I recently took my son ice skating for the first time. Oh boy, was it hard! I was so impressed that he kept trying even though it was a struggle. In the end, neither one of us were very good at ice skating, but we had a lot of fun 🙂 Here are 8 ice skating stories to share with your preschooler that show not only how fun ice skating can be, but also that have to keep trying when we are new learning things and not to give up even though it can be hard.
In this story written by Olympic gold-medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, a pig named Poppy is determined to be an ice skating star. Successful ice skating takes balance, grace, and coordination, things that don’t come easily to pigs. However, Poppy is surrounded by family and friends who believe in her, and most importantly, Poppy believes in herself. After a lot of practice, Poppy’s determination pays off as she feels the magic of gliding around on the ice! Poppy’s story continues in, Big World, Little Pig!
In this cute book, Angelina trades her dance slippers for ice skates! She and her sister are so excited that winter is here so that they can ice skate with their friends. However, the weather is not cooperating and it is snowing too much to ice skate. Although disappointed not to be skating, Angelina and her friends come up with fun indoor activities to do together! Eventually it stops snowing and everyone is able to ice skate together.
This book is a cute penguin version of the Five Little Monkeys. Preschoolers will love the rhyming, sing-songy story and vibrant illustrations. One by one, the little penguins and get hurt while playing on the ice and their mama has to call the doctor. Eventually no one is having any fun at all, until mama comes up with a new plan!
Pinkalicious can’t wait to ice skate! After she colors her white ice skates pink with a marker, she is ready to skate! Turns out ice skating is harder than it looks. After some wobbles and spills, Pinkalicious improves. While skating, the pink color begins to come off her skates and Pinkalicious is so embarrassed. What she doesn’t realize, however, is that she is leaving lovely pink designs all over the ice. I love that this story not only shows that we have to keep trying when learning something new, but also that beautiful things can happen when we least expect them.
Molly Idle’s Flora and her Feathered Friends wordless picture book series is fantastic! In this book, Flora wants to ice skate and who better to teach her than a penguin! The beautiful illustrations tell a story of friendship between these two. No relationship is conflict free. Flora and her new friend have their ups and downs, but in the end, they learn to work together. Preschoolers will love lifting the flaps to reveal the duo’s beautiful ice skating moves!
Tallulah is a very accomplished dancer and feels compelled to be the best at ice skating too. She wants her friend to practice an ice skating routine with her, but her friend just wants to have fun. Determined that being the best at ice skating is the most important thing, Tallulah goes off on her own to practice. Readers will be rewarded with watching Tallulah’s discovery that don’t have to be the best at everything and that sometimes it is important to just have fun.
In this sparsely worded story about friends, Horse and Buggy, the duo take to the ice! Horse is very confident about his skating abilities and he glides along the ice, spins, and leaps in the air. Buggy is worried that her friend will get hurt. When Horse does fall, he quickly gets back up again, reassuring Buggy that he is alright. The illustrations are so funny and perfectly capture’s Horse’s exuberance and Buggy’s worry. Your child will crack up at the end where the two friend skate around the ice together, this time with little Buggy holding Horse up high over her head!
My son loves this book! Ed Emberley’s illustrations are fantastic as always and capture the fun the little mice are having on the ice. My son loves the colors in the vibrant pictures and the rhyming text. This short story is perfect for preschoolers will have trouble sitting still through long stories. You won’t want to miss what picture the mice’s skates carve in the ice, and who shows up to join in the fun!
I hope you enjoy these ice skating stories! Check your public library for these books and other ice skating 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 🙂
Although some animals hibernate in the winter or migrate to warmer places, there are still plenty of animals who love the snow! In fact, penguins in Antarctica live in snow all year round. Here is a list of 12 snow animals books to read and learn about who lives in the snow.
This is a fact book about animals who live in the extreme cold. Each page talks about a different animal in a couple, easy to understand sentences that are accompanied by cute pictures. Along the side are additional facts that you can chose to share or not depending on your child’s interest. This book had some of my son’s favorite animals–snowy owls and penguins!
A little penguin named Wellington, who lives in the snow, dreams of his own flower garden. His friends tell him that it is much too cold for flowers to grow here. Nonetheless, Wellington is determined so his best friend, Rosemary, helps him create his own flowers out of bits of paper, springs, gears, and other things that can be repurposed. Together, they create a beautiful garden. Sadly, a snow storm destroys the beautiful flowers. Wellington’s friends won’t let him give up, and together they rebuild the garden better than ever. Preschoolers will adore the cute, whimsical illustrations in this book. And everyone can benefit from the message, “we don’t know until we try.”
