Spring Activities Archives - Page 2 of 2 -Imaginations Running Wild-

Sheep Stories

April 13, 2022November 22, 2022 Jennifer

8 Sheep Stories

1. Baa, Baa Black Sheep by Jane Cabrera–

Jane Cabrera’s nursey rhyme books are the best! I love the illustrations, her sense of humor, and the positive portrayals of some dark stories. The sheep keeps generously giving its wool to the girl and other animals, allowing everyone to have something cozy to wear or snuggle into. Eventually, however, sheep runs out of wool. Now what is going to do? The little girl comes up with an idea to repay the sheep’s kindness. She knits a sweater for sheep to wear!

2. Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton–

This is a whimsical, humorous story about a sheep who can’t fall asleep. Russell struggles at bedtime, thinking maybe it’s not dark enough. Perhaps he’s too hot or too cold. Maybe he needs to adjust his pillow! We’ve all felt like Russell at some point. Finally Russell decided to count things in hopes that he falls asleep. Hmm, what should Russell count? Why sheep, of course! This does the trick and soon Russell is fast asleep.

3. Sheep Dog and Sheep Sheep by Eric Barclay–

This book is so funny! My son and I just cracked up reading it. This book is about a whimsical, but clueless sheep and the sheepdog who tries to protect her. Sheep is a self-declared expert at watching sheep. When the dog arrives to take over the position, sheep decides to help sheepdog do the job properly. Sheep pins back the dog’s hair from its eyes, finds some binoculars, and gets a map. While sheep is being “helpful,” the dog has to save her from predators, as well as her own mishaps because she is not paying attention. After both go through so much trouble to help the other, sheep realizes that she is NOT a sheep watching expert. What is she supposed to do now? Dog suggests that maybe sheep is dog-sheep. Of course! Everyone knows that sheep is an expert at watching dogs.

4. Sheep in a Jeep 5-Minute Stories by Nancy Shaw–

My son loves all of these sheep stories. His favorites are “Sheep Take a Hike,” “Sheep Blast Off,” and “Sheep Go to Sleep.” Each story is silly and the sheep always seem to accidently cause trouble! Preschoolers can relate to good intentions going wrong. Get ready for lots of giggles as you read this set.

5. Time for Bed by Mem Fox–

Although not a book solely about sheep, I had to include this beautifully illustrated and rhythmic bedtime story. Darkness is falling, the stars are out, and its time for young animals to go to bed. The term for each baby animal is given as each little one snuggles in with a parent. In this sweet book, the parents provide love and comfort and wishes for sweet dreams to each animal. The story ends with a mother putting her child to bed. Good night.

6. Wee Little Lamb by Lauren Thompson–

Little lamb is just a baby and too shy to leave its mother’s side. Preschoolers will be able to relate to the longing to try something new and the trepidation that often comes with venturing out on one’s own. Little lamb meets lots of animals, but isn’t ready to go off and play yet. It’s okay to do things are your own speed and comfort level. When a little mouse and its mother come along, little lamb finally feels brave enough to step away from mom and play with its new friend!

7. Where is Green Sheep? By Mem Fox–

Preschoolers will love this rhythmic story featuring lots of fun sheep. They’re swinging and sliding, playing and traveling, near and far, and some are even in space! But where is the green sheep this whole time? Read this one and find out! My son loves this book and says that you have to check it from your library because it is so good 😊.

8. No Sleep for the Sheep by Karen Beaumont —

In this silly story, poor sheep is trying to sleep in the barn, but all of the other animals are noisy. One by one, they all come to the barn quacking, mooing, neighing, clucking, and oinking while sheep is trying to sleep. Preschools will enjoy the rhymes and the funny illustrations of sheep growing more and more exasperated with each new visitor. Check this one from your library and find out if sheep ever gets to sleep!

