Alright boys and girls! Time to get your creativity caps on and the art supplies handy, because today, we’re learning about the letter O! So many wonderful words start with the letter O, like onion, over, oven, and orange. Even common phrases we read in story books start with O, like “once upon a time.” To help us learn this letter, we’re going to do an arts & crafts project with our favorite animal that starts with O: an octopus in the ocean.

We’re going to learn how to create a toilet paper roll octopus! To get started, here’s the supplies that you’ll need:

• A toilet paper roll 
• Acrylic paint or markers
• Googly eyes
• A glue stick
• A scissors
• A black sharpie

First, start by cutting 1.5 inch long slits at the bottom of the toilet paper roll with your scissors. Then push the roll down on a flat surface, so that the slits spread out like octopus legs. Next, grab your acrylic paint and paint the outside of your octopus a bold color of your choosing. Paint the interior of the roll at the top and underneath the legs a different color for contrast. Then, use a glue stick to stick on some googly eyes or feel free to draw the eyes on with a black sharpie. 

Use a black sharpie to add a happy smile onto that octopus face, because he or she is happy to be alive and in your home! Finally, feel free to add on stickers, gems, or other decorations to your heart’s content! Don’t forget to create 3-4 of these guys so your octopus can have some friends.

These octopuses are taking over the world of Pinterest right now, as parents are starting to get exponentially more creative with keeping their kids stimulated at home. See the photo of Holly Homer’s toilet paper roll octopus to catch a glimpse of the potential here!

Lastly, we’ve created a coloring book illustration of an octopus in his natural habitat. Octopuses are fascinating creatures with three hearts, high intelligence, and the capability to camouflage themselves by changing color. Feel free to print out copies and invite your kids to color this scene! 

Know any other fun preschool activities that start with the letter O? Feel free to share them with us in the comments below!

The letter “P” starts plenty of words that provide perfect activities for your preschool child! Especially these days, when children are home from school, parents are looking for low maintenance, easy to set up activities. This one is great for staying inside on a rainy day, keeping your kids entertained for a bit, and enjoying a fun final product that they can keep!

Additional Letters

• Letter O Activities for Preschool
• Letter Q Activities for Preschool

Today we will be learning how to make your own puzzle!

All you need for this project is to download and print the picture below! You’ll need a pair of scissors, some markers, crayons, or colored pencils, and one imaginative child. 

Start by having them color a picture on the puzzle image below, anything that they like! Once they’ve completed their masterpiece, either you or your child can carefully cut out the puzzle pieces, mix them up, and try to put the picture together again like a puzzle. 

If you have two kids, all the better! Have each of them make a puzzle, cut it out, and then swap them so the activity lasts even longer. To make it a little bit harder (or buy yourself a few extra minutes of quiet, entertained kids) you could even mix the multiple puzzles together and have your kids try to put their puzzles back together from the one pile.

Some puzzle ideas:

• Draw your favorite animal.
• Draw your favorite food.
• Draw your family.
• Draw your house.
• Draw their favorite movie character.
• Draw their favorite thing to do.

Parents are always looking for new activities for their kids to do, especially when they’re stuck inside! These projects give you double the value since the activity is to create an activity! Your preschooler will be able to create their own puzzle and then put it together, again and again, giving them further entertainment while you take care of whatever you need to do.

April is Earth Month which gives us all the more reason to get outside and enjoy a little extra fresh air. Especially while the pandemic rages on, the great outdoors can be a game-changing, COVID-safe setting for a family adventure. 

If you’re in need of a little inspiration of activities that will keep your kids occupied (and won’t totally break the bank), look no further. Here are our five favorite outdoor activities that are perfect for educating the whole family about the environment while taking in a little extra Vitamin D. 

Go on a Nature Walk 

Find the nearest trail or river (or even makeshift with a neighborhood sidewalk) and grab all the essentials: snacks, maps, backpacks, and water. Round up your squad and go on an exciting new adventure that you didn’t know you had in your own backyard! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for any plants or pebbles that might be worth stopping for. 

Start a Composting Garden

Not only does composting have several benefits for the environment, it also can be a fun boredom buster for all ages. You can buy everything you need at most major home or garden shops, or double down on the adventure by making your own garden from scratch. This one is a must, especially if you live in one of the best states for composting. 

Explore Local Wildlife 

Your local zoo might be closed during COVID, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spot some animals this Summer. While birds and insects may be a little less exciting than a tiger or lion, read up on local creatures native to your area and make a game out of spotting and identifying the species. This will have your little ones feeling like professional zoologists in no time!  

Play an Old-School Classic Game 

Tag and capture the flag are classics for a reason. While the games we grew up playing may have been replaced by Super Mario Bros and Animal Crossing in this decade, it’s always a good time for some healthy, old-fashioned competition. Bonus points if you end the afternoon with sharing your school-aged stories from when you played these games back in the day. 

Set Up a Picnic 

It’s an unstated rule that lunch and dinner time are significantly more fun when they’re outside. Grab a blanket, basket, and of course, some delicious goodies and change up your mealtime scenery. You can head to a local park or stay on your own property, whatever you do, don’t forget the SPF and bug spray! 