This is a sweet story that teaches kids about how animals spend the winter. As the first snowflake falls on the fox’s nose, fox wonders what he is supposed to do in winter. The other forest animals tell him how they prepare for winter. Some fly south, others store food, and some hibernate. Unfortunately none of these ideas will work for fox. Finally, another fox comes along and shares what foxes do in winter — they dance in the falling snow! With such beautiful illustrations, kids will love looking over the pictures and seeing the two foxes twirling about in the snow.
Here’s a bird who thrives in the snow– meet Tacky, the funniest penguin! He can’t sing, dive, or march the way other penguins do; Tacky does everything his own way. At first this seems to be bad thing, but when the hunters come looking for penguins, Tacky’s odd behavior drives them away! Turns out being yourself is pretty great.
Little Owl is so cute! In this Little Owl story, the forest animals are preparing for winter. Some gather and store food, some hibernate, and some stay awake to play in the snow. Soon winter arrives and leaves a blanket of snow in Little Owl’s forest home. Even though Little Owl misses his hibernating friend, hedgehog, he enjoys the snow with his other friends. Preschoolers will love this bold, bright pictures and gentle story.
This rhyming, sing-song story follows the pattern of the Ten on the Bed song. The caribou has a sled and soon his nine snow-loving friends join him for a sled ride. One by one, the animals fall off and they form a giant snowball. The animals race the giant snowball down the hill, losing friends as they go. By the bottom of the hill, only the caribou is left on the sled. Your kiddo will giggle as wolf wipes out and fox flips out of the sled. Caribou is lonely and he invites all of his friends to join for another sled ride!
This book is both tons of fun and offers great information about animals in the snow. Each page takes a look at a different animals and asks the reader to try and spot the animals hiding in the snow. Animals use camouflage to blend in with their surroundings so you have to look carefully. Turn the page to learn interesting facts about the animal you find.
My son really enjoys Mac Barnett’s stories! In this story we get to follow a polar bear on an adventure across a beautiful snow landscape. Sparse text filled with questions to the reader will keep preschoolers engaged. Shawn Harris’ paper collage images are awesome and wonderfully capture the bear’s journey.
Learn about the survival skills baby polar bears need for life in the harsh arctic in this short book. The babies need to learn to swim, catch fish, and run around the snow. The cute images of the baby bears greatly appealed to my son.
We were trying to guess what the big wholly animal is and, oh boy, were we wrong. It is a musk ox and they live in Alaska. In this snowy story, Cozy gets separated from his family and gets lonely all by himself. Not to fear because soon other animals seek warmth in Cozy’s fur. We get a great look at different types of animals that live in snow–lemmings, hares, snowy owls, foxes, and wolverines in addition to the musk ox. Cozy’s adventures continue in the sequel, Cozy in Love.
This book shows us lots of animals that survive that in the cold in Antarctica. The reader gets to learn about both water and land creatures. The animals who live on the land, live in snow year round. These include three types of penguins (emperor penguins, macaroni penguins, and adelie penguins), leopard seals, crabeater seals, south polar skuas, and the southern giant petrels.
Get ready to learn about who migrates, who hibernates, and who stays to enjoy winter in this humorous book. While Fox is one of the animals who doesn’t hibernate or migrate, Fox does NOT like winter. Almost all of his friends either hibernate or migrate, except Rabbit who goes off alone, leaving Fox lonely. Fox gets an idea to make new friends out of snow, but they are not as much fun as his old friends. What’s Fox to do? He decides to fight winter! Get ready to laugh as Fox gets a flame thrower and tries to melt winter. Winter fights back and Fox gets covered in snow. Just then, Rabbit appears. Rabbit teaches Fox to appreciate winter and Fox finds that with a friend by his side, everything can be enjoyable.
I hope you enjoy these snow animals books. 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 get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy reading 🙂
More Books about Animals in Snow:
Penguin Stories: 10 books about penguins to read with your little one!
Here’s a fun twist on the Finger Family song–instead of saying “daddy finger,” “mommy finger,” etc., call your fingers one of the main characters from the movie “Frozen!” Go through the rhyme together once to practice it, then see how fast you can you do it 🙂 Find more fun rhymes: https://imaginationsrunningwild.com/finger-rhymes-and-other-poems/
Frozen Finger Family Rhyme:
Elsa finger, Elsa finger, where are you?
