Letter and Number Heart Puzzles (Love to Learn Linky #27)

My daughter has always loved puzzles. She gets very excited when I come up with something new for her to put together and solve. With Valentine's Day coming up, I recently created this free printable set of heart puzzles for her to practice letters, letter sounds, numbers and counting.

These puzzles include two levels of difficulty:

2-piece heart puzzles:
- matching uppercase and lowercase letters
- matching number to quantity 1-15

3-piece heart puzzles:
- matching uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as pictures that begin with each letter sound
- matching number to quantity, and number words 1-15

Click here to Download your Free Heart Puzzles

For a set of winter themed puzzles, try these Snowman Letter Matching Puzzles:

Check out these other heart-shaped learning activities from the Love to Learn Linky:

Light Up Circuit Valentines by Left Brain Craft Brain
Valentines Heart Hide & Seek Game by A Little Pinch of Perfect
Valentine Sight Word Delivery by Growing Book by Book
Sprinkle Math Fine Motor Activity by Sugar Aunts
Valentines Counting & Color Sorting by Teaching 2 & 3 Year Olds
Valentines Fine Motor Activities by Pre-K Pages
C is for Color Connections by Eager Ed
Heart Number Puzzles by Mom Inspired Life
Valentine Name Puzzle by How Wee Learn
Valentine Counting Activity by Spark & Pook

LOVE TO LEARN LINKY


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

Valentines Day Learning Activities from One Time Through
Penguin Crafts & Activities for Kids from A Little Pinch of Perfect

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...)

The Love to Learn Linky is Hosted by:

Totschooling: Viviana is a blogging mom to a toddler and a preschooler, sharing ideas and resources for early education. She specializes in unique, hands-on printable activities that are educational, fun and inspire creativity in young minds.

Left Brain Craft Brain: Anne is an ex-engineer, current stay-at-home mama writing about crafty ways to encourage creativity (and brain power!) in our kids. Each of her projects gives kids the chance to learn about a new subject and do something crafty at the same time.

A Little Pinch of Perfect: Katie combines creativity, play, and learning for the perfect mishmash of fun activities that keep kiddos entertained throughout the day. She wholeheartedly believes in the power of play and feels that all activities naturally provide a fun way to learn.

One Time Through: 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.

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 FROZEN Alphabet Cards

My girls absolutely love the movie Frozen and anything to do with it. So I created these FREE Frozen themed Alphabet Cards to help them learn their alphabet and letter sounds. We also play a lot of fun educational games with these cards. The possibilities are endless!

These FREE Frozen Alphabet Cards include 26 images and words, one for each letter of the alphabet, featuring either a main character from the movie, or an object or idea with a movie scene as the image.

Just print them out, laminate each sheet, then cut out the cards. Here are some ideas for playing with these cards:

-Create an alphabet flip book that you can look through and practice reading the letters and/or words.

-Hang the cards on the wall to create a decorative alphabet chart.

-Play a memory game: make 2 copies of each card, lay them face down and play the classic game.

-Play a bingo game: Lay down a set of 9 or 16 cards to create a large bingo mat. Then, call out letters and have the child put a token on the correct card.

-Talk about each character or what is happening in each picture. Great for language development, imagination and memory.

These cards are excellent for many different stages of development. For toddlers it is a good introduction to the alphabet. Preschoolers will benefit from practicing letter sounds, and emergent readers can use these as simple words to practice reading.

Click here to download your FREE Frozen Alphabet Cards!

If you enjoy this printable, take a look at our

Free Frozen Learning Pack for Tots & PreK:

For a set of fun, DIY personalized ABC cards, take a look at our guest post,

26 Photos to Teach Letter Sounds:

Snowman Letter Matching Puzzles (Love to Learn Linky #20)

Today was the first day of snow for us this season, so it seems fitting that I write this post about a snowman learning activity! This is a free printable puzzle for preschoolers to practice letter sounds and letter cases! Match these 3 pieces to create a snowman: an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter and an object that begins with that letter sound.

The snowman's hat contains an object that begins with each letter of the alphabet. Match the upper and lowercase letter that makes the beginning sound to complete the snowman! This is great activity for practicing letter sounds and letter recognition.

