'll join me and a couple of friends for a brand new linky party!

Bloggers, link up your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place.

Almost anything goes, we're just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something. (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting, etc...)

Love to Learn Linky Etiquette:

• Posts should be about educating our kids in any way - science, art, cooking, crafts, behavior, parenting, etc. Please keep them family friendly and please no Etsy shops or giveaways unless they are relevant to the topic.

• Upload your direct post link to the InLinkz widget. Link up to 3 posts.

• Like the hosts on Facebook: Totschooling, A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain and One Time Through.

• Or follow the hosts on Pinterest: A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain, Totschooling and One Time Through.

• Post our button on your site.

• By linking up, you agree to have your images shared with credit.

Link up and grab a button!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Free Weather themed Word Tracing Printables

Next up in our guest blogger series is Sarah from Me Plus 3 Today. Sarah is an inspirational mother of 3 young children, a widow, a business owner and a blogger, writing about kids' activities, parenting and how to make a difference in the community. Some of my favorite posts of hers are 5 Ways to Teach Kids that They Can Make a Difference, High 5 Today Campaign, and 12 Outdoor Learning Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers. Today she is sharing an awesome set of Free printable Weather themed Word Tracing worksheets!

The weather during the spring months can be very fickle. One day it will seem like the warmth is here to stay, only to have the temperatures dramatically drop and snowflakes falling on the next! Eventually, the sun starts to shine more and the precipitation will finally change to rain, with some lightning and thunderstorms occurring too!

While the changes in weather become second nature to adults, it is a novelty for toddlers. My toddlers absolutely love to talk about the weather. Each day after breakfast, we look out the window to see what the weather is like. I will open our slider door so we can feel the wind, rain, or warmth from the sun, while I also give a very simple explanation of the science behind the weather.

Since we have been doing a variety of activities to work on letter recognition, like these snowflake crowns during the winter, I thought I could use the weather as another great opportunity to work on their pre-reading and pre-writing skills.

I decided to create this printable set of some of the most common weather types that we witness during the spring. My 3-year-old twin girls love to name and trace the letters while also discussing what the weather is like. The weather graphic on the printable helps them to "read" each word.

These printables are free and would make a great addition to a weather unit for preschoolers. The 6 spring weather types included in this printable pack are: cloudy, lightning, raining, sunny, windy, and thunder. I hope your children enjoy them as much as mine!

Click here to Download your Free Weather themed Word Tracing Sheets!

Hi there! I’m Sarah, a mother of 3-year-old twin girls and a 2-year-old boy, and a young widow since August of 2013. I work at home as a virtual assistant and owner of Star Thrower Virtual Services. I also blog at Me Plus 3 Today, where my goal is to provide inspiration today because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Topics on the blog include parenting, kid’s crafts and activities, widowhood, and ideas for making a difference. I’d be honored to have you visit my blog, or follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Earth Q-Tip Painting Free Printable

Q-Tip painting is a fun and challenging fine motor activity for kids. Since my daughter loved the Christmas and Valentine's Day Q-tip painting printables, I created one in celebration of Earth Day. This is a great way to spark discussions about geography, science and nature while painting in a unique way!

This is such a quick activity to set up. Just print out this sheet, grab some q-tips and paint, and you have an educational and fun activity for your child!

Click here to Download your Free Earth Q-Tip Printable!

For more Earth Day activities, check out the Free Earth Day Activity Pack:

For more ideas and printables for learning with Q-Tips, see the following post: 20 Learning Activities with Q-Tips

12 Creative Ways to Learn with Coloring Pages (Love to Learn Linky #37)

Coloring pages seem like the perfect quiet time or busy activity for kids. However, my daughters (and I'm sure my kids aren't the only ones) will spend about 5 minutes or less if I give them a coloring page and crayons. Granted, this may be because they are still young (3 1/2 and almost 2 yrs), but I wanted to find a way to engage my kids and also get some educational value out of a simple coloring page. 

Recently, we went on a vacation which involved an airplane flight as well as multiple car rides. While I thought I had packed enough activities, I ended up running out of things to keep them busy. I went out and bought some coloring books and decided to get creative!

Here are 12 ideas for creative ways of using and learning with coloring pages, as well as a list of my favorite free coloring page resources at the end!

1. Color By Number
This is a super easy way to turn a coloring page into an educational activity! Just create a legend of numbers and their corresponding colors, and write the numbers on the picture where the colors go. For a fun twist, you can play a roll & color game by rolling a die, calling out the number and then coloring one of the numbers in the picture. Keep rolling and playing until the picture is complete.

2. Color by Letter or Sight Word
This is the same idea as number 1 but you can use letters, words, shapes or anything else that your child is learning.

3. Color by Dots
Use a marker to create little circles, essentially labeling which colors go where on the page. Great for color recognition in young children.

4. Color by Sequence 
Write numbers or letters throughout the picture and ask your child to color in numerical or alphabetical order. 

5. Sticker by Number/Letter/Word
This one is a favorite at our house! Hide letters, numbers or words throughout the picture and also write them on a set of stickers (I like to purchase these circle labeling stickers at the dollar store). The child then places the stickers over the correct letter or number.