“Here I am, here I am. How do you do?” (wiggle thumb)
Anna finger, Anna finger, where are you?
“Here I am, here I am. How do you do?” (wiggle pointer finger)
Kristoff finger, Kristoff finger, where are you?
“Here I am, here I am. How do you do?” (wiggle middle finger)
Sven finger, Sven finger, where are you?
“Here I am, here I am. How do you do?” (wiggle ring finger)
Olaf finger, Olaf finger, where are you?
“Here I am, here I am. How do you do?” (wiggle pinky finger)
Love Frozen?
If you have a Frozen fan at home and are looking for more Frozen-themed fun then check out these activities:
Snowflake Wand:Â decorate a sparkly snowflake wand and use it to sprinkle winter magic all around!
Make your own fake snow by combing shaving cream and baking soda! This science experiment is “snow” much fun to make. Your preschooler will love playing with their fake snow.
Snowflake Number Coloring (#1-10): find all of the snowflakes with the same number and color them with their matching color. Use your dot pens or color them in with crayons (2 pages).
Winter Fizz science experiment with baking soda, glitter, and vinegar!
Enjoy a snowy winter scene without having to leave your warm home with this fingerprint winter tree craft! My 4 year old really like using his finger as the paint brush for this activity. We don’t get snow at our home in the winter so my kiddo has to be content with pretend snow until we can make a trip up to the mountains. I paired this craft with a snow-themed book, The Snowy Nap by Jan Brett. It was fun to read about snow and do a snow project together!
Supplies Needed:
I love low prep activities that I can quickly pull together without having to delay the fun or make a trip to the craft store! This project is quick and easy to get started with minimal supplies.
You Will Need:
construction paper (I used light blue)
black marker ( I used a Sharpie, but I think any black marker would work)
white washable paint
paper plate or paint pallet
How To:
First–draw an outline of a barren tree. I didn’t fill in my tree trunk, but feel free to color it in however you like. Maybe draw a hole and your child can pretend there’s an animal hibernating in there!
Second–pour a small amount of white paint onto a paper plate or a paint pallet. I like to use Crayola Washable Paints. They are easy to wash off which is fantastic since we somehow seem to get paint everywhere.
Third–have your child dip their finger into the paint and then make “snowy” fingerprints on the tree. Be creative with your snow placement!
Fourth–make a snowy ground by dripping some white paint at the bottom of the tree and letting your child smear it all around with their fingertip.
Fifth–let your project draw before showing it off!
These is a super cute Christmas poem that my son learned in Kindergarten. I had never heard the Five Little Stockings rhyme before and was so impressed that he has memorized it. You can turn this into a finger rhyme by wiggling a different finger for each one of the five stockings. For more rhymes, check out my Rhymes Page — it has lots of action, finger and counting rhymes, as well as nursery rhymes.
Turn this into a finger rhyme by wiggling a finger for each of the five stockings. Start with your thumb for the first stocking, and keep wiggling fingers until you reach your pinky on the fifth stocking. Clap your hands together when you say “out went the light” and then wiggle all of the fingers at the same time when the stockings get filled!
FIVE LITTLE STOCKINGS
Five little stockings hanging by the fire,
The first one said, “I’m getting tired.”
The second one said, “Santa’s in the air!”
The third one said, “But we sure care!”
The fourth one said, “I hear sleigh bells ringing!”
The fifth one said, “It’s the joy he’s bringing.”
There are so many wonderful Christmas picture books available! It was really hard to narrow down our favorites for this list, but I did not want an endless list 🙂 So here are my family’s 25 favorite Christmas picture books in no particular order because there is no way we could rank them! If these 25 aren’t enough, check out my list of Elf Books and Santa Stories!
Sweet Bear is supposed to be hibernating, but his friends want him to stay awake to experience Christmas with them! Bear gets to experience his first Christmas tree, bake cakes, hang up stockings, and sing Christmas songs. By staying up and participating in all of the fun activities with his friends, Bear discovers that giving is one of the best Christmas presents of all!