Click here to download your Free Snowman Letter Matching Puzzles  

And now for some more Snowman activities shared at the Love to Learn Linky!

10 Snowman Playdough Activities by Our Little House in the Country
Bubble Wrap Snowman by Crafts on Sea
Easy Snowman Craft for Kids by Spark & Pook
Snowman Light Table Play by Where Imagination Grows
Snow-Dough Snowmen by Multicraftingmummy
Snowman Stained Glass Windows by Our Little House in the Country

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

Five Minute Crafts: Pumpkin Pie Painting from Left Brain Craft Brain
10 Fun Christmas Learning Ideas for Preschoolers from One Time Through
Snow Inspired Fun for Kids: Crafts, Activities and More from A Little Pinch of Perfect

LOVE TO LEARN LINKY

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...)

The Love to Learn Linky is Hosted by:

Totschooling: Viviana is a blogging mom to a toddler and a preschooler, sharing ideas and resources for early education. She specializes in unique, hands-on printable activities that are educational, fun and inspire creativity in young minds.

Left Brain Craft Brain: Anne is an ex-engineer, current stay-at-home mama writing about crafty ways to encourage creativity (and brain power!) in our kids. Each of her projects gives kids the chance to learn about a new subject and do something crafty at the same time.

A Little Pinch of Perfect: Katie combines creativity, play, and learning for the perfect mishmash of fun activities that keep kiddos entertained throughout the day. She wholeheartedly believes in the power of play and feels that all activities naturally provide a fun way to learn.

One Time Through: 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.

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 FROZEN Learning Pack for Toddlers & PreK

It's finally here! My daughters have been obsessing over Disney's FROZEN lately and I have been planning on making this pack for quite some time! I hope you enjoy this FREE Printable Frozen Learning Pack for toddlers and preschoolers, featuring math, literacy, visual discrimination, prewriting, handwriting, scissor skills, puzzles, do-a-dots, lacing cards and more!

This FREE Frozen Learning Pack features 36 activities that will keep your little Frozen fan busy for a long time, while practicing numbers, counting, letters, letter sounds, visual and fine motor skills!

Click here to Download your FREE Frozen Learning Pack!

For more FROZEN fun, try these Free Frozen Alphabet Cards:

For more princess fun, check out the Princess Learning Pack:

Free Thanksgiving Math & Literacy Printable Pack for PreK

Get ready for Thanksgiving with this fun turkey themed math and literacy pack for preschoolers. This FREE printable pack is designed for preschoolers to practice math and literacy skills such as counting, number recognition, number quantity, shapes, alphabet recognition, letter sounds, letter cases and more!

This Thanksgiving themed Math & Literacy Pack features 23 hands-on activities, and it is available for FREE to all email subscribers. Here is what's included:

Literacy Activities:

-Alphabet matching

-Letter case matching

-Letter Sound Matching

-Sight Word Matching

-Tracing words

-Letter Sorting

-Word puzzle

Math Activities:

-Numbers 1-10 Puzzle

-Counting

-Cut & Paste the Correct Number

-Number Matching

-Quantity Matching

-Shape Matching

-Cut & Paste Missing Number

-Color by Number

This Thanksgiving Printable Pack is FREE for all Totschooling subscribers!

After entering your email address, you will receive a confirmation email to complete your subscription. You will shortly receive a Welcome email that includes a link to this pack. If you have not received this email, please check your spam folder, or email me at totschooling@gmail.com. Thanks!

What can I expect as a Subscriber?:

-You will receive free printables that are not available for download on the website. This includes holiday and seasonal packs, as well as other themed activity packs.

-You will get access to a growing collection of Board Book Printable Activities.

-You will receive 2-3 emails per week with new posts, freebies, sales and additions to the site.

-You will receive a special subscriber discount for the Online Store.

-Your information will never be shared with anybody else.

Free Princess Learning Pack for Toddlers & PreK

My daughter's current obsession is princesses. We have princess books, princess toys, princess dresses, and we even threw a princess birthday party for her third birthday! I always like to take advantage of things that interest her and use them as learning opportunities, so of course I created a Princess themed printable pack, and giving it out for free to all my wonderful followers!

