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Shapes

Free Butterfly Template Ideas for your Preschooler

Butterflies are amazing creatures – they seamlessly float in the air with their beauty and delicate features. It’s no wonder that kids love to watch and mimic their every move! That’s why we created this free butterfly template for preschool and younger.

Need some quick ideas using our butterfly template printable? We’ve got some easy, intermediate, and advanced ideas for your young ones! Your kids will love their new drawing skills while you enjoy igniting their imaginations.

Butterfly Template Ideas

This free butterfly template is designed for preschool, pre-K and even Kindergarten. It will give your students a lot of wiggle room for creativity. There are so many facets to a butterfly unit study- activities, crafts, games, book lists and more! Yet, you’ll be amazed at how a simple butterfly template will get their creative juices flowing!

Butterfly Tracing

This easy butterfly template outline will help your child visually and tactically learn how to draw a butterfly. For young children, a simple way to teach the art of drawing is tracing — a butterfly outline is a perfect start!

Preschoolers can use crayons, colored pencils or washable markers. It’s a simple method, yet it will teach them how to draw a butterfly shape independently. In no time, your child will be able to draw a butterfly using freehand.

As they finish the first trace, the next layer can begin with another color. Pretty soon, your student will have a beautifully arranged rainbow colored butterfly shape!

Butterfly Craft: Dab & Dot Activity

Have you heard of daubers or dab and dot markers? If not, your preschooler is in for a real treat! These handy dabbers are shaped like markers, but fairly larger with a sponge like tip. They were created for little fingers with less mess and are non-toxic.

With just the dab of the dauber, your child can create a wonderful array of color. Try using symmetrical patterns straight, or zig zag patterns. The possibilities are endless! Grab some dot markers and let your kid have a ton of fun using the butterfly template!

Butterfly Preschool Activity: Pom-Pom Symmetry

Need to continue building pattern symmetry skills with your preschooler or toddler? Pick up some PomPoms and a dab of glue for this creative craft! The free and versatile butterfly template is a wonderful skill builder using a bit of guidance.

Using the image above, instruct your child to add the same colors evenly on each side. For example, add pompoms in a diagonal row on both sides of the butterfly’s wings.

In the middle of the butterfly outline, choose another complimentary color. Next, begin gluing vertically. They choose the colors, you lead them in the right direction! This would be a great time to introduce vertical and horizontal lines.

Butterfly Symmetry Art and Lesson

This easy and beautiful butterfly craft also teaches symmetry. You may wonder — why is symmetry so important when teaching preschoolers?

While children have a build in sense of symmetry and balance, these type of activities develop them even further! Their ability to recognize patterns strengthens along with their observation skills.

The basic subjects like math, reading and art is covered in these type of lessons.  It not only develops the essential elements, it gives them more confidence and motivation! Don’t be surprised if they’re ready for the next butterfly activity!

Now that we’ve discussed these incredible skill builders, let’s get back to our subject – an engaging butterfly craft!

As you begin, don’t forget to print out several copies for your student or child. They will not stop at one after seeing his/her gorgeous creation!

Next, grab 3 or 4 colors of washable paint. Let your child choose his or her favorite paint jars. Then, carefully fold the butterfly template in half.

Make sure to guide your child dropping just a few spots on only one side. Be careful not to make the drops too big! Also, be careful to stay in the lines as much as possible.

Now gently close the butterfly up. In just a few seconds, viola, a gorgeous, colorful butterfly appears! After drying, don’t forget to show off your child’s masterpiece on the frig. Better yet, grab a frame from the store or shelf and display it on the wall.

Or, better yet, give it as a gift. There are so many family, friends, and relatives who would cherish this masterpiece. In fact, Grandma would love bragging rights for this beauty!

With just 4 simple ideas using a free butterfly template, it’s astounding at what your child can create!

If you’d like to explore even more ideas, check out my Butterfly Preschool Printables for preschoolers.

These Butterfly Preschool Resources are a wonderful supplement to your thematic unit. Don’t miss out on these valuable butterfly activities including life cycles, sequencing cards, coloring pages, and more!

