Spring Archives -Imaginations Running Wild-

Earth Day Books

April 17, 2023April 17, 2023 Jennifer

Earth Day is celebrated every year on April 22. Learn about all of the ways that we can help our planet. These stories show that no matter how old we are, all of us can make a difference. We can turn off lights when we leave a room, participate in a neighborhood clean up, plant some flowers, and reuse items! Check out this list of Earth Day books for more ideas! As part of Earth Day studies, my son also made a tissue paper Earth craft that turned out so cute: https://imaginationsrunningwild.com/2022/04/18/earth-day-tissue-paper-craft/

Earth Day Books for Preschoolers:

1. Every Day is Earth Day by Jane O’Connor —

Learn all about Earth Day with Fancy Nancy. In this story, Nancy teaches young readers that there are lots of little things all of us can do everyday to help our planet. Nancy is so enthusiastic about helping the planet, that she takes things a little too far. Her parents teach her (and the readers) that a bunch of little things add to big help, so it is ok to have the light on while we are reading, but not to waste electricity by leaving the light on when no one is in the room. Nancy has other great tips to share too!

2. Biscuit’s Earth Day Celebration by Alyssa Satin Capucilli–

Biscuit learns all about Earth Day in this sweet book. The little girl and her cute pup, Biscuit, help clean up around in their community and plant new plants. It is important to help all of the creatures, big and small, and that is why we need to take care of our planet, Biscuit learns. Simple, short text and adorable illustrations will keep your preschooler engaged.

3. Peppa Pig and the Earth Day Adventure by Candlewick Press–

Preschoolers love Peppa Pig and Peppa loves the planet! Peppa and her family help the planet by sorting their recycling and composting food waste. To celebrate Earth Day, the family goes to the botanical gardens, where they get to see beautiful flowers and learn about the plants. Peppa’s appreciation for all that the planet has to offer, from flowers and animals, to muddy puddles, will inspire your child to take a look at the natural world and find stuff to appreciate too.

4. Earth Day Birthday by Pattie L. Schnetzler —

This beautifully illustrated, rhyming book is a celebration of the animals found on Earth. Each animal is important to our planet. The illustrations capture the beauty of nature and the lyrical text (set to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas) will capture your preschooler’s attention. The book also includes ideas on how to help the planet. I’ve read this one with my preschool storytime group many times over the years and they always love it!

5. It’s Earth Day! by Mercer Mayer —

My son loves the Little Critter stories! They are sweet, humorous, and he can relate to Little Critter’s struggles to do everything by himself. In this story, Little Critter learns about recycling on a class field trip. He is so excited to tell his family what he learned and start recycling as a family so that they can all do their part to help protect the environment.

6. Katie Saves the Earth by Fran Manushkin —

Katie Woo stories are so cute! In honor of Earth Day, Katie organizes a yard sale because it is important to reuse items. Katie is helping keep stuff out of landfills and cutting back on the use of new resources by helping others to reuse items. Are there places to donate your old items? Can you think of ways to reuse them?

7. The Earth Book by Todd Parr-

We love Todd Parr’s illustrations! His use of bold colors and silly illustrations really appeal to us. Parr has the fantastic ability to break down big subjects and present them at a preschool level. In The Earth Book, preschoolers learn how they can help the planet too! There are so many little ways that we can help, such as using both sides of a sheet of paper when we draw. Your preschooler will be inspired to do their part after reading this one!

Thank you for reading Earth Day stories with us! I hope you and your preschooler will be inspired to take up some Earth Day projects together. Check your local library for these and other Earth Day books. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program and I provided affiliate links to the books I listed. If you buy an item through one of my links, I may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for support. Happy reading!

Easter, Spring, STEM

Free Preschool Spring Worksheets

March 29, 2023March 28, 2023 Jennifer

I’ve compiled all of my spring worksheets here for you to quickly access! Each worksheet is a free printable PDF. These spring worksheets are perfect for incorporating into your Easter, Vegetable Garden, Flowers, Bugs, and Rain & Rainbow themes! I have lots of other worksheets that are free if you are looking for more: https://imaginationsrunningwild.com/worksheets/

ALPHABET

–Rainbow Tracing: trace the letters in the word Rainbow and then color the picture.