 

This free printable pack includes 21 activities to practice counting, number recognition, letters, letter cases, letter sounds, prewriting, scissor skills, visual discrimination, lacing, do-a-dots and more!

 

For toddlers, I always recommend that you laminate the activities and use Velcro to attach the loose pieces. Preschoolers or children who are practicing using scissors can do these activities by cutting and pasting. The prewriting sheets should be laminated or placed in sheet protectors for easy wipe-off.

Click here to download your Free Princess Learning Pack!

 

If you enjoyed this Free printable pack, sign up for the Totschooling e-mail newsletter for access to all the printables, including seasonal and holiday packs!

M is for Monster: Craft & Activity + $50 Giveaway!

This post is sponsored by Dollar Tree. All opinions are my own.

 

Teaching my daughter letters has been a bit of a challenge. It's just not something that interests her. So I have to get really creative these days to come up with projects that are so fun, she forgets she is learning! Luckily, I got the opportunity to make this awesome project from the Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club! After we made this adorable Monster box craft, I came up with a fun little game to practice letter recognition and letter sounds!

 

 

To create this Monster box craft, you will need the following supplies:

 

• tissue box (Dollar Tree)
• paint (optional)
• circle labeling stickers (Dollar Tree)
• construction paper (Dollar Tree)
• googly eyes (Dollar Tree)
• tape or glue (Dollar Tree)

 

The instructions for making this Monster box can be found at the Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club. Membership is completely FREE! You'll find tons of crafts, recipes, décor, tips, contests, insider information, and frugal ideas. The content changes every month, so you'll have lots of fresh ideas for each season, holiday or just every day fun! All the materials can be purchased from Dollar Tree, and you can even print out the project sheets to take with you to the store as a convenient shopping list!

 

This Monster box was such a cute craft, and super easy for a toddler or preschooler to make. (I helped with the eyes and teeth, but that's about it)

 

As we were making the Monster, I told my daughter that this Monster likes to eat only letter M's and things that begin with M. It won't eat anything else that begins with a different letter or sound! Those "rules" set us up for some fun activities!

 

For the first activity, I took out some letter stickers that I had in my craft supplies. But you can also use letter tiles, letter magnets, or any other moveable alphabet pieces that you have on hand.  Fortunately, we had a lot of letter M's, so I gave my daughter a bunch of letters to feed to the Monster (about half of them were M's and half were other letters). She took one letter at a time, called out what the letter was, and determined whether the Monster would eat it or not. This is a great game for letter recognition and can be modified depending on what materials you have!

 

 

For the next game, I collected a bunch of small objects and toys from around the house. I tried to find as many things as I could that start with the M sound. I found a mirror, a mitten, a monkey toy, play money, a marker, Minnie mouse, a small map, a mouth and a moon. I also added a bunch of other small objects that don't begin with an M sound. One by one, she identified each object and if that object started with an M sound or not, and fed the correct ones to the Monster.

 

 

This game can be modified for a lot of different learning activities, whether you want your child to practice letters, numbers, sight words, colors, etc.

 

For more fun crafts and ideas like this one, sign up for Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club. It's FREE! As if that wasn't enough, I'm giving away a $50 Dollar Tree gift card to one of my lucky readers! Think of all the fun projects you can make with that!

 

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is sign up for Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club and tell me which email address you used to sign up, using the Rafflecopter below. I will notify the winner by email. Good luck!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  

 

Teach Letter Sounds with 26 Photos

 

I had the amazing opportunity to write a guest post for Teach Mama! So I decided to share this super cool and fun activity for learning letters and letter sounds. It's actually multiple activities in one, and it was a huge hit with my daughter!

 

Click here to check it out!

Free Summer Printable Pack for Toddlers - PreK

 

Summer is finally here but the learning doesn't stop! This printable pack is great for toddlers & preschoolers on long car trips, airplane rides, rainy days or simply for every day learning to practice those essential skills like counting, number & alphabet recognition, letter sounds, letter cases, size, colors, shapes, patterns, visual discrimination, prewriting, scissor skills and more!