Pattern Block Pictures

Pattern blocks have been a huge blessing to my homeschool classroom. Not only are they inexpensive and easy to store, but they are a versatile math manipulative for low-prep learning stations. Students can use pattern block templates to make pictures, patterns, reflections and even mandalas.

Pattern Block Mega Activity Pack
Over 700 pages of resources at your fingertips with this amazing Pattern Block Activity Pack. This set includes 230+ unique picture designs with 3 levels of difficulty each.

If you are unfamiliar with pattern blocks, basically they are a set of plastic learning manipulatives that come in 6 different shapes: hexagon, trapezoid, square, triangle, parallelogram and rhombus, each with a different color.

Free Pattern Block Activities:

We have a fun set of Pattern block pictures you can use with your students. This specific set is more than just a matching mat. Students will need two dice, a pencil, and a variety of pattern blocks.

To start, students roll two dice. They add the value of the dice to get the sum. Then, students find the same number on the pattern block template and place the appropriate shape to cover the space.

This repeats untill the entire pattern block picture is filled with shapes. Students then count how many of each shape they needed for the activity and report those numbers in the blanks provided.

This can easily be adapted to a two or more player game by having the person who places the final block as the winner. This is a simple game for children of all ages to play as it is based completely on luck and not skill.

Pattern Block Pictures 1

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 2

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 3

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 4

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 5

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 6

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 7

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 8

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 9

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 10

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 11

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Pictures 12

Free printable pattern block mats for preschool! Students roll, add and build each shape design, then report the blocks used.

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Pattern Block Mega Activity Pack
Over 700 pages of resources at your fingertips with this amazing Pattern Block Activity Pack. This set includes 230+ unique picture designs with 3 levels of difficulty each.

How to Set Achievable Goals for your Preschooler

February 16, 2019

By the time your curious preschooler reaches the age of 3 or 4, their learning development has grown exponentially! They will hit many milestones, but sometimes it’s not clear what and how many milestones you should expect. Knowing what pre-reading skills to focus on will help you identify how to set achievable goals for your preschooler.

What Your Preschooler Needs to Know:

During the preschool stage, you’ll notice a strong desire for independence, along with a ton of exploration. It’s important to determine typical cognitive goals to ensure they are ready for the next BIG step — Kindergarten!

Preschool Readiness: Color Recognition

One of your preschool goals should be to teach the basic palette of colors. By four, children should be able to identify basic hues like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, black, and brown. Your child should also be able to name, match and identify these colors. For example, can your preschooler match a brown chair to a similar brown construction paper?

Preschool Readiness: Math Skills

Early childhood education is a perfect time to introduce simple math concepts. It helps build a foundation for their next challenge with each passing new year. Preschoolers can develop a keep sense of math for identifying numbers and communicating a variety of sizes and shapes.

Another goal is to introduce math activities that include names of shapes and manipulate shapes as well as numbers and counting.

Preschool Readiness: Letter Recognition

Recognizing letters is an important key to pre-reading during the preschool phase. Alphabetic recognition prepares preschoolers to begin decoding words associated with their everyday language development. There are many letter recognition activities through hands-on learning.

Some pre-reading skills for preschoolers would include naming each letter, matching the letter name on paper, and identifying upper and lower case letters.

Preschool Readiness: Oral and Phonics

Wondering how to prepare your preschooler for reading? There are a few skills your child should master before beginning to read, besides letter recognition. Knowing what signs to look for will help identify the best time for teaching how to read.

Oral communication is also key to begin reading. Simply reading to your child for 15 to 20 minutes a day and asking questions for comprehension awareness prepares your child for narration. Reading aloud to your child daily makes a huge impact on their communication with others.

Practicing phonics awareness is also an essential step to reading. Taking simple words like ‘cat’ and changing the letter to ‘hat’ gives your child rhyming skills. Nursery rhymes and memorizing poems are wonderful tools for increasing their word playing.  

Preschool Readiness: Fine Motor Skills

Giving your child opportunities to practice writing the alphabet is a great way to strength fine motor skills. Yet, there are also other tools in your tool belt to build these critical muscle movements.