My kiddo loves lift-the-flap books! Being able to interact with the book, whether its a touch-and-feel or lift-the-flap, makes reading extra fun for little ones. This book tells the story of the Grinch, a Christmas-hating meanie, who tries to keep Christmas from coming to Whoville. The Grinch learns that Christmas isn’t about presents or a big feast for dinner, but about family, togetherness, and love. With this new revelation, the Grinch’s heart grows! He embraces the Christmas spirit and returns everything he stole. The citizens of Whoville welcome the Grinch to spend Christmas with them in this sweet ending. This is a long story, but being able to lift-the-flaps really kept my son’s attention throughout the book. He was excited to see what pictures were underneath the flaps!
In this bright, sparkly book, Santa is sick in bed and unable to deliver to toys to children! “Calamity” cries chicken, who rallies the farm animals to save the day. The bright, cheerful illustrations with touches of sparkles will capture your child’s attention as the animals nurse Santa back to good health and get the sleigh ready. With so much happening, Chicken forgets to get the reindeer ready. The reindeer say they can’t fly on empty stomachs, but it’s time to head out and deliver presents! Is Christmas ruined? Not to worry, Santa is feeling better and he uses a bit of Christmas magic to make the farm animals fly and they pull the sleigh full of toys!
In this sparely worded picture book, Duck attempts to come down Farmer Brown’s chimney but gets stuck! The other animals attempt to unstuck Duck, but get themselves trapped in the chimney too. Now Santa has arrived and needs to get down the chimney. Will he get stuck too? Get ready for giggles as Santa gets everyone successfully down the chimney and soot goes flying everywhere! Pay special attention to Duck’s backpack to find out why he was trying to get down the chimney in the first place.
In this sweet story, Excavator, Bulldozer, Crane, Dump Truck and Cement Mixer build a new home for fire engines. They get the job done just in time for the fire engines to spend Christmas in their new home. As the construction crew heads back to the yard to settle down for the night, they find that they get their own Christmas surprises. The rhyming story and great pictures will delight preschoolers, as will discovering the gift each machine receives.
This lovely books shows a young girl’s activities as she counts down the days of December from the first to Christmas Day. Each day she does something news: “Days 1, 2, and 3/ I paint, cut,/ and paste.” I love how the child wants to create home-made gifts and forgoes all of the commercialism associated with the holiday. She also remembers her animals friends and makes sure to have something special for the animals to enjoy on Christmas too! At the end, the author gives how-to instructions and recipes for the yuletide cards, popcorn-cranberry garland, spicy gingerbread cookies, and outdoor animal treats mentioned.
We’ve all read stories where children start to doubt Santa exists, but in this funny twist, Santa starts to doubt that a little boy named Harold exists. Santa has plenty of good reasons to doubt Harold. For one thing, the handwriting on the letter looks like an adult’s handwriting. And when Harold came to sit on Santa’s lap this year, he looked different than the last time Santa saw him. Seems pretty suspicious. So Santa decides to hide out at Harold’s house this Christmas and see if he really does exist. Kids will love the ending!
We are huge Bob Shea fans! We love his sense of humor and fun illustrations. In this story, Dinosaur is getting ready for Santa’s Christmas visit! Dinosaur has lots to do–decorating, making presents for Mom and Dad, trying not to be naughty. And since Dinosaur is determined to win, he defeats each task! ROAR! He’s doing great, but on Christmas Eve, he hears some rustling downstairs and sneaks a peek. Uh-oh, will he get caught and not get any presents? Check out this story from your library to find out!
A very special baby is born in a manger and all of the animals are excited to welcome the new baby . Each animal takes a turn saying hello, but donkey is too shy. However, baby Jesus welcomes donkey with his own sweet smile. The donkey brays, hee-aw, making the baby laughs with joy! This book is a sweet and beautifully illustrated story celebrating the first Christmas.
Gingerbread Baby and his friend, Matti, take his gingerbread band to the town’s Christmas Festival. The gingerbread band are a huge a hit! Everything is going great until the children start smelling the yummy gingerbread and get hungry. Yikes! Run away, gingerbread band! Matti uses snow to disguise the gingerbread instruments while Gingerbread Baby leads the audience on a merry chase. Gingerbread Baby finds a great spot to hide in the Christmas tree where he is safe from the hungry crowd. Fantastic pictures and lots of humor make this book a great choice for Christmas stories.
My son loves Adam Wallace’s “How to Catch ” series! In this Christmas book, Santa’s helper elf is target by the children. They set all sorts of traps, but with Santa on his side, no one catch this elf! Better luck next Christmas! Kids will giggle at the silliness and enjoy the bright, engaging pictures.
