My kiddo and I love unicorns! We’ve been reading a lot of unicorn books and we are becoming slightly obsessed 🙂 We decided to make a unicorn craft. I really like toilet paper roll crafts. They are usually easy to make and I always have empty toilet paper rolls sitting around. We made a blue toilet paper roll unicorn craft because my child loves the color blue. Be creative with your unicorn and make it whatever color you want! Pick out fun colors of yarn for your mane and tail. Ribbon also works if you don’t have any yarn.
Supplies Needed:
empty toilet paper roll
construction paper
yarn
googly eyes
marker
scissors
glue
stapler (optional)
Unicorn How To:
Pick a color for your unicorn from your construction paper supply. Then, measure the size of your toilet paper roll and cut out a rectangle shape to completely cover your toilet paper roll. Glue on your construction paper. You can also use glue dots or staple your construction paper onto your toilet paper roll.
To make your unicorn’s face, you need to cut out a triangular horn (we used yellow paper), 2 triangular ears, and an oval for the snout. Since my child is 3 years old and new to scissors, I did the cutting. Draw a mouth and nostrils on the oval. Glue the horn, ears, and snout onto the toilet paper roll. Stick on your googly eyes.
Cut yarn into short strips and glue around the horn. We glued the yarn on the inside of the toilet paper roll and then draped it around the horn. For the tail, cut your yarn into longer pieces and glue on the back. You can also staple the tail on if that works easier for you. Now you have your own awesome toilet paper roll unicorn craft!
More Unicorn-ness!
–U is for Unicorn Craft: I was working with my 3 year old on learning letter U and I wanted a craft to go with our letter of the week, so we made this U is for Unicorn craft.
Make a little snowman toilet paper roll craft to add to your winter decorations! My son and I love snowmen and we have quite a few snowmen decorations around our house this winter. Unfortunately for my son, most of them are fragile and can’t be used as toys, so this craft was the perfect thing to make. As you can see in the picture, our snowman went on an outdoor adventure and found himself stuck in a plant. Don’t worry, another toilet paper roll craft saved him 🙂
Snowman Toilet Paper Roll Craft
Supplies Needed:
1 empty toilet paper roll
white paper
2 googly eyes
orange paper (or color a carrot nose on white paper)
marker
1 pipe cleaner
3 pom-poms
glue/glue dots
stapler (optional)
This is just one way to make a toilet paper. I don’t expect anyone to run out to a craft store for supplies. Please feel free to make substitutions!
Snowman How-To:
Measure your toilet paper roll by laying it on a piece of white paper and marking how tall your toilet paper roll is. Then wrap the paper around to see the width. Cut your paper out. This is a good opportunity for preschoolers to practice cutting straight lines.
Now that you have your white rectangle, glue it onto your toilet paper roll. Sometimes the edges just don’t want to stay down, so you can use a stapler to better secure the paper to the toilet paper roll.
Time to make a face for your snowman. I cut out a “carrot” nose from orange paper. My son attached his googly eyes and then glued on the nose. He chose to draw a smile on his snowman. I think it would also be cute to make a smile out of little black dots to look like coal (maybe for our next one).
Its decorating time! My son picked 3 red pom-poms to be buttons and red pipe cleaner to be the snowman’s scarf. Pick out your favorite colors! First we twisted the pipe cleaner around the snowman to make the scarf. Then, we used white school glue to attach the pom-poms. Glue dots would great for attaching pom-poms if you have some on hand. Now that you’ve finished decorating, pick out a great spot to display your snowman!
Christmas is just around the corner and kids are getting so excited! Help channel that excitement into some fun Christmas crafts. We rounded up our favorite 10 preschool Christmas crafts to share with you.
Preschool Christmas Crafts
10 Preschool Christmas Crafts:
Decoupage Santa Hat: make a Santa hat out of craft sticks and red tissue paper.
Christmas Owl Craft: adorable owls made from empty toilet paper rolls and construction paper.
Christmas Wreath: cute little wreath out of a paper plate that combines painting and coloring for lots of fun.
Candy Cane Reindeer: make a cute and yummy candy reindeer by adding pipe cleaner antlers, googly eyes, and a pom pom nose!
Fingerprint Snowy Tree: draw a barren tree with a marker and then your preschooler can paint on the snow with their fingerprints.