Check your library for these and other sheep 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 get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading:)

Easter, Spring

Mosaic Egg Craft

April 11, 2022April 3, 2022 Jennifer

Whether you want this to be cheerful spring egg or an Easter egg, this mosaic egg craft will be a hit with your preschooler. Use this project to help with color identification as you say the name of each color as your glue it on. You can also count how many sides the shapes have too.

Supplies Needed:

multiple colors of construction paper*
glue stick
scissors

*I have a sandwich bag filled with scraps of construction paper that we use for making mosaic crafts. So if you don’t already have small pieces of paper ready to go, cut some out in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors.

How To:

First: Cut your egg shape— pick a color for your egg. We made ours out of white construction paper. The egg shape was large and took up most of the paper.

Second: Making the Mosaic — My son covered his egg in glue from his glue stick, a portion at a time, and added the mosaic paper pieces. He picked a variety of colored mosaic pieces. He had to really work on spatial awareness as he determined which pieces would fit next to each other. In a few instances, I helped trim some pieces for a better fit.

Third: Complete the Project — Once he was happy with the mosaic look of his egg, I flipped the egg over and cut off all of the edges that stuck off the sides of egg. This gave our egg a more rounded look to it.

Now you have an awesome mosaic egg! I think these mosaic eggs are cute decorations for spring and I want my son to make a whole bunch for me. Maybe he could even do one color per egg and I can have a rainbow of eggs 🙂

More Mosaics

If your preschooler enjoyed this mosaic craft and is looking to make more, check out my mosaic butterfly craft! It uses little scraps of paper just like this mosaic egg craft.

My son also made a smiley face out of yellow pieces of paper and a mosaic gingerbread man craft too! Mosaic crafts are a lot of fun and I love how different each one turns out!

Animals, Spring

Bunny Books for Preschoolers

April 8, 2022November 30, 2022 Jennifer

It’s Spring and cute bunny stuff is popping up everywhere! Preschoolers can’t resist cute little rabbits. Here is a list of my family’s favorite bunny books. Check your library for these and other stories with bunnies, rabbits, and hares.

Twelve Great Bunny Books

1. Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells —

My son loves Rosemary Wells’ stories! The Easter Bunny brought him this book one year and he immediately wanted us to sit down together and read it 🙂 In this story its Max vs. his sister, Ruby. Both bunnies want to make a cake for Grandma. Max wants to make a gross worm cake and Ruby wants to make an angel food cake. Max makes his cake but it’s missing something—red hot squirters. When Ruby sends Max to grocery store, Max tries to add the red hot squirters to the list, but he can’t write yet. Max inadvertently keeps spilling Ruby’s ingredients, resulting in more trips to the store. Finally Max draw a picture of the red hot squirters and the grocer gives him some. Soon both cakes are ready. Grandma is so excited—She doesn’t know which to eat first!

2. It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny by Marilyn Sadler —

In this funny book, P.J. Funnybunny doesn’t want to be a rabbit anymore. He lists all of the bunny things that he is sick of, and thinks that life would be better if he was a different animal. First he tries being a bear, but that wasn’t exciting enough. P.J. then tries living with birds, beavers, pigs, moose, possums, and skunks, but nothing is quite right. Finally P.J. Decides that he wants to be a bunny and he hurries back home to his family.

3. The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown —

A mommy rabbit gently reassures her little bunny that no matter what may come or where the little one may go, mommy will always be there. The little bunny comes up with all sorts of fanciful scenarios that would take it away from mommy. Mommy, however, always has the perfect reply. A beautiful story about the strength of a mother’s love.

4. Bunny’s Book Club by Annie Silvestro —

Bunny loves attending the library’s outside Storytime. But when it gets cold and Storytime moves inside, Bunny is left out. Bunny comes up with a plan to sneak into the library at night and take books home to read. Soon Bunny’s friends want books too. When the animals sneak into the library, there’re caught by a librarian. The librarian gives the animals their own library cards! Now they all get to check out books and discuss their stories at Bunny’s book club 😀.