While many daily activities like dressing, eating, and playing require these small but special skills, there are other intentional ways to prep your child.
Always have these tools available: colored pencils for writing, safe scissors for cutting, glue for pasting, games using computer mouse, or playing a musical instrument. All of these activities contribute to fine motor skills including muscle strength and coordination.

We hope this preschool checklist will give all preschool moms and teachers a simple guide on what to expect for your preschooler. Don’t be surprised how fast they learn in some areas, while others are more difficult.

Remember, all children learn at their own pace. It’s our job as parents to make sure that the learning process is fun and exciting for them throughout their preschool journey!

Preschool Mom has a TON of free and frugal resources to help you stay on track with your preschool objectives. Don’t miss out on these preschool readiness resources!

Filed Under: Fine Motor, Handwriting, Math, Preschool Readiness, Shapes, Worksheets Tagged With: preschool checklist, preschool objectives

Shape Activities for Preschoolers: Drive & Trace

Preschool Shapes Activity:

If you are planning a transportation theme for your preschool then you have just hit the jackpot with our Drive and Trace activity mats. These mats are just perfect for students learning about the different shapes, while also building small motor muscles with the various cars. This set is perfect for your Preschool Math Program.  Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

Try our NEW Shape of the Week Program!

Shape-of-the-Week is a no-prep, print-&-go curriculum that covers 10 exciting shapes!  With daily hands-on activities, students learn about circles, triangles, squares and more.  Scheduled over a 4-day week, this set coordinates perfectly with our Letter of the Week and our Learn to Read Curriculum.

Shape Worksheets

With ten different printable shape worksheets, this set covers the following shapes:

  • circle
  • square
  • triangle
  • hexagon
  • rectangle
  • oval
  • heart
  • star
  • diamond
  • trapezoid

Shape Tracing Worksheet

Each shape worksheet features the shape with a road pattern for students to drive their vehicles around. The name of the shape is in the center of the shape for children to learn. At the bottom of the math worksheets, there is an additional opportunity for students to practice tracing each shape multiple times. This is great for building those small motor muscles and fine motor skills.

You can tie these preschool worksheets in with any of our Free Transportation Preschool Printables or our Shape Preschool Printables to create a thematic weekly lesson plan. Either way, try to provide students with a variety of different vehicles they can use to navigatee the roads.

Shape Activities for Preschoolers

Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Circle

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

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Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Triangle

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

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Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Square

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

View Resource

Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Diamond

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

View Resource

Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Hexagon

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

View Resource

Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Oval

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

View Resource

Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Rectangle

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

View Resource

Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Trapezoid

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

View Resource

Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Star

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

View Resource

Drive & Trace Shape Mat: Heart

Children use a variety of different toy vehicles to drive around each of the shapes, then use their finger to trace the shapes below.

View Resource

If you’d like to reuse this set of kindergarten worksheets again and again in your classroom, we highly recommend that you laminate and use a dry erase marker. That way students can trace and erase each time the set is used. Pair this set with our free Number Drive Mats for an engaging center activity.

Shape Preschool Printables

Our shape printables are just right for little hands.  Here you’ll find shape bingo, printable shape charts, full-page classroom charts, file folder games, puzzles, matching game and much more. Learning about shapes provides children with early math skills, talk with them about how many sides, points/corners they can find.  Look for shapes around the classroom and keep a tally graph of what you find together.

Try our NEW Shape of the Week Program!

Shape of the Week Curriculum

Shape-of-the-Week is a no-prep, print-&-go curriculum that covers 10 exciting shapes!  With daily hands-on activities, students learn about circles, triangles, squares and more.  Scheduled over a 4-day week, this set coordinates perfectly with our Letter of the Week and our Learn to Read Curriculum.

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Silly Shape Charts

This is a silly set of Shape Charts you can hang in your classroom. Featuring 13 different shapes this set is simple and bright for all ages.

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Shape Wordwall Cards

This is a set of printable wordwall cards featuring pictures of eight different shapes. shapes; circle, triangle, square, diamond, star, oval, rectangle, and heart.