Craft Supplies:
I try to make crafts with supplies I already have at home because I hate having to put a project on hold to run to the store and get supplies. So if anytime you don’t have one of the things I mentioned, feel free to substitute it with something you have at home — there’s no wrong way to craft!
My go-to supplies are: construction paper, craft sticks (popsicle sticks), tissue paper, pompoms, Crayola glitter glue, paper plate, crayons, water color and Crayola Washable Paints, white school glue, and a glue stick. I’ve joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to help cover the costs of my site. So if you click on a product that I have on my site and buy something on Amazon, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for support! I don’t ever recommend anything that I have not personally used and loved 🙂
Using toilet paper rolls, make this cute Christmas owl craft! This craft is relatively quick and easy. It is definitely a team-work project and my son and I enjoyed enjoyed making our owls together 🙂
Measure your toilet paper roll by laying it on a red or green piece of construction paper and marking how tall your toilet paper roll is. Then wrap the paper around to see the width. Cut your paper out. This is a good opportunity for preschoolers to practice cutting straight lines. I cut our a small diamond shape out of orange paper for the beak. Then I cut two ovals out the third color of construction paper for the wings.
Once your paper is cut, it is time to decorate the wings. We used Crayola Washable Glitter Glue Pens to add sparkle to our wings. I really like this brand because it is easy to wipe up as we tend to be messy when crafting in our house. Let your wings dry. The wait time is the longest part of the craft.
While the wings are drying, glue on the large piece of construction paper. If that paper is not staying down, you can staple it onto the toilet paper roll or tape it.
Turn the front side toward you so that the seam is in the back. Squish the top of the toilet roll down by pinching the front and back and pushing them down toward the opening of the tube. This will make it look like your owl has 2 ears sticking up. Add your googly eyes and glue on your beak. To make the beak on our red owl, we folded the diamond in half so that it looked like the beak was open. On the green owl, we glued on a triangle for a beak.
We gently folded the oval wings vertically in half. Glue one side of the oval to the toilet paper roll body, leaving the other side unattached. This makes it look like the wings are sticking out from the body.
More Crafts!
To make them Christmas owls, we went with a red and green color scheme. By changing the colors of construction paper you use, you can make this owl craft for any occasion. My son already wants us to make a blue owl!
For more Christmas crafts, check out my Winter Crafts Page! There is a toilet paper roll snowman, as well as a sparkly snowflake, Santa hat, fuzzy candy cane, and more.
Whether you live near the ocean or not, you can enjoy beach-theme books and activities with your little one at home. Check your library for beach-theme books!
Beach-theme books and activities
We made it to the beach! And of course, we had to bring some of our favorite beach-themed books with us 🙂 Books, waves, sandcastles, and lots of splashing made for a great time!
Enjoy some of our favorite beach-theme books and activities with us!
Beach-Theme Books—
Duck and Goose Go to the Beach
Duck and Goose are some of our favorite picture book characters! My son has loved them for years (and I’ve loved them even longer!). We’ve been reading Duck and Goose stories since he was a baby. Their books come in a board book format that was perfect for when my kiddo was in the grabby stage, and now that he’s older, we read the picture books. We have actually brought Duck and Goose go theBeachand the stuffed animals to the beach with us a few times now 🙂 In this book, the two friends set off on an adventure and find themselves at the beach! But do they actually the sand, sun, and waves? Read it and find out 🙂
How to Catch a Mermaid
My son LOVES Adam Wallace’s How to Catch a Mermaid!It’s a fun book about 2 kids and dog who hatch all sorts of plans to catch a mermaid because who wouldn’t want to have a mermaid friend, right!?! Spoiler, the kids get themselves trapped instead and the mermaid saves the day! This book has rhyming text and bold, bright pictures that compliment the fun story. This has been one of my son’s favorites for a over a year now and we hope you like it as much as we do!
The Sandcastle that Lola Built
The Sandcastle that Lola Builtby Megan Maynor– based on the “House that Jack Built” story, this is a cute book about a little girl’s beach day. In this great example of teamwork, Lola and her new friends work together to make a sandcastle for mermaids. Fantastic pictures and rhyming text make this book a winner!
After reading this, we had to make our own sandcastle 🙂 And just like in the book, the tide washed away our castle too!