5. Wee Little Bunny by Lauren Thompson —

It’s springtime and little bunny is too excited to sit still. There is so much to see and do! 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.

6. A Boy and His Bunny by Sean Bryan —

This is a silly rhyming story about a boy and bunny who appears on his head one day. At first it seems like having a bunny on your head might be a problem, but both boy and bunny quickly show that you can do anything with a bunny on your head. Get ready to giggle as the boy races down a hill on a sled, eats, and drives a moped with a bunny on his head!

7. Guess How Much I love You? by Sam McBratney–

This story is a children’s classic! Little Nutbrown Hare and the Big Nutbrown Hare take turns saying how much they love each other. Preschoolers will enjoy the hares’ analogies of the size of their love–as high as they can jump, to the tips of their toes, and to the moon and back! This is a lovely and reassuring bedtime story to read with your little love.

8. The Rabbit, the Dark, and the Cookie Tin by Nicola O’Byrne–

It’s nighttime, but Rabbit doesn’t want to go to bed (preschoolers can relate!). Rabbit thinks that if it doesn’t get dark, then he won’t have to go to bed. Rabbit hatches a plan to catch the dark in a cookie tin and not let it out so that rabbit can stay up. In this story, preschoolers learn the importance of nighttime, and eventually rabbit agrees to let the dark out of the cookie tin. The reader gets to lift the flap and open up the cookie tin, releasing the dark in an awesome pop-up!

9. Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming —

Mr. McGreely has dreamed of planting a vegatable garden. Finally, this is year that is going to do it. Three little bunnies are excited about the new vegetables he’s growing and they sneak in to eat the yummy food each night. Mr. McGreely builds fences, walls, a moat, and finally a fortress around his vegetable garden to keep the bunnies out. It looks like the bunnies are finally locked out of the garden. Mr. McGreely does a happy dance and carries his basket into the fortress, across the moat and over the wall to pick his vegetables. But who is that hiding in the basket? It’s the bunnies! Muncha, muncha, Muncha!

10. The Tale of Peter Rabbit Story Board Book by Beatrix Potter —

No bunny books list is complete without Peter Rabbit! In this board book edition of the original Peter Rabbit story, preschoolers can get to know this naughty bunny who sneaks into Mr. McGregor’s garden. This version is shorter than the original, but still has Beatrix Potter’s charming illustrations.

11. Curious George and the Bunny —

George is a very curious monkey and always seems to get into trouble. One day, George finds a family of bunnies in a hutch. The bunnies look so soft and fluffy. George really wants to hold one, so he opens the door and takes out a baby bunny. Uh-oh, the bunny hops away and now George can’t find it! George didn’t mean to lose the bunny and he feels bad. He looks everywhere, but the bunny is still missing. Mommy bunny comes to rescue and finds her hidden baby! Yay! George puts the bunny family safety back in their hutch.

12. Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds.

This book has just the right about of humor and spookiness that preschoolers love! Jasper Rabbit loves carrots and eats them all of the time. All is well until the carrots start to follow him. . . (cue creepy music). My son loves this book and it’s sequel, Creepy Underwear. It was not scary for him at age 3, and he thought it was really funny.

Check your library for these and other bunny 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 🙂

More Bunny Fun!

Bunny Maze: help the bunny get through the maze to the yummy carrot!

Easter Bunny Letter Tracing: trace all of the letters in the words EASTER BUNNY and then color the pictures.

Adorable Bunny Paper Plate Craft: make this super cute bunny craft with a few supplies and the free template!

Animals, Easter, Spring

Adorable Bunny Craft

April 4, 2022April 4, 2022 Jennifer

There are so many cute bunnies pictures/crafts/decorations popping on my social media feeds this spring! I was inspired to make a bunny craft by a picture I saw of a rabbit with a flower crown. The flower crown turned a boring paper plate into an adorable bunny craft! I love how this turned out 🙂 Whether you are looking for an Easter craft or a spring activity, this bunny craft is fun and easy to make with your little one.