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Shape Tracing Worksheets

There are so many benefits to tracing for young kids. These practical printables for shapes like triangles, octagons, hexagons, circles and more can help develop fine motor skills, build drawing abilities, and prepare your child for the next step: writing!

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Shape Mazes for Preschoolers

Students follow the shapes through the maze to bring the Mama Pig to the Baby pig. These free mazes build key logic skills.

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Shapes In Shapes Cut & Paste Pictures

Students learn about shapes inside of other shapes with these free cut and paste activity pages.

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Printable Shape Bingo Game

Shape Bingo is a great game for children of all ages! Preschoolers love to play games and this is a great way to reinforce shape recognition in a fun way.

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Simple Printable Shape Chart

This is a printable shape chart featuring the shapes; circle, triangle, square, diamond, star, oval, rectangle, and heart.

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Shape Minibook

This is a printable minibook featuring eight different shapes; circle, square, triangle, oval, rectangle, diamond, heart and star.

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Pumpkin Tracing Worksheets

This is a free set of pumpkin shape tracing worksheets! Covers 10 different shapes with ideas for fine motor expansion.

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Tracing Snowman Shapes

This free set of shape tracing worksheets has a silly snowman theme! These pages are great review during your winter preschool lessons.

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Shape Bookmarks

Our shape bookmarks are a great way to keep children learning outside of the classroom! Use the bookmarks as rewards or even take home gifts for children. Print on heavy cardstock and laminate for best results.

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Spring Shapes Color & Find

This is a free activity page for children to seek and find different shapes and color them to match the color guide. For young children you might color in the example guide for them.

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Full Color Shape Charts

These printable charts feature full size shapes you can use in a variety of different ways; Classroom posters, printable puzzles, game boards, floor games...ect.

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Shape Coloring Pages

These blank shape printables are great for marble painting, basic coloring with line shapes and even make great puzzle templates.

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Shape Puzzles

These full color Shape puzzles are great for center time activities. Print on cardstock and laminate for best results. Provide younger children with a blank template from the Black and White shapes.

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Shape & Number Sequencing Game

This is a sequencing game made up of different shapes. Children place the shapes in order from 1-8. Children who are ready can also try putting them in reverse order.

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Looking for more?  Try our new Shape of the Week Program today!

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Valerie McClintick

I am a Christian mother of four, with over 13-years experience homeschooling in Southern Oregon. The resources and products I create are designed to keep the prep to a minimum while also bringing a little educational fun to your classroom

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thecraftyclassroom

#worksheetsforkids #mazesforkids This new pack of #worksheetsforkids #mazesforkids This new pack of shape mazes is a must-have for your math center! Included in this pack are 5 worksheets that will have your students solving shape-like mazes as well as tracing the shape names, as well as 15 single-shape mazes. Purchase them now and help your students with shape recognition, following directions, spelling, and more! (Link in Bio) #craftyclassroom #homeschooling #homeschoolmom
Get ready for some SIGHT WORD FUN with our Sight W Get ready for some SIGHT WORD FUN with our Sight Word Mazes for Kids!  Featuring 20 sight words, your students will practice visual and fine motor skills while learning to read!  #sightwords #homeschooling #learntoread #superstarworksheets Sight Word Mazes for Kids https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Mazes-for-Kids-6522979?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=thecraftyclassroom&utm_content=Sight%20Word%20Mazes%20for%20Kids
#mazesforkids #worksheetsforkids Download our new #mazesforkids #worksheetsforkids Download our new Rhyming Word Mazes now! They will be a great addition to your writing center. These printable mazes for kids are a great combination of learning and fun. While your students are enjoying the mazes, they will be working on following directions, finding rhyming words, and more! Now also part of our growing Maze Bundle. #worksheetsforkids #mazesforkids #phonics #rhyming #kindergarten #preschool #homeschoolpreschool #homeschoolkindergarten (Link in Bio) #craftyclassroom #homeschooling #homeschoolmom. http://bit.ly/3bCB0K8
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