 

This is my biggest printable pack so far, featuring 37 summer themed activities, and I am making it available for Free to all email subscribers. Here is what's included:

 

Literacy Activities:

-Cut & Paste the Missing Letter

-Letter Sound Matching

-Circle all things that begin with the letter S

-Match the upper and lower case letters

-Sight Word Matching

-Tracing words

-Tracing Letters & Pictures

 

Pre-Writing:

-Trace the Circles

-Horizontal Lines

-Vertical Lines

-Maze

 

Math Activities:

-Numbers 1-10 Puzzle

-Color by Number

-Counting

-Cut & Paste the Correct Number

-Patterns

-Cut & Paste in Order from Smallest to Biggest

-Sorting by Size

-Sorting by Color

-Match the other half of the Shapes

 

Visual Discrimination:

-Matching kids at the pool/beach

-Matching ice cream cones

-I Spy BBQ

-I Spy Beach

-Circle the one that is Different

-Matching Flip Flop pairs

 

Scissor Skills:

-Cutting straight lines

-Cutting zig zag lines

-Cutting page in 4 sections

 

Puzzles:

-Cut & Paste Puzzle

-Numbers 1-10 Puzzle

-Summer Word Puzzle

 

 

Below is a Sneak Peek:

 

 

This Summer themed Printable Pack is FREE for all Totschooling email subscribers.

What can I expect as a Subscriber?:

-You will receive free printables that are not available for download on the website. This includes holiday and seasonal packs, as well as other themed activity packs.

-You will get access to a growing collection of Board Book Printable Activities.

-You will receive 2-3 emails per week with new posts, freebies, sales and additions to the site.

-You will receive a special subscriber discount for the Online Store.

-Your information will never be shared with anybody else.

 

10 Activities with Family Photos

From a very young age, children seem to be fascinated by photographs. Starting from when my kids were babies and I carried them around the house, they both stopped me whenever we reached a photograph hanging on the wall. My 1 year old still does this every day and loves to point at the pictures and call out which ones are "mama" and "dada".

When we look at old vacation photos, my almost 3 year old daughter loves to call out everybody's names and describe what they are doing in the pictures. It helps with her memory, logic and language skills.

Since photographs can be so engaging for young children, I thought it would be fun to come up with some easy DIY activities with family photos that are also educational!

1. Photo Puzzle

You can use a photograph that you already have, or print one out from your computer. If printing out, laminate the photo for durability. Then, depending on your child's age and the size of your photograph, cut it into 6, 9, 12 or 24 pieces and have your child put it back together.

2. Family Photo Matching (Visual Discrimination)

 

Visual discrimination practice is very important for young children, as it improves their ability to differentiate between similar images and, in the long run, will be an advantage when learning to read and write.
It's so easy to make your own visual discrimination matching activity with family photos - your computer does it all for you! If you use Windows, all you have to do is open up your picture folder, select 9 pictures (you will see why I say 9) that you would like to use, then either right-click and press "print", or find the "print" button located in the folder's toolbar. Once you click "print" you will see various layout options that you can change. The default layout is one large picture per page. If you scroll down you will see more options. The one I used is the "wallet" size layout that prints 9 photos per page. Click "print" again and ta-da! you have a photo sheet with 9 pictures. Then, print a second copy of the same 9 pictures. Laminate both sheets, then cut one into 9 separate photos that your child will match to the first sheet.
If you use Mac OS or if my explanation for Windows was unclear, click here to read some better instructions on how to print the photo sheets and it also has screenshots. Note: There is an option for a page of thumbnails but I thought the pictures came out too small.

3. Photo Sorting Activities

 

To make a sorting activity, follow the steps above (#2) to print off a photo sheet with 9 photos. Print several sheets with different photographs until you have enough photos for the sorting activity. Then laminate all the sheets and cut out the pictures.