–Raindrop Alphabet: trace all 26 uppercase letters in the raindrops.

–Easter Bunny Words Tracing: trace all of the letters in the words Easter Bunny and then color the pictures.

–Easter Egg Letters: practice making all 26 uppercase letters with this fun letter tracing worksheet.

MATH

–Carrot Counting: count how many carrots are in each box and then circle the number.

–Butterfly I Spy: count how many of each butterfly you spy and write the number in the box.

–Easter I Spy: how many of each Easter picture can you spy?

–Egg Counting and Coloring: color the same number of eggs as shown.

–Vegetable — how many of each vegetable can you count?

–Jelly Bean Counting: count how many jelly beans are in each box and circle the number.

MAZES

–Bunny Circular Maze: help the bunny reach the carrot. (beginner)

–Ladybug Maze: draw a line through the maze from the ladybug to the leaf. (intermediate)

SCIENCE

–Vegetable Find: color the pictures of vegetables. Circle your favorite veggie. (Use this one with your garden theme!)

–Plant Life Cycle: color the pictures of a plant’s life cycle, cut them out, and then glue them in correct order.

–Parts of a Plant: cut out the labels and glue them on to name each part of the plant.

–Nature Scavenger Hunt: let’s take a look outside and see if you can find all 12 things on the list.

Animals, Spring

Awesome Butterfly Stories

March 8, 2023March 8, 2023 Jennifer

Bugs are one of my favorite springtime preschool themes! Preschoolers are so fascinated by bugs in general, but butterflies are definitely a favorite! Here is a list of 10 awesome butterfly stories that are sure to please your preschooler! Check out the butterfly crafts at the end of this post for some fun things to make! Also, listen to this read-aloud to Senorita Mariposa with author Mister G: https://youtu.be/h-s4plLc1OM

10 Butterfly Stories:

1. Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert–

Lois Ehlert is an amazing author and illustrator. This is a sweet, gently story about a flower garden awaiting the arrival of the beautiful butterflies. The book uses a rhyming format to teach about a butterfly’s life cycle in short, but informative text. My son and I love the pictures throughout this book. They are so bright and vibrant! This book not only uses color well, but it also utilizes paper as an artform within the book. There is a smaller book inside the book, and less wide pages that utilize the larger pages’ artwork. — this makes reading this book more of an experience. At the end, there is a section that shows each caterpillar, it’s chrysalis, and matching butterfly. My son and I love to look at this part — it’s perfect for young entomologists!

2. Pinkalicious and the Little Butterfly by Victoria Kahn–

Pinkalicious’ teacher brings caterpillars to the classroom so that the students can watch their amazing transformation into monarch butterflies. One of the best things about the Pinkalicious stories is that Pinkalicious is always so enthusiastic about learning new things and she is full of wonderment! After making friends with one of the caterpillars, Pinkalicious learns about metamorphosis, explaining in it is preschool friendly way, and is delighted when it emerges as a butterfly!

3. Bob and Otto by Robert Bruel–

Friends, Bob (a caterpillar) and Otto (a worm) do everything together until one day when Bob climbs a tree and Otto stays in the dirt. Bob goes on to build a chrysalis and transform into a butterfly, while Otto stays being a worm. When Otto sees Bob’s beautiful wings, he begins to regret not climbing the tree and turning into a butterfly too. Fortunately Bob knows that worms play an important role underground aerating the soil so that plants and trees can grow, and he reassures Otto and that each of them are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. Not to worry, the two are still able to be friends and have lots of fun together despite Bob’s change in appearance. Overall a lovely friendship story that is filled with great science lessons!

4. Ten Magic Butterflies by Danica McKeller–

This lovely rhyming story has talking flowers, fairies, and butterflies, plus it incorporates counting! The flowers want to fly and ask the fairies for wings, so the fairies turn them into butterflies. They have a fun time flying about the night sky, but soon the butterflies realize that being themselves is best. The fairies change them back to flowers with more counting to ten and number groupings!