Supplies Needed:

1 paper plate
2 pipe cleaners
pompom
bunny craft template (free PDF)
glue stick
white school glue
scissors
crayons/markers
2 googly eyes (optional)

How To:

Print the free bunny craft template. It includes the ears, flowers, and leaves that you will need.

Color the ears, flowers, and leaves. While I usually have my son use crayons, the bold color of the markers prompted us to use them instead. After you color everything, cut out your pieces. The designs are pretty intricate so an adult should do the cutting.

Flip your plate over so that the center is now raised. Using your glue stick, glue your ears on the underside of the top of the plate. Glue your flowers and leaves around the top of the plate, making a cute crown.

For the bunny face, you will need 2 googly eyes (or draw your own), 2 pipe cleaners, and a pompom for the nose. We started by gluing on the nose. We used the white school glue to make sure that the pompom is securely attached. Then we folded our pipe cleaners in half (makes a V shape) and glued them on either side of the nose. We put a small amount of white school glue on the pipe cleaners and held them down onto the plate for a few seconds. To finish the bunny face, draw a mouth.

Let your bunny craft dry before showing off how cute it is! While your project is drying, read some EASTER STORIES together 🙂

For more spring craft ideas, check out my SPRING CRAFTS page. Happy crafting!

Easter, Spring

Easter Picture Books

March 29, 2022March 29, 2022 Jennifer

Easter is almost here and there are so many adorable books to read! My son and I made a list of our favorite Easter picture books. These books are filled with bunnies, eggs, chocolate, and Easter fun that’s perfect for preschoolers. There are a mix of old and new favorites here. Visit your library and check for these fun titles.

Easter Books:

1. Pete the Cat’s Big Easter Adventure by James Dean —

The Easter Bunny calls on Pete the Cat to help deliver Easter eggs in this fun picture book. It’s up to Pete to get the eggs dyed and hidden for his friends to find. Along his way, Pete adds to his bunny costume. First the ears, then the nose and tail — a cat dressed like a bunny, that’s funny!

2. How to Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace —

The Easter Bunny has to keep its identity a secret because there are kids out there who want to catch it! E.B., as the bunny known, has gotten really good at avoiding traps when he delivers and hides the Easter eggs. This rhyming story shows just clever E.B. is. There are lots of traps made by kids; some are pretty clever. Will E.B. get caught this year? With a little bit of magic, he gets all of the eggs delivered and heads safely home.

3. Peter Easter Frog by Erin Dealy —

This is a funny story about a frog who thinks he could be the Easter Bunny too because frogs hop just like a rabbit. Along his way, he meets an assortment of other animals who all want to lend a hand and help Peter spread Easter cheer. Preschoolers will love this silly rhyming story. Just wait until Peter and friends meet the real Easter Bunny!

4. Happy Easter, Biscuit! by Alyssa Capucilli —

Meet Biscuit, a cute a little puppy, who is excited for Easter! It’s Biscuit’s first Easter and there are so many eggs to be found. Help Biscuit find all of the hidden eggs by lifting the flaps throughout the book. This sparsely worded, interactive book will be a hit with wiggly preschoolers!

5. Max Counts His Chickens by Rosemary Wells —

My son loves this story! I can’t even count how many times we have read this. In this Easter counting story, Max and his sister search their home for marshmallow chicks left by the Easter Bunny. Ruby is really good at finding at the hidden treats, while all Max manages to do is make a mess. Max looks in the toothpaste container, the cereal, and in the juice, but no chicks. Ruby finds all of the chicks and poor Max doesn’t have any treats. Grandma makes a quick phone call and the Easter Bunny comes back to give Max some marshmallow chicks of his own.