Inky’s Amazing Escape
Inky’s Amazing Escapeby Sy Montgomery — my kiddo loves this book! It is a true story about an octopus named Inky, who escapes from an aquarium in Australia and makes its way back to the ocean. We learned a lot about octopuses from this non-fiction picture book, and we were fascinated by Inky’s journey. My son was so excited when he learned that Inky liked playing Legos just like he does! Out of all of the books written about Inky, this one is our favorite. Sy Montgomery is a gifted storyteller and we were absolutely fascinated by this amazing octopus. I check out lots of library books for my son and I to read together, but this is one book that we felt that we needed to own. We truly love this story and read it over-and-over again.
Over in the Ocean
My son got Over in the Ocean: in a Coral Reeffor his birthday recently and it is AWESOME! It has fantastic pictures that were formed from clay by artist Jeanette Canyon that perfectly compliment Marianne Berkes’ sing-songy text. You and your little one will want to study these pictures over-and-over again to get all of the details incorporated onto each page. This book introduces a variety of cool sea creatures. It also lends itself well to movement activities that preschoolers will love to do. At the end, there is a seek-and-find activity to search for all of the sea creatures from the book, as well as a sneak-peek into the clay creations. We had so much fun reading this at the beach!
Beach Day!
Candace Ransom writes great beginning-reader books. The text is simple, but not boring and the pictures capture the joy of the kids’ adventures. In Beach Day!the family heads out to enjoy the beach together. The book captures the fun, excitement, and joy of family outing at the seashore. The kids gather seashells, build a sand castle, and see some neat sea creatures. As you read this one with your little one, you just can’t help but get caught up in the fun! Be prepared to read this multiple times 🙂
The Snail and the Whale
Another one of our favorite authors is Julia Donaldson; her books are perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners! For our beach-theme stories, my son and I read A Snail and a Whale. A snail yearns to explore in this rhyming book. However, snail finds that its explorations are hindered by its size. When whale offers to help snail take a journey, it is a dream come true. Snail enjoys adventuring with the large whale. Uh-oh, whale gets stuck and it is up to the small snail to help its new friend. This story goes to show that no matter how small you are, you can still help others.
Beach-Theme Activities —
To go along with our beach stories, my son had fun doing a beach and an ocean-themed I Spy challenges and an ocean-themed Find The Differences worksheet.
SPOUTING WHALE: this turned out super cute and my kiddo really enjoyed making this.
Spouting Whale
Supplies needed are white and blue construction paper, pencil, scissors, blue tissue paper ( 1″ x 1″ squares), glue stick, white school glue, and googly eyes.
1. I drew a whale shape on the blue paper and cut it out.
2. My son used a glue stick to glue the whale onto the white paper. Next he rubbed the glue stick all over the bottom of the paper and glued on the blue tissue paper squares to make the ocean water.
3. Together, we wadded up the blue tissue paper squares to make the water spout.
4. Using the white school glue, I added glue dots in the pattern of the whale’s water spout and then my son added the wadded the tissue.
5. To complete his craft he added the googly eyes.
TOILET PAPER ROLL OCTOPUS:
My son loves Inky’s story so much that we decided to make an octopus craft.
Inky the Octopus
Supplies needed are an empty toilet paper roll, washable paint, paintbrush, kid safety scissors, googly eyes, and a marker.
-First we painted the toilet paper roll red. (use whatever color you want). Then we let it dry.
-After it dried, my son made cuts in the bottom of the toilet paper roll to make 8 legs. He gently pulled each leg up so that they legs splayed out and his octopus could stand.
-Then he attached the googly eyes and drew a mouth, and our cute little octopus was ready to explore our house!
Hope you enjoyed our beach-theme books and activities!
To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate Program. I get a small percentage of the sale if you buy a book through one of my links. Thanks for your support! Happy reading 🙂
Book:Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert. First off, 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 biologists 🙂
Lois Ehlert is a popular author and illustrator, so there is a good chance your local library will have this book. We checked it from our library and my son fell in love with it; we now own a copy. It is available for purchase on Amazon. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program, so if you purchase a book through my links, I get a small portion of the sale.
Craft: Mosaic Butterfly — Supplies needed are multiple colors of construction paper, glue stick, white school glue, scissors, a pipe cleaner, and a pencil. 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 and colors.