Check out the read-aloud with author, Danica McKellar: https://youtu.be/kBi_RoXKVo0

5. The Little Butterfly That Could by Ross Burach–

After reading about The Impatient Caterpillar who finally turned into a butterfly, now we get to read the butterfly’s story! Filled with humor and comical illustrations, readers will laugh their way through this book, while learning lots of great butterfly facts! Preschoolers will be able to relate to the butterfly’s skepticism at being able to travel so far in search of flowers as they too face tasks that seem insurmountable. But the butterfly shows up that perseverance is key in accomplishing one’s goals.

6. Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin, Jr.–

Short, rhyming text by Martin paired with Lois Ehlert’s amazing pictures, makes this book a preschool favorite! Each of the ten caterpillars have a little adventure, but it’s the tenth caterpillar that has the most amazing of all. The tenth caterpillar turns into a butterfly!

7. Butterfly Colors and Counting by Jerry Pallotta–

While there is no storyline to this book, it does have beautiful, bright pictures of butterflies! Each page has a number, a color, and a number of butterflies, making counting tons of fun. Also included are the types of butterflies depicted in each picture.

8. Bonjour Butterfly by Jane O’Connor–

Nancy and her best friend, Bree, love butterflies! In fact, they love them so much that Bree is having a butterfly themed birthday! However, Nancy isn’t able to go to the birthday party because she and her family are going out of town to her grandparents’ anniversary party on the same day. Even though she is disappointed not be with Bree, Nancy has lots of fun with her grandparents at their fancy party. The next day, Nancy’s grandparents bring her to the zoo to see the butterfly garden. There are gorgeous flowers and beautiful butterflies and Nancy gets to enjoy butterflies after all.

9. Butterfly House by Eve Bunting —

This beautifully illustrated story is filled with proper scientific terms for the stages of a butterfly’s life cycle. A young girl and her grandfather save a black caterpillar (her grandfather says it is a larva) from a bird and take it home to keep it safe. They create a butterfly terrarium for the little larva to live in while it undergoes its transformation in its chrysalis. Grandfather knows a lot about butterflies, including what they like to eat, so they head out to gather some plants. After some time, the butterfly emerges from its chrysalis and it is time to release it into the wild. As the girl grows up, she remembers what grandfather taught her and creates her own butterfly garden to attract these lovely insects.

10. Clara Caterpillar by Pamala Duncan Edwards–

One day, a cream colored butterfly lays a little egg on a cabbage leaf and names it Clara. Clara is very comfortable in her egg, but other caterpillars bug her to come out and join them. A mean red caterpillar named, Catisha, picks on Clara for being plain, but Clara doesn’t pay her any attention. After a while, it is time for them form chrysalises and turn into butterflies. When all of the little butterflies emerge, Clara has cream colored wings and Catisha has bright crimson wings. The bright wings caught the attention of a crow! Clara comes to Catisha’s rescue and tricks the crow by camouflaging with some cream colored flowers. Turns out that being a cream colored butterfly is pretty great!

For more bug books check out my other posts: BUG BOOKS and LADYBUG STORIES

Check your library for these and other butterfly stories. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I may get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂

More Butterfly Stuff!

–Bug Crown Craft: print and color these bug pictures and glue them onto your own construction paper crown to make a Bug Crown!

–Butterfly Note Holder Craft: Create a cute butterfly note holder on a clothespin and then write a name, a message, or draw a picture on the note to customize it.

–Mosaic Butterfly: make a beautiful mosaic butterfly from scraps of construction paper.

-Watch and learn about a butterfly’s lifecycle (5 minutes): https://youtu.be/O1S8WzwLPlM

-Watch PBS Kids’ Nature Cat and learn how to create a butterfly garden (2 minutes): https://pbskids.org/video/nature-cat/2365604474

–I Spy Butterfly Worksheet — print this free worksheet and then let your preschooler count how many of each picture they see in this “I Spy” challenge.