A little girl and her mom are out and about during the holiday season. The little girl takes in all of the noises and sights around her, and picks up on the rhythm of the season. The author does a great job of highlighting the sounds that the girl hears– CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!–and the flashing lights in the store windows–BLING! BLING! BLING!–giving readers not only an opportunity to make some noise and participate with the story, but also plants the idea to be more thoughtful about their own surroundings. Throughout the story the little girl sees and spreads joy and imparts a lovely message for the reader to do the same.
The rhymes, sweet message, and Christmas tree countdown make this a perfect choice for preschoolers! Blue and Toad deliver trees and joy to their animals friends. Will there be a tree left for Blue? Preschoolers will love the light-up tree at the end of the story!
Llama Llama books are so relatable for preschoolers! Each story features an emotion/struggle that young children also face. In this story, Llama Llama is finding it hard to wait for Christmas. Even though he is plenty busy shopping for presents, baking cookies, decorating the tree with Mama, Christmas is not coming fast enough. With mounting frustration, Llama Llama just can’t wait any more! Mama knows just what to do –a warm cuddle and a gentle reminder that “Gifts are nice, but there’s another: The true gift is, we have each other.”
Little Critter books are always so cute and funny. My son just loves these books! In this story, Little Critter writes his letter to Santa and awaits Santa’s visit. Little Critter and his family do lots of fun things together. Children can lift-the-flaps throughout the book and learn more about Little Critter’s fun Christmas season activities!
You just have to read the Clement C. Moore’s poem, The Night Before Christmas, as part of your Christmas stories! In this beautifully illustrated edition by Jan Brett, readers will love seeing Santa and his elves delivering Christmas presents while the children are tucked into bed. Each page’s illustrations are a treasure trove of detail that perfectly compliment the poem.
My son loves the original Pout-Pout Fish story so he was excited to read this Christmas tale. Mr. Fish learns that Christmas is bigger than store-bought gifts — it is all about giving from the heart and bringing joy. With sing-songy rhymes and detailed pictures, this picture book is a fun Christmas-time read. We love pouring over the pictures and seeing all of the fun little details.
It’s preschoolers’ favorite story character, Pete the Cat! This time Pete has lend a paw to Santa who is too sick to deliver the presents! This is one of the original Pete the Cat stories and has great rhymes and a fantastic message of giving your all. I love that this book reinforces the idea to little kids that you don’t have to be big to make a huge impact! As it says in the story, “Small is Cool!”
My son is obsessed with this book! He loves the epic snowball fight. This book is a lot of fun and captures the excitement of a good snowball fight. It’s ninjas vs. a snowman army led by a samurai, who turns out to be Santa in disguise, making this the best Christmas present ever for little Yuki.
We love the Mother Bruce series and just adore Bruce, the grumpy bear, the clueless geese, and the happy-go-lucky mice. In this Christmas book of mistaken identity, the woodland animals think that Bruce is Santa! The illustrations throughout the book will crack your kids up! Since all of the animals think they told Santa their wishes, Bruce, the geese, and the mice set to make sure everyone gets something for Christmas!
Julia Donaldson is one of my family’s favorite authors! My husband randomly chants, “Oh Stick Man, oh Stick Man, it’s me. How I long to be home in the family tree!” Can you tell we’ve read this one a lot!?! Stick Man gets separated from his family and longs to go home. Travel along with Stick Man on his crazy journey, as one thing after another keeps him from making his way back to the family tree. On Christmas Eve, Santa arrives to grant Stick Man’s wish and takes him back to him family. The rhymes and repetition really hooked my son and he couldn’t wait to see what happened to Stick Man.
I love this book about Suzy Goose who wants a star for the top of the animals’ Christmas tree. Suzy sees bright star, high in the sky, and no one can stop her from trying every possible way to get it! Preschoolers love telling Suzy that her ideas won’t work. Though all hope seems lost as Suzy loses her way, her animal friends guide her home where she finds the perfect star. This beautifully illustrated story captures the magic of the season and strength of hope.
My son and I love the Ten Minutes to Bed series! In this Christmas edition, Santa needs Twinkle, the little unicorn, help to deliver presents. With only ten minutes until bed, Twinkle and Santa combine their magic to zip around the world and deliver presents. Kids will love this rhyming, brightly colored book and be delighted by Twinkle’s cuteness! Twinkle makes it home with one minute to spare and gets into bed right on time. When she wakes up the next morning, there’s a special present just for her.
