This hanging bee paper chain craft was easy to make and turned out adorable! It is perfect for preschoolers who want to make spring decorations. I love this craft because it doesn’t make much of a mess (outside of glue). Plus it can be assembled pretty quickly so children don’t lose interest in the activity.
Color your craft. Then, cut out all of the pieces: 6 chain pieces, 1 beehive, and 1 strip to attach hive to the chain.
Begin making your chain by folding your first strip of paper into a circle and glue the ends together. Next, take your second strip and stick it through your circle. Glue the ends of the second strip together forming a circle. Repeat this process with the remaining strips of paper until all 6 pieces are connected in a chain.
To connect the beehive to the chain, take your connect strip and connect it to the bottom of your chain. Glue your beehive onto this strip to finish forming your craft.
We used a pipe cleaner to hang our craft, but ribbon or yarn will work too. Loop your hanging material through the top chain to compete your project. Find a great spot to hang up your craft!
Make this cute frog hand puppet with your preschooler! This craft is perfect for spring time and fits in perfectly with any pond-themed lesson plans. Download and print the free template and then follow the step-by-step instructions. I have included pictures with the instructions to help this craft assembly go smoothly.
cut out along the outer lines. Ignore the dotted lines right now.
fold the frog in half, face down, at line 1.
fold in half at line 1
fold the top and bottom pieces back at lines 2 and 3.This makes the frog’s face show, while the mouth looks closed.
fold top and bottom pieces at lines 2 and 3
cut out straps and fold ends back at the dotted lines.
fold the X piece backward
glue the X side of straps to backside of puppet. Glue one strap above line 1 and the other strap below line 1 to help hold fingers in place to make the puppet talk.
Here is a quick and easy paper bag bunny puppet craft to make with your little one. Print the free template, color, cut, and glue to make your own puppet. Paper bug puppets are one of my favorite things to make with preschoolers because it allows for imaginative play! This isn’t a craft they just make and set aside, but something that is interactive and fun to play with.
Print out the paper bag bunny puppet template. I made it available as a free PDF download. You can always make your own out of construction paper if you don’t have a printer.
Color your bunny template. The template has four pieces: 1 head, 1 body, and 2 ears.
Cut out the four pieces.
Now it’s time to glue! The side of the bag with the flap is the front. Glue the oval body onto the main part of the bag. We used a glue stick, but white school glue will also work. Then glue the circular face to the flap. Be careful not to glue the flap shut as the circle will hang over the flap slightly. Glue the ears to back of the bag, so that they stick up over the head.
OPTIONAL: add a fluffy bunny tail to the back by gluing on a cotton ball!
Let your puppet dry before playing with it and having lots of fun adventures.
Spring is a time of cute baby animals and beautiful flowers that preschoolers love! To embrace to joy of spring, I made a spring movements activity for you to do with your preschooler. Get ready to waddle like a duck, flap your wings like a baby chicken, do some jumping jacks with a frog, big arm stretches with flowers, bunny hops, and leap like a sheep!
For this activity you will make 2 cubes out of paper. One cube has the spring movements and the other cube is the numbered di. Roll both at the same time. Look at the spring movements cube to see which movement you will be doing. Then look at the di to see how many times you have to do each movement.
EXAMPLE: If you roll a frog and the number 2, then you have to do 2 jumping jacks!
Not only is the activity fun to do, but it also helps preschoolers work on their motor skills. Additionally, it incorporates counting, as you count each time you do the movements. Plus, this spring movements activity is a good tool for encouraging young children to follow instructions.
HOW TO MAKE CUBES:
Start by printing this free template. The spring movements activity template includes the di and the movements cube. If you have dice from a board game that you want to use, just print page 1 for the spring movements. I used regular printer paper; however cardstock paper will be much sturdier.
Cut out your pieces. Once fully cut out, 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.
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/
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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?
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!
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
–Butterfly I Spy: count how many of each butterfly you spy and write the number in the box.
–Carrot Counting: count how many carrots are in each box and then circle the number.
–Easter I Spy: how many of each Easter picture can you spy?
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
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!
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!
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!
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!
After reading about The Impatient Caterpillarwho 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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 🙂
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.
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!
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!
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-aloudfrom 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 🙂