6. Mater and the Easter Buggy by Kirsten Larsen —

Welcome to Easter in Radiator Springs! The cars are busy decorating and preparing for the Easter Buggy to come. Mater is so excited! He plans to wait up and see the Easter Buggy this year. Lightning McQueen doesn’t believe in the Easter Buggy. However, not wanting his friend to be disappointed, Lightning decides to give Mater a basket of treats and pretend its from the Easter Buggy. While trying to be sneaky, Lighting makes a lot of noise and wakes up Mater! Now Lighting has to wait for Mater to fall asleep again, only this time, Lightning falls asleep too. When they awake, they both find the real Easter Buggy visited them after all.

7. Ollie’s Easter Eggs by Oliver Dunrea —

Gossie and her gosling friends are dying Eater eggs! Little Ollie wants some eggs too. He devised a plan to get his wings on the eggs by secretly taking them from his friends. Ollie, wearing cute bunny ears, then creates his own fun egg hunt for the goslings! Preschoolers will love the pictures and sympathize with Ollie’s impatience for the fun to begin.

8. Happy Easter, Curious George by RP Anderson —

George, a curious monkey, is enjoying an outdoor Easter celebration with his friend, the man in the yellow hat. Everything is so exciting. There’s a cute, fluffy bunny to pet, eggs to decorate, and fun to be had! While everyone is busy dying the eggs, the Easter bunny escapes from its pen. George see a man leaving a bunch of eggs in odd places. Thinking the man dropped the eggs on accident, George collects them all. Meanwhile, the kids notice that the bunny is missing. Oh-no! George sees a white egg under a bush and goes to grab it. That’s not an egg, but a bunny tail! With the Easter bunny safely returned to its pen, George re-hides the eggs for the kids to find!

9. Happy Easter, Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen —

This short Pout-Pout Fish board book is great for young children with short attention spans. The rhyming text and cute illustrations help keep preschoolers interested in this Easter story. Mr. Fish, donning a pair of bunny ears, brings Easter fun to all of his ocean friends. Each friend has a special egg to find. Can you help them find their eggs?

10. Berenstain Bears and the Real Easter Eggs by Stan and Jan Berenstain —

The Berenstain Bear family is excited for the town Easter egg hunt! The cubs are determined to find the most eggs and win the egg hunt. They get so wrapped up in the idea of winning that they are missing out in the joy and fun of spring. When the cubs find a nest with real eggs, they realize that stopping and enjoying the beauty of nature is more important than winning.

11. The Bunny Hop by Sarah Albee—

This book is perfect for little Elmo fans! On Easter morning Elmo and his friends find cute little bunnies all over Sesame Street. The bunnies are appearing in the most unusual places. Where did all of these bunnies come from? Elmo sets out to solve the mystery.

12. Max’s Chocolate Chicken by Rosemary Wells —

On Easter morning Max and his sister, Ruby, hunt for hidden eggs. The one to find the most eggs wins the chocolate chicken. Ruby is great at finding eggs while Max gets distracted by the great outdoors. Max find mud and makes mud pancakes while his sister collects eggs. Realizing Ruby us going to win the egg hunt, Max steals the chocolate chicken. While in his secret hiding spot, he eats all of the chocolate! Fortunately the Eater Bunny was watching and gives Ruby her own chocolate.

13. Count on the Easter Pups —

Preschoolers love Paw Patrol! My son was obsessed with Paw Patrol at ages 3-4, so we had to read about the pups saving Easter. Filled with Easter fun and my son’s favorite Paw Patrol friends, made this board book a fun read.

14. Happy Easter, Little Critter by Mercer Mayer —

My son loves Little Critter stories! In this story, Little Critter and Little Sister enjoy a fun Easter with their family and friends. They awake to Easter baskets filled with toys and yummy treats! Then they go to church, where after the service, they get to decorate Easter eggs. Now it’s time for the parents to hide all of the eggs for the kids to find. Your preschooler will have fun pointing all of the eggs!