Here are some ideas for sorting categories for family photos:
-sibling vs. sibling
-adult vs. child
-male vs. female
-mom's side vs. dad's side
-generations
-location: US vs. overseas, or NJ vs. FL
-events: Easter vs. Thanksgiving vs. Christmas

4. Photo Order Activities

 

This is the same as making the sorting activity above (#3), then the child puts the pictures in a specific order. Here are some ideas:
-age: youngest to oldest
-chronological events: the order that events happened (good for vacation photos)

5. Emotion Recognition Activities

Take pictures of yourself or your child expressing different emotions. Print off the photos using the photo sheet method above (#2). You can then do a matching or sorting activity (#2,3) or simply ask the child to describe the emotion expressed in each picture.

6. Photo Labeling Activities

 

This would be a good activity to do after one of the others. For example, after the child puts the family members in order of youngest to oldest (#4), they can add numbers labeling each person's age. Or, after doing an emotion recognition exercise (#5) the child can place a label next to each picture: sad, happy, angry, etc. Or, very simply, the child can label each person's name. Even if the child can't read the entire name or word, it can be good practice to sound out the beginning letter.

7. Family Tree

 

Print photo sheets (#2) with individual pictures of each family member, then laminate and cut out each person. Make your own tree with popsicle sticks and green construction paper, or any other materials you have on hand. Then, help your child adhere the photos to the tree in their correct location. You can also use a string to create links between family members.

Here are some more great ideas from other bloggers:

8. Make your Kids into Interchangeable Blocks by Meaningful Mama

9. How to Make a Flip Book for your Toddler by MomDot

10. Photo Face Collage by Mosswood Connections

Free Birthday Printable Pack

 

We just celebrated my younger daughter's first birthday this past weekend, so I made an activity pack for my almost 3 year old daughter (her birthday is also coming up soon) to help her learn some concepts about age, numbers, and candles on the cake. I also added other fun activities like puzzles, visual discrimination, coloring, do-a-dot, as well as letter sounds, sight words, and tracing practice.

 

Your child can do these activities around any family member's birthday, it doesn't have to be their own. The pack includes 17 activities for toddlers through preschool and you can download it for Free by following the link below!

Download your Free Birthday Printable Pack!

Free Earth Day Pack for Toddlers & PreK

 

Celebrate Earth Day with your toddlers and preschoolers with this fun set of 16 printable activities featuring letter sounds, pre-writing, word tracing, puzzles, do-a-dot, lacing, counting, number recognition, patterns, visual discrimination matching, and more! Teach your child about Earth Day and recycling with this pack and also with the Free Sorting Recyclables activity!
 

Download your Free Earth Day Pack Here!

Free Easter Printables for Toddlers and PreK

Spring is in the air! And that means Easter is right around the corner. Get ready for the season with this fun Easter Learning Pack for your toddlers and preschoolers!

This Free Easter Pack includes 31 activities featuring number recognition, number quantity, counting, shapes, patterns, alphabet letter cases, letter sounds, sight words, letter tracing, sorting, visual discrimination, coloring, puzzles, pre-writing tracing, scissor skills practice and more!

Subscribe by Email to receive your Free Easter Printables Pack! 

What can I expect as a Subscriber?:

-You will receive free printables that are not available for download on the website. This includes holiday and seasonal packs, as well as other themed activity packs.

-You will get access to a growing collection of Board Book Printable Activities.

-You will receive 2-3 emails per week with new posts, freebies, sales and additions to the site.

-You will receive a special subscriber discount for the Online Store.

-Your information will never be shared with anybody else.

Free Alphabet & Picture Tracing Printables

  

Say goodbye to boring letter tracing sheets! In this fun pack, your child can trace a picture, color it in, and trace uppercase and lowercase letters on each page. Practice writing and drawing skills at the same time! Also great for reinforcing letter sounds!

You can laminate the pages or put them in sheet protectors, then just wipe them clean and reuse!

Download FREE Alphabet & Picture Tracing Printables

Please note: I recommend that you save the file to your computer before printing. If you print straight from google drive it may cause the dashed letters to not show up. Thanks! 

15 FREE St. Patrick's Day Printables for Toddlers and Pre-K

This is a fun activity pack for toddlers and preschoolers featuring number recognition, number quantity, shapes, patterns, sorting, alphabet letter cases, letter sounds, visual discrimination, coloring, tracing, and scissor skills practice.

 Download the Updated Pack here!