6. Cut & Make into a Puzzle
This one is really easy to prep. Just cut the paper into 4, 6, 9 or 12 pieces and let your child put it back together. You can also let the child do the cutting and it doubles as cutting practice!

7. Cut in Half and Complete Picture
Learn about symmetry or just let your child use their imagination to complete the picture.

8. Find & Color
Depending on the type of coloring page, ask your child to find a specific shape, object or character and once they find it they color it. Repeat until the whole page is colored. This would be great with a more complex coloring page with many different elements.

9. Make a Collage
We do this one a lot at our house. I give my kids craft supplies such as tissue paper, pom poms, feathers, googly eyes, scrap paper, buttons, etc and have them glue these things onto the coloring page. It usually comes out like a work of art! You may need to reinforce the paper or, if you are printing, you can print on cardstock or heavy paper. 

10. Turn into a Playdough Mat
Any coloring page can be turned into a playdough mat. Just laminate the sheet (or not) and give your child playdough to "color" in the picture. Tons of fun and great for fine motor skills.

11. Turn into a Lacing Card
This one works best if the coloring page is mainly one animal, object or character. Laminate the page (or print on cardstock), then cut out the main object and punch holes around it. Give your child a shoelace, string, yarn etc. to lace around the picture.

12. Cut out Characters/Animals/Objects and Make Story Puppets
Another idea that works only for certain coloring pages. Cut out the main characters, animals, etc. and turn them into puppets by taping a craft stick to the back. Ask your child to come up with a story and use the puppets to act it out.

Free Coloring Pages & Resources:

300+ Disney Princess Coloring Pages by What Mommy Does
35 Free Disney's Frozen Coloring Pages by The Kid's Coloring Pages
1000+ Free Disney Coloring Pages for Kids by The Farm Girl Gabs
Famous Paintings Coloring Pages by Super Coloring
Marvel Superhero Squad Coloring Pages by On Coloring
Robots Coloring Pages by The Art & Craft Giraffe
32 Free Zoo Animal Coloring Pages by Raising Our Kids
Animal Coloring Pages by Better Homes & Gardens
Eric Carle Coloring Pages by Mom Junction


LOVE TO LEARN LINKY

Visit my co-hosts to see their posts and features!

Dinosaur Crafts & Activities for Kids from A Little Pinch of Perfect
DIY Cardboard Rocket Ship and Space Play Ideas from One Time Through
Play Dough Robots from Left Brain Craft Brain

Now it's time for some more links! I hope you'll join me and a couple of friends for a brand new linky party!

Bloggers, link up your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place.

Almost anything goes, we're just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something. (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting, etc...)

Love to Learn Linky Etiquette:

• Posts should be about educating our kids in any way - science, art, cooking, crafts, behavior, parenting, etc. Please keep them family friendly and please no Etsy shops or giveaways unless they are relevant to the topic.

• Upload your direct post link to the InLinkz widget. Link up to 3 posts.

• Like the hosts on Facebook: Totschooling, A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain and One Time Through.

• Or follow the hosts on Pinterest: A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain, Totschooling and One Time Through.

• Post our button on your site.

• By linking up, you agree to have your images shared with credit.

Link up and grab a button!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Free Earth Day Puzzles for Kids

I am very excited to introduce my next guest blogger, Malia from Playdough to Plato. I'm a huge fan of her blog, where she shares tons of free printables and hands-on learning activities for preschool, kindergarten and first grade. She is here today with a set of fabulous and free Earth Day puzzles!

Earth Day Puzzles:

As a former kindergarten teacher turned hands-on mom, I get a little bit giddy about creating fun ways for my kids to learn. These free Earth Day puzzles are a simple way to learn some ways to help the environment AND practice ABC and 123 order at the same time.

Getting Ready:

Prepping the puzzles couldn't get much simpler. I printed a copy of the puzzles { HERE } on cardstock to give them extra durability and cut along the thin grey lines to separate the strips. Easy peasy.

My boys and I have talked about Earth Day before so they knew it was a celebration of all-things environmentally-friendly. We worked together to brainstorm a long list of different ways we can help the planet: picking up litter, watering trees, recycling...

Then I showed the boys the mixed up puzzles and invited them to sort the pieces into the correct order, building a photo of one awesome Earth Day activity we'd work on together. I gave each excited child a scrambled puzzle. Piece by piece, they started building.

And in just a couple minutes, both puzzles were complete.

I slid the pieces into separate snack-sized Ziplocs and placed them in my bag so I could easily entertain the boys when we’re waiting in doctors’ offices, restaurants… you name it! Then we set out to make a positive impact on the planet by taking our plastics to the outdoor recycling bin and hunting down the perfect spot for a new tree. Happy Earth Day!

Meet Malia:

Malia is a National Board Certified teacher turned hands-on mom to three little ones {ages 5, 3 and 1}. When she's not digging in sandboxes or playing with paint, she's sharing fun learning activities on her site, Playdough to Plato. Hop over and grab all of her FREE printables - including a super popular Matchbox car alphabet tracing book and road trip activity pack!