Animals, Spring

Bug Books

March 3, 2023March 1, 2023 Jennifer

Here are a dozen great bug books for your preschooler to enjoy! Preschoolers love bugs and exploring outside. Feed their natural curiosity with these stories about butterflies, ladybugs, ants, bees, caterpillars, dragonflies, lightning bugs, and other insects. There are so many cute bug stories available, that I made additional booklists for LADYBUGS and BUTTERFLIES! At the end of this post are some fun bug crafts that you can make at home 🙂

12 Bug Books

1. Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Green —

When my son was 3 years old, this was one of his favorite books! He still loves ladybugs 🙂 This book hits all of a preschooler’s requirements for an entertaining read–it has a rhyming story, bright pictures, and stuff to touch! The story starts with 10 ladybugs, but one by one, they wander off. Read this and find out where they are all going.

2. Leo the Lightning Bug by Eric Drachman —

This story about a little firefly named Leo who is having a hard time getting his “light” to come on. He practices and practices, only to be ridiculed by his friends. However, Leo is determined and sets out to practice again. A a storm comes and lightning strikes across the sky. Leo mistakenly thinks that he made the light!

3 A Good Place by Lucy Cousins —

Four bug friends–a bee, a ladybug, a beetle, and a dragonfly–are looking for a good place to live. Each bug has different requirements for their home. The bee wants flowers, the ladybug wants leaves, the beetle wants dead wood, and the dragonfly wants water. The friends keep trying different spots, but nothing is quite right. Will they ever find a good place to live? You betcha! Butterfly comes along and brings to an amazing garden that has everything they need. Great pictures and humor make this bug book a winner!

4. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle —

This story is a preschool favorite! The fantastic illustrations coupled with one of kids’ favorite bugs captures little ones’ attentions. The caterpillar eats more and more each day until it eats so much that it gets a tummy ache! Soon the caterpillar prepares for its transformation into a butterfly. Get ready to be wowed by the beautiful butterfly picture at the end. This is a must read if you haven’t read it yet. Borrow it from your local library or watch this read-aloud from Brightly Storytime Eric Carle has several other bug stories to enjoy too: The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, The Very Quiet Cricket, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Grouchy Ladybug, and (even though not technically a bug, but kids call spiders bugs) The Very Busy Spider.

5. Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert —

Lois Ehlert is an amazing author and illustrator! This is a sweet, gently story about a flower garden awaiting the arrival of the beautiful butterflies. The book uses a rhyming format to teach about a butterfly’s life cycle in short, but informative text. My son and I love the pictures throughout this book. They are so bright and vibrant! This book not only uses color well, but it also utilizes paper as an artform within the book. There is a smaller book inside the book, and less wide pages that utilize the larger pages’ artwork. This artistic style makes reading this book more of an experience. At the end, there is a section that shows each caterpillar, it’s chrysalis, and matching butterfly. My son and I love to look at this part — it’s perfect for young biologists.

6. The Honeybee by Kristen Hall–

This is a truly educational book wrapped up in gorgeous pictures. In this book preschoolers will learn about the importance of bees, how honey is made, and a year in the life of a bee. In addition to all of the great things your preschooler will learn about bees, this book also provides a great look the four seasons and lends itself well to conversations about changes in weather and hibernation. The end of the book provides bee facts for further discussion.

7. Ant and Grasshopper by Luli Gray–

This book has bright, exciting pictures that will capture preschoolers’ imaginations! Based on the Aesop’s Fable of the same name, this book shows that it is important to work hard and plan ahead, but that it is also important to be a good friend and enjoy some fun!

8. The Bug Book by Sue Fliess–

Preschoolers will love this rhyming book filled with fantastic, real bug pictures! Sue Fliess managed to pack a quick fact about most of the bugs into this short book. The pictures are the real seller here — children can see up close how many legs bugs have, a look at wings, and different camouflage.

9. Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Bob Barner–

With bright, bold pictures and short, rhyming text, young children will really like this book! Learn the names of several different kinds of bugs and something special about each bug. I love that the end of this book sows the bugs in actual size, as well as a spread about how many legs each had, whether they can fly, and whether they can sting. This is a quick read, but be prepared to read this one multiple times!

10. Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni–

An inchworm convinces the birds not to it by proving its usefulness in measuring various parts of the birds. When the inch worm meets a hungry nightingale, the bird asks the inch worm to measure its song. How is the inchworm supposed to do that? Check this one out from your library to find out the inchworm’s cleaver plan!

11. What the Ladybug Heard by Julia Donaldson —

This is one of my son’s favorite stories! He loves ladybugs and was really excited to read this story about two robbers who are outsmarted by the ladybug. All of the farm animals follow ladybug’s plan and the two thieves are stopped! This book is so funny and has great pictures that my son loves looking at.

12. The Very Impatient Caterpillar by Ross Burach —

Preschoolers can relate to caterpillar who is finding it very hard to be patient when good things are to come. This is such a funny story about a caterpillar who just can’t wait to turn into a butterfly. The book provides a good look at the metamorphosis process that caterpillars go through to turn into butterflies.

Check your library for these and other bug books. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I may get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂

More Bugs!

Bug Crown: print and color these bug pictures and glue them onto your own construction paper crown to make a Bug Crown!

Egg Carton Ant: paint an egg carton and add some pipe cleaners to make your own cute ant craft.

Mosaic Butterfly: make a beautiful mosaic butterfly from scraps of construction paper.

Toilet Paper Roll Bee: your preschooler will love making this cute bee craft out of an empty toilet paper roll!

Butterfly Note Holder: Create a cute butterfly note holder on a clothespin and then write a name, a message, or draw a picture on the note to customize it.

Animals, Spring

Egg Carton Ladybug Craft

March 2, 2023January 1, 2023 Jennifer

Turn a cardboard egg carton into a cute little ladybug craft! This egg carton ladybug craft requires minimal supplies, is low prep, and tons of fun to make.

Supplies Needed:

cardboard egg carton
scissors
nontoxic red and black paint (I like to use Crayola Washable Paints)
paintbrush
googly eyes
black construction paper
glue
black marker
paper plate (optional)

How To:

To make an egg carton ladybug, an adult needs to cut one of the cups off your egg carton to be your ladybug (or cut off several and make a lot of ladybugs!).

Next, set out a paper plate (optional, but I like to have my child paint on top of a paper plate to help catch spills). Now its paint time! Grab a paintbrush and let your child paint the egg carton cup red. Let it dry. Once the red paint is dry, your preschooler can dip their finger into the black paint and add spots to the ladybug. My son loved adding the spots 🙂

While the spots are drying, cut a circle out of black construction paper. We traced a cup on a black paper to make out circle shape. Cut your circle in half — now your have 2 wings!

Glue your wings onto the back of the egg carton ladybug. We glued them slightly askew so that it looked like our bug was about to take flight. My son loves googly eyes, so he added two of those to the front of the egg carton cup. Our ladybug looked kind of grouchy, we used a black marker to draw on a smile to complete the ladybug craft.

Check out my crafts page for more ideas. My son and I also made a cute bug crown that has a ladybug on it, and we made ladybug stick puppet too!

I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to try and help cover the costs of this site. If you buy something through one of my links on Amazon, then I may get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support!

Animals, Spring

Ladybug Books

March 1, 2023March 1, 2023 Jennifer

Here are 6 ladybugs that your preschooler will love! Preschoolers are fascinated by these cute little bugs and get so excited when they see one! Not only do I have a list of ladybug stories to share, but also two super cute ladybug crafts to make with your child. My son and I made a bug crown craft with a ladybug and other bugs too, and we made a paper plate ladybug stick puppet craft!

Ladybug Books:

1. What the Ladybug Heard by Julia Donaldson —

2. What the Ladybug Heard at the Zoo by Julia Donaldson–

In this sequel to the What the Ladybug Heard, the ladybug is visiting the zoo when it overhears two robbers’ plan to kidnap Monkey Joe, They want to use him to steal the Queen’s jewels! Yikes! Ladybug comes up with a plan to foil the bad guys. All of the zoo animals and the Queen’s pups help out and stop the robbers.