Pick a color for your butterfly. My son is obsessed with the color blue, so he chose blue paper. I folded the paper in half and drew a basic butterfly shape and then I cut it out.
2. My son glued the butterfly to the orange background. Next, he covered his butterfly in glue from his glue stick and added the mosiac paper peices.
3. Once he was happy with the mosaic look of his butterfly, he picked a pipe cleaner to make the butterfly’s antennae. He folded it in half and used white school glue to attach it to the orange paper.
STEM: Butterfly’s Life Cycle — have your child act out a butterfly’s life cycle in 4 steps. (1) EGG: child curls up in a ball on the ground; (2) CATERPILLAR: child hatches from the egg and wriggles on the floor like a caterpillar. Baby caterpillars are hungry so pretend to munch on leaves; (3) CHRYSALIS: stand and place palms together above head to be the hanging chrysalis. Close your eyes and pretend to be asleep; (4) BUTTERFLY: emerge as a butterfly and flit your beautiful new wings.
Air Writing: Ask your child to hold up a hand and trace Letter B’s shape with their finger in the air. I was skeptical of air writing at first, but my son really got into it and I found him air writing his letters all on his own.
Wednesday —B is for Bee
Writing Practice: write lowercase b. I found this worksheet on AtoZteacherstuff.com:
Book: Read The Honeybeeby 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.
This book got a lot of “buzz” in the library world, so your local library should have a copy. Check it out and enjoy it with your preschooler. It is available for purchase on Amazon. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program, so if you purchase a book through my links, I get a small portion of the sale.
Craft: Toilet Paper Roll Bee — supplies need are an empty toilet paper roll, marker, yellow paper, black paper, white tissue paper, pencil, scissors, glue stick, and stapler.
Measure the yellow paper so that it completely covers your toilet paper roll and then cut it out.
I stapled the yellow paper to the toilet paper roll, but you can glue it if you prefer.
I drew lines on black paper and my son cut out the stripes for his bee. He also cut out the 2 antennae from the black paper.
My son drew on a cute happy face for his bee 🙂
I cut out a rectangle from tissue paper. We scrunched in in the middle and glued it to the back of our bee. Then I trimmed the edges of the wings to make them rounded.
Song: Sing along with the Laurie Berkner Band to Bumblebee (Buzz Buzz). See it on YouTube. You can’t help but be up and buzzing around for this one 🙂 We love the Laurie Berkner Band and there is a very real possibility that if someone was to drop by unexpectedly, they’d find us dancing around the kitchen to their songs!
Thursday —
Salt Tray Writing: cover the bottom of a shallow tray or pie tin with table salt. Your child can take one finger to trace letter shapes in the salt. Try drawing both uppercase B and lowercase b. Can you make a butterfly shape in the salt tray too?
Worksheet: color all of the boxes with Letter B b.
Book : We read We’re Going on a Bear Huntby Michael Rosen. This books takes the reader on a great adventure through all sorts of obstacles in search of a bear. It is super fun to make all of the noises in the book and act out the story as the book progresses. Every time we read this, my son acts out the story on his own afterward, often using toys or pretending to have his own bear hunt outside as we walk through our neighborhood. You can substitute anything for “bear” and go on all sorts of adventures!
This book is a beloved classic and should be available at your library. My kiddo loved it so much that we bought it. It is available for purchase on Amazon.
Craft: Cardboard Bear: supplies needed are cardboard, brown yarn, googly eyes, pompom, scissors, pen/pencil, ribbon/cord for hanging, and white glue.
1. I drew a bear shape on part of a cardboard box and cut it out.
2. We taped the end of a piece of brown yarn to the back of the bear and my 3 year-old wound the yarn around the bear to make it fuzzy.
3. My kiddo picked out yellow googly eyes and a yellow pompom for a nose. The googly eyes were sticker so they were easy to attach. We used white glue to stick on the pompom nose.
4. After the glue was dry, I punched a hole in the top of the bear with a pen. My son picked out a blue cord and I tied it on so he could hang up his cute, fuzzy bear. He really wanted to give his bear to his grandpa, so it ended up being a cute present.
Song: Sing The Bear Went Over the Mountain. Super Simple Song’s version is available on YouTube.