This book is so funny! Get ready to laugh your way through this updated gingerbread man story, featuring a tough cookie. Cookie claims to be a delicious sugar cookie, but he isn’t sweet and cookie isn’t fast. Cookie taunts Fox, who immediately catches Cookie. Fox tries to take a bite, but hurts his tooth! What a tough cookie! An unlikely friendship forms between the two and Fox sets out to help Cookie be his best cookie-self in this hilarious picture book.
This a lovely story for a parent to read to their child. Each page reaffirms a parent’s love for their child, highlighting different aspects of how special their child is to them. Read these sweet rhymes and nurturing words while cuddling close with your little one this Christmas season.
Check your library for these and other Christmas picture 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 🙂
Whether you were wishing you had snow to play in, or are stuck inside because it is too cold out, make some fake snow that won’t freeze your fingers! All you need are two ingredients–baking soda and shaving cream–to make your own snow. The fake snow feels so soft and flakey. It is is tons of fun to squish in your fingers! Add some of your toys so they can have a snow day too. Fake snow is a fun way to add STEM into your preschooler’s activities. Check out my STEM Page for more ideas!
Fake Snow Preschool STEM Activity
Fake Snow Supplies Needed:
baking soda
shaving cream
measuring cup
tray or bowl to mix ingredients in (we used a 8×8 inch foil tray)
I love STEM activities that my son and I can do with supplies we already have at home! If you don’t have any shaving cream, another mom said you can use hair conditioner.
How To:
We tried this a couple times before we “perfected” our fake snow. In order to make enough to actually play with, we used 1 Cup baking soda and a little more than 1 Cup of shaving cream. Begin by measuring your baking soda and then dumping it into your tray/bowl. Then measure your shaving cream and dump it on top of your baking soda.
Now for the fun! Use your hands to combine the shaving cream and the baking soda until it forms snow. Add some extra shaving cream if needed to get the texture you like. Want to see this in action? check out our 4 1/2 minute video: How To Make Fake Snow
We had lots of fun just squishing our snow around the tray. My son added a plastic Olaf toy and let Olaf have fun playing in the snow too. Soon my son’s imagination went wild and he pretended that his hands were yetis after Olaf. Warning — snow got all over the table and some ended up on the floor as my son played. Fortunately it was easy to clean up with a wet paper towel.
Playing with our fake snow
More Snow and Winter Ideas!
Winter Fizz STEM Activity: combine blue glitter, baking soda, vinegar to create a wintry-looking fizzy science experiment!
Fingerprint Snowy Tree: draw a barren tree with a marker and then your preschooler can paint on the snow with their fingerprints.
Craft Stick Snowflake: add some sparkly winter fun to your seasonal decorations with this cute craft stick snowflake!
Snowman Books: Building a snowman is one of our favorite winter things to do as a family. However, even without snow, you can have some snowman fun with these 8 snowman books.
This heart dog craft is so cute! It makes a great Valentine present or a sweet card to a dog-lover 🙂 My little one loved this craft and he was excited to show it to our dog.
Decide what colors you want to use for your Valentine’s Day doggy and then color all of the pieces on the template. Use your creativity to add whiskers, a patch around one eye, or multi-colored ears. My son wanted to make his craft look like our dog 🙂
After all of the shapes have been colored, cut out the pieces. Rounded edges are hard for little ones, so an adult may need to do the cutting.
On a piece of construction paper, assemble the shapes to form a dog. Look at the sample on the craft template. The large heart is the face; the 2 medium hearts are the ears; 2 ovals are the eyes; and the small heart is the nose.
Glue all of your pieces onto the construction paper. Write a cute Valentine’s Day message: ” I RUFF You,” or “Puppy Love,” or “I HEART You.” Let your dog dry before showing off how cute it is!
Looking for More Crafts?
Check out my Crafts Page for more fun things to make with your kiddo! There are more animal crafts to make, Valentine’s Day crafts, and lots of fun 🙂
Instead of using an entire sheet of paper, I cut it in half so it would be less to finger paint. I was worried that my son would get bored if the fingerprinting took a long time. Originally, I cut out a large heart shape from one of the halves. However, my son had trouble seeing it since it was the same color as the paper he was painting. I recommend cutting the heart out of a different color than than the one you will be painting. Once your heart is cut, place it in the middle of the half sheet.