Check your library for these and other Easter 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 🙂

Spring

Torn Paper Nest Craft

March 21, 2022April 11, 2022 Jennifer

Spring is full of sweet little bird nests. We have several nests in trees around our house. My son and I love watching the baby birds hatch and we enjoy hearing their cute little peeps when their parents are feeding them! When my son was 3, we were working on learning Letter N during the spring. As part of our letter N week, my son learned that N is for nest and we made a torn paper nest craft as part of this unit. I love how his nest turned out!

Supplies Needed:

construction paper in brown and 2 other colors
glue stick
scissors

How To:

This craft is pretty simple and doesn’t need many supplies. Being by tearing your brown construction paper into pieces. Pick a piece of construction paper for your background and then glue the brown pieces into a nest shape on it.

Next, pick a color for your eggs. We cut out 4 eggs. My son loves the color blue and really wanted blue eggs. What color eggs have you seen before?

Finish your project by gluing the eggs onto the nest. Let your nest dry. Now you have a torn paper nest craft to put up as part of your spring decorations!

Spring

Spring Wreath Preschool Craft

March 20, 2022January 15, 2022 Jennifer

I love making floral wreaths for our home, and enjoy having my family help with the project. Unfortunately, other than help pick out flowers, there isn’t a lot my son could help with because he is so young. I wanted a wreath that my son could make on his own (that didn’t involve a hot glue gun) so we created a paper spring wreath. My son picked out the pictures–a bunny, carrot, and flower–and created his own craft!

Craft Supplies Needed:

white paper plate
spring pictures template (free PDF)
green paint
glue
scissors
ribbon
hole punch (optional)

How To:

1. Cut out the center of your paper plate to make your wreath.

2. Paint your wreath green. I like to use Crayola Washable Paints (Amazon Affiliate link*) because they easily wash off of my kid’s hands and our table.

3. While your wreath is drying, print out the spring wreath pictures template (free PDF) and color them.

4. Cut out your spring pictures.

5. Once your wreath is dry, arrange the pictures how you like them on your wreath and then glue them on.

6. Finish your spring wreath craft by tying a ribbon on so that your kiddo can hang their project! I used a hole punch, but you can also just loop your ribbon through the wreath and hang it that way.

*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!

More Spring Crafts

Looking for more craft ideas? Check out my Spring Crafts page for inspiration and instructions!

STEM

Edible Cereal Rainbow Activity

March 15, 2022March 15, 2022 Jennifer

Make a rainbow out of Froot Loops for an edible cereal rainbow activity! With marshmallow clouds, who could resist this yummy activity. My coworker made one and showed it me and I had to try it with my son! We enjoyed making this together and redid our rainbow several times trying different color patterns. In addition to being fun and yummy, there are several educational applications to this activity– work on fine motor skills, color recognition, rainbow order or make up your own patterns!

Supplies Needed:

Froot Loops
2 large marshmallows
1 pipe cleaner (we used white)
scissors

How To:

First, cut your pipe cleaner in half. We used a white pipe cleaner. Pick whichever color you like, but keep in mind that you will see the pipe cleaner in-between the cereal pieces.

Then stick one end of the pipe cleaner into a marshmallow. Now it’s Froot Loops time! We dumped some Froot Loops onto a paper plate for my son to use for this activity. He did a fantastic job getting his rainbow colors in the correct order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Carefully string each cereal piece down the pipe cleaner.

Leave a little bit of the pipe cleaner empty at the end so that you can stick into the second marshmallow. Carefully bend your pipe cleaner into a rainbow shape. Now your Froot Loops rainbow should stand freely on top of the marshmallows.

My son and I each made an edible cereal rainbow activity and I love how they turned out. We enjoyed munching on the Froot Loops and the marshmallows as we went along too! If you enjoyed this activity, check out our Froot Loops Tower and have more yummy fun.