3. The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle–

Eric Carle always sneaks in some important concept learning into his stories and in this one, he incorporates the concepts of size, shape, and time! My son loves when the little tiny ladybug meets a huge blue whale. Young readers will enjoy the grouchy ladybug’s journey as she comes to realize the importance of kindness and friendship.

4. Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Green —

5. A Good Place by Lucy Cousins —

6. Little Ladybug Finger Puppet Book by Chronicle Books–

My son loves these finger puppet board books by Chronicle Books! We have several of them. The ladybug book is adorable and the little puppet is so much fun. My son loves have me read this short story to him while I make the puppet wiggle with the words. Then he wants to do the puppet and tell his version of the story — so cute!

Check your library for these and other ladybug books. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂

Finger Rhyme!

Animals, Spring

12 Spring Stories for Preschoolers

January 31, 2023February 3, 2023 Jennifer

Spring is so beautiful with all of the greenery and pretty flowers popping up everywhere! Here is a list of 10 spring stories that are perfect for preschoolers. For more spring books that preschoolers and kindergarteners will enjoy, check out my list of BUNNY BOOKS and GARDEN STORIES to share with your little learner!

12 Lovely Spring Stories:

1. Little Blue Truck’s Springtime by Alice Schertle —

Our favorite blue truck is back in this lovely springtime book. Baby animals, green grass, and beautiful flowers are found on every page. In this gentle, rhyming story, Blue and Toad venture out on a beautiful spring day. Who do they see along the way? Open the flaps to see all of the cute baby animals!

2. Wee Little Bunny by Lauren Thompson —

A baby bunny sets out to explore on a beautiful spring day. Bunny is super busy chasing dragonflies, making new friends, and checking out the world around it. When mama bunny calls, baby bunny races home to tell mama about its fun adventure. This book is not very long and has fantastic illustrations, making it a great choice for wiggly preschoolers.

3. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Frog by Lucille Colandro —

The silly old lady gets spring fever and she begins swallowing all sorts of things, starting with a frog. After swallowing dirt, seeds, rain, sunlight, gloves, and a rake, she burps everything back up and gets a garden! With rhyming text and silly pictures, preschoolers will enjoy this book. A great look at sequencing. Try asking: What did she swallow first? What are the steps to create a garden?

4. I See Spring by Charles Ghigna —

With cute illustrations and rhyming text, preschoolers will definitely enjoy this book. This book provides a nice overview of the season. The illustrations show rainy days, rainbows, pretty flowers, birds building a nest, kites flying in the breeze, and lots of kids having fun! A quick, but enjoyable read.

5. When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes —

This book provides a fantastic look at the transition from winter to spring. Henkes is a great storyteller and his use of alliteration really captures the coming of the spring season. Adorable pictures will keep preschoolers glued to the pages.

6. Olaf Waits for Spring by Victoria Saxon–

Olaf the curious snowman from the movie Frozen, can’t wait to experience spring! His friends tell him about all of the wonderful things that happen in the spring — the ice thaws and they can go sailing, yummy fruit grows, flowers bloom, and baby animals are born! Olaf decides to sit atop a mountain and wait out the winter storm for spring to come. Fortunately, Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff come along to explain that spring happens gradually and we have to be patient.

7. And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano–

A child patiently awaits the arrival of spring. Slowly, green begins to appear outside as grass sprouts up and leaves unfold. The changing of the seasons is a time to be patient as nature slowly reveals the first shoots coming up from the seeds and the arrival of spring. There’s something really soothing about this text and with Erin E. Stead’s illustrations.

8. Spring is Here by Will Hillenbrand —

This cheerful book about friends, Mole and Bear, is perfect for preschoolers! It has lots of word repetition, short text, cute pictures, and humor. Bear is still hibernating and Mole wants him to wake up. After trying all sorts of ways to wake Bear with no luck, Mole hatches a new plan. Mole decides to bake a special treat whose alluring aroma will surely wake Bear!

9. Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring by Kenard Pak–

Kenard Pak’s seasons series is fantastic! In this springtime edition, a boy and his dog head out into wilderness to explore. They are greeted with signs of spring. Birds are chirping and ice is dripping and green is popping up all around them. The illustrations are gorgeous and show the gentle changing of the season from winter to spring.

10. Hopper Hunts for Spring by Marcus Pfister–

Author of the classic children’s story, The Rainbow Fish, brings you a new friend, Hopper the young hare. This little hare is on a mission to find spring, who he hopes will be his new friend. He looks in a hole and cave and the hollow of a tree, but he can’t find spring. Along his travels he meets new animal friends, a mole and a bear, but still no spring. Back home with his mother, Hopper learns that spring isn’t just one thing, but changes in the world around him. While Hopper didn’t meet spring in the way he thought he would, he did make new friends and get to enjoy the changing of the seasons.

11. Dr. Seuss’ Spring Things —

Thing 1 and Things 2 from Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat have a spin-off board book series. Each book features a very short rhyming story, bright pictures, and holiday/seasonal images. In this spring book, Thing 1 and Thing 2 explore the outdoors and find ducklings, baby chicks, frogs, a spring rain storm, flowers, muddy puddles, and more! Ask your child what their favorite spring thing is! Also, check your library for more Thing 1 and Thing 2 adventures.

12. The Spring Book by Todd Parr–

Todd Parr leads readers on a colorful journey through springtime. Bright illustrations show flowers in bloom, lots of greenery, animals awakening from hibernation, and babies being born. Parr briefly touches on some of the springtime celebrations, holidays, and activities such as gardening and cultural festivals. This book is a great choice for children who can’t sit still very long, as there is little text and engaging pictures.

I hope you enjoy these spring stories! Check your public library for these books and other preschool spring stories. I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to try and help cover the costs of this site. If you buy something through one of my links on Amazon, then I may get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy reading

Spring Crafts:

Spring Wreath Craft: create a cute paper wreath to decorate for spring!

Toilet Paper Roll Bee: your preschooler will love making this cute bee craft out of an empty toilet paper roll!

Hatching Chick: turn an paper plate into a hatching chick craft.

Animals, Concepts, Math, Spring, STEM

Bug Graphing

May 17, 2022May 15, 2022 Jennifer

Add some STEM fun into your preschooler’s learning with this bug graphing activity!

Bug Graphing Activity:

Start by printing this free template. The bug graphing template includes the di, colored tiles, and graphing chart. I used regular printer paper; however, if you use cardstock, then your dice will be much sturdier.

Begin by cutting out the dice. Gently fold the gray tabs inward. Then begin to fold your squares into a cube shape. Add some glue to the tabs and glue them onto the underside of the squares as you form your cube. The very last tab is hard to glue and might require tape. Once your cube is formed, set it aside to dry.

Cut out all of the colored tiles. You will have 4 of each color–red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Each color corresponds with one of the bugs. My printer’s ink turned out to be darker than how it looked on my screen, so the blue and purple on the bugs were a little hard to distinguish. Here’s the color scheme: ladybug=red, butterfly=orange, bee=yellow, grasshopper=green, dragonfly=blue, and ant=purple.

Now it is time to begin bug graphing. Ask you child to gently roll the di. What color bug is on top? Is it a yellow bee? Take a tile of the same color and set it on the graph above the corresponding-colored bug. Keep rolling the dice and setting tiles in the correct columns until you reach the top of the column. Since you are not gluing the colored tiles to the chart, you can use this activity over and over again. The grasshopper was the first to reach the top for us. Which bug made it to the top of your graph first?

Why STEM?

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. It is important to introduce these concepts to preschoolers in a fun way so that as they get older, they are excited about STEM subjects. What are preschoolers learning in this activity? Preschoolers are learning their colors (science)! They have to identify the color on the di, find the same color on the chart, and then correctly add the same color tile to the graph. Preschoolers are learning how to graph, an important math concept! Add some extra math into this activity by counting how many of each color tile is on your graph and how many tiles your have altogether. Preschoolers are also learning about engineering as they help build the di!