Dip fingertips in paint and then stamp them into your paper. I poured a litte paint of each color on a paper plate for my kiddo to dip his fingers into. I also keep babywipes next to us to quickly clean off fingers!
Surround the heart in fingerprints. Adults might need to help hold the heart in place while kids stamp around it. Be creative and mix and match paint colors. It is ok if fingerprints overlap or touch the heart.
When you are finished adding fingerprints around the heart, gently remove the heart from your paper. Let your project dry.
Thanks for crafting with me 🙂 You can make this fingerprint heart craft for any occasion by swapping the heart for a different shape. Keep this in mind for Christmas and use a tree shape! Check out my crafts page for more ideas.
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 get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support!
The Lunar New Year is a world wide celebration, although it is heavily celebrated in East Asia. It ties in with the coming of spring and a time of rebirth. I’ve selected books about the Chinese New Year because I am most familiar with it, but ask your librarian for Lunar New Year books about other cultures! For preschoolers who do not celebrate the holiday at home, these books will provide a gentle introduction. I picked books that are relatively short, have great pictures, and feature some familiar characters to keep kids’ interests.
This is a great choice for preschoolers learning about Chinese New Year. It is a short story, with bright illustrations. In this book, a girl is excited for the new year to come. Her family prepares by cleaning, hanging decorations, getting haircuts, making dumplings, scaring away the bad luck, and participating in the lantern parade. Finally, it is time to wake the dragon and let the new year begin! My son was curious about why the dragon looked different then the dragons he was used to seeing in books, which lead to a discussion about how European dragons and Asian dragons are different from each other.
Preschoolers love Adam Wallace’s “How to Catch a …” series! They have engaging pictures, rhyming text, and are infused with humor. In this Chinese New Year themed story, the kids are out to catch a dragon. They’ve got their traps ready, but the dragon keeps outsmarting them! Preschools will giggle at the kids’ foiled attempts to catch a dragon.
3. Maisy’s Chinese New Year by Lucy Cousins–
Preschoolers love the bold, bright pictures that are featured in Maisy’s books. Maisy’s stories provide gentle introductions to a wide array of topics. In this Chinese New Year story, Maisy takes the reader through all of the steps involved with preparing for the New Year. Her friends come over to celebrate with her. They all wear red, eat yummy traditional foods, and listen to the story of the Chinese Zodiac. My son loved looking at the Chinese Zodiac and talking about the different animals. He was so curious about why the rat won the race and what animal represented the year he was born! This was a fantastic book to introduce him to Chinese New Year and prompt further questions and discussion.
Preschoolers love Peppa Pig! Using a beloved character to teach something new really helps keeps kids engaged. So while this is not the most detailed or the most culturally accurate book on the subject, it will provide preschoolers with a good introduction to the Lunar New Year holiday. In this story, Peppa’s class is going to be celebrating Chinese New Year and the kids are so excited! They decorate the classroom with paper lanterns and put on a dragon dance. Peppa’s enthusiasm is contagious and you might find that your kiddo wants to hang decorations too.
This cute story is a Chinese New Year version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It is a little bit on the long side, but it is entertaining! Goldy Luck’s mom asks her to bring a plate of turnip cakes to the neighbors, the Chan family (pandas). But Goldy is hungry and sleepy. Her mother sends her to make the quick delivery. Goldy stumbles into the house to find that the Chans aren’t home. Poop Goldy spills the turnip cakes all over the floor. Before she can clean them up, the smell of rice porridge distracts her. As the tale goes, she eats porridge, tries (and breaks) chairs, and sleeps in the beds. When the Chan family gets home, she wakes up and runs away. In this story, Goldy feels bad to the trouble she caused the Chans and Goldy tries to make amends. She brings porridge, offers to help fix the chair, and clean up the mess she made!
While this story is not about Chinese New Year, it does introduce preschoolers to Chinese American culture. Plus, it helps reinforce color recognition! Told in simple, rhyming text, this is a story about a girl who spots the colors of the rainbow everywhere around her. She goes in rainbow color order, pointing out food, clothing, animals, flowers, toys, clouds, and household items. A glossary at the end of the book explains some of the things that preschoolers might not be familiar with to help further discussion with your kiddo. We had to look up one of the fruits that I didn’t know, so I was learning new stuff too 🙂
Check your library for these Chinese New Year books! I hope you will enjoy them as much as we did. I’ve joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to try and help cover the costs of this site. So if you buy something through one of my links on Amazon, then I might get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support!