More STEM Activities

If your child enjoyed this graphing activity, I made a free blank di template so you can customize it with your own pictures. You can add computer images, stickers, or draw whatever you want on the dice and graph for your child to practice more graphing skills.

Check out my STEM activities: https://imaginationsrunningwild.com/stem/

Bug Stuff!

My son is really interested in bugs and I’m sure a lot of your kids are too! We have made some great bug crafts together and enjoy playing with these bug finger puppets. The finger puppets look pretty life like and allow us to exam bugs without having to hold real ones! You can your own set through the Amazon Affiliate link posted above. I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to help cover the costs of my site. If you buy a product through one my links, then I may get a small percentage of the sale at no additional costs to you.

Animals, Spring

Ladybug Stick Puppet Craft

May 16, 2022May 15, 2022 Jennifer

Ladybugs are so cute and attract kids’ attentions! Make this ladybug stick puppet craft with your little one and watch as they make their ladybug “fly” around the garden on the paper plate! This interactive craft is tons of fun and lends itself well to imaginative play.

Supplies Needed:

paper plate
jumbo craft sticks (We used the 6″x3/4″ craft sticks)
water color paints
paintbrush
ladybug & flowers template
crayons/markers
scissors
glue stick
box cutter

How To:

Preschoolers can start this project by painting the paper plate green using water color paints. Let your plate dry.

Print off the ladybug and flowers template (free PDF download). Color the ladybug, flowers, and leaves. Adults might need to help cut out all of the pictures as the rounded edges might be hard to little ones to cut.

Once the plate is dry, an adult can use a box cutter to cut a slit along the smooth center of the plate. The slit in the example is a little less than halfway up the plate. Before slicing, make sure that the craft stick would is long to stick up through the proposed slit and move around. The slit should go all the way along the smooth part of the plate, stopping before both ridged edges.

Now that you have colored all of your pictures, glue them onto your plate. Make a nice garden for your ladybug to visit! Check to make sure that all of the pictures are glued down tight so that your ladybug stick puppet doesn’t get stuck under edges that may be sticking up.

Glue your ladybug to end of a craft stick and let’s play! Slip your puppet through the slit and move your puppet around so that your ladybug can visit the flowers and leaves in your garden.

More Bug Crafts!

Egg Carton Ant: paint an egg carton and add some pipe cleaners to make your own ant craft.

Mosaic Butterfly: make a beautiful mosaic butterfly from scraps of construction paper.

Toilet Paper Roll Bee: your preschooler will love making this cute bee craft out of an empty toilet paper roll!

Bug Crown: color pictures of your favorite bugs, glue them on to construction paper, and make a bug crown!

Animals, Spring

Bug Crown Craft

May 12, 2022May 12, 2022 Jennifer

Kids are fascinated by bugs and a bugs theme has always been a hit at the library preschool story-times. My son loves to look around for bugs outside. They are often small and overlooked, but when we take the time to look for them, we are always amazed by how many busy little bugs we find! to encourage his love of bugs, my son and I made this bug crown craft with some of his favorite bugs! I’ve included the bug pictures we used if you would like to use them too.

Supplies Needed:

bug pictures template (free PDF download)
green construction paper size 9″ x 12″
markers or crayons
glue stick
scissors

How To:

Print out the bug pictures template. Color your bugs and then cut them out.

Cut your sheet of green construction in half (length wise) to form two strips. Glue your bugs onto one of the strips.

Now to make the crown! Glue one side of the strips together. Hold the strips up around your child’s head to measure where to glue the other side of the strips together. I always tell my son to to pinch his paper together where the glue is for a few seconds to help keep the pieces from separating when they are bent. We had to add a little more glue to a couple of the bugs because they started to peel off once the construction paper was in a rounded shape.

Let your project dry. Once your crown is ready to wear, put it on a go on a bug hunt outside. How many bugs can you find?

More Bug Crafts!

Egg Carton Ant: paint an egg carton and add some pipe cleaners to make your own ant craft.

Mosaic Butterfly: make a beautiful mosaic butterfly from scraps of construction paper.

Toilet Paper Roll Bee: your preschooler will love making this cute bee craft out of an empty toilet paper roll!