We hope this list inspires you to get outside and enjoy nature with the family. Before you know it, you’ll be adding these small activities into your routine!

The letter “Y” is close to the end of the alphabet, which means we’ve worked together to teach almost 26 letters. Great job, parents! We are nearing the end of the alphabet, and also nearing the end of our shelter-in-place orders. It will be fun to take your kindergartener or preschooler out into the world with their new ability to identify and write all these letters. 

To learn many of the letters of the alphabet, crafts are a fun and creative way to teach your child. We’ve made all kinds of fun projects over the last few weeks, like a rainstick for the letter “R”, and Tic-Tac-Taco for the letter “T”. But today, we’ll be doing something a little bit different than the other crafts and activities. 

The letter “Y” is for YOU and this activity is all about YOU! There are no printouts needed here. Just the items listed below and YOUrself:

• A plain piece of paper
• Crayons, markers, or colored pencils
• A photograph or a mirror 

To learn the letter “Y” and discover the beauty of their individuality, have your children draw themselves! It might be helpful to offer them a mirror or a photograph of themselves to use as reference. 

Once your self portraits are complete, share the finished product with us in the comments below! It will be so fun to see all of the diversity in how we see ourselves! 

Other words that start with “Y”

• Yoga
• Yarn
• Yawn
• Yum
• Yellow

In our world, there are so many words that start with the letter “w”, like water, wet, waffle, witch, watermelon, wolf, and of course the animal we are going to be learning about today, wolf.

Want to get started learning about wolves? Wonderful!

Wolves can seem like big scary animals, but on paper and in pictures they look like cute fluffy dogs. Here are five interesting facts about our furry wolf friends:

• Wolves are the largest members of the dog family.
• Wolves are legendary because of their howl, which they use to communicate.
• The largest wolves are said to weigh upwards of 175 pounds, although most weigh in the neighborhood of 100 to 125 pounds. 
• Wolves travel and hunt in packs of up to seven animals.
• Wolves are extremely social animals that develop very close social bonds with family members and their pack.

While you take the time to learn about wolves with your preschooler, have them spot the differences in the pictures below:

Do you have any fun facts about wolves? Share them in the comments below. We can’t wait to continue learning!

Letter V is an easy one to draw, but it can be awfully tough mastering how to say it. In fact, most kids won’t learn to properly pronounce this sound until they are 4-5 years old! That being said, you and your little one can still have plenty of fun with letter V.

You can use the included printable to play two simple games that focus on that tricky letter V sound. Download and print the sheet, then carefully cut apart the vegetable cards. Be sure to keep them in a resealable plastic bag in between play sessions so they won’t get lost.

Game #1: Matching

• Separate the vegetable cards into two equal sets – one for you, one for your preschooler.
• Lay your preschooler’s vegetables in a row on the table or floor in front of them.
• One by one, show a card to your preschooler and ask, “Where is this vegetable?”
• If they can point to the match, you declare “Victory! V is for Vegetable!”

Game #2: Making Soup

• Get a small cooking pot and wooden spoon from the kitchen.
• Explain that you are going to make Letter V soup together. Only things that start with v can be added to the soup!
• Move through the room together, proposing different items for your soup. First, ask your preschooler about some items that definitely don’t qualify. For example, “Pepper! I like pepper. Does pepper start with v?” (Little people love to call out silly grownups when they get something wrong, so expect some very energetic no’s!)
• Every few letters, circle back to your pile of vegetable cards. “How about vegetable? Does vegetable start with V?” Add one or two of your cards to the pot.
• Once you’ve gone through a few rounds of this, stir up your soup and take some pretend bites together.
• If you have other V-items around, turn them into soup too! A small bottle of vanilla, a toy van, paper valentines, and wild-growing violets from the yard are all great choices.

After playing hard, you may both need a snack. You can learn the shape of letter V by shaping it out of real vegetables. Carrot sticks, celery, and strips of cucumber are all nice, straight shapes that are suitable for making V’s.

Don’t be vexed – verily, a valiant effort will vanquish your troubles with vicious, villainous Letter V!

The letter “U” is one of the most unique letters in the alphabet. While not many words start with the letter “U” in the English language as others do, there are tons of fun words that begin with this letter – from umbrella to unicorn to ukulele. 

Perhaps one of the most exciting words that start with the letter “U” is (u)nderwater. From oceans to lakes to pools, being underwater is such a fun activity, especially when it’s hot and sunny out. Not only is being underwater a nice and refreshing place to be to escape from the heat, but swimming fantastic physical activity to keep you healthy and strong. 

Underwater Coloring Page

While you might not live close to an ocean or pool or not know how to swim yet, this underwater activity is something you can do in your own home. Not to mention, you can stay dry while doing so! 

This coloring book page features the beautiful underwater scenery of the ocean. Many of the things illustrated on this page you might have never seen before! For instance, coral reefs, octopus, jellyfish, and starfish are hard to see underwater unless you dive really deep. This coloring book page gives you an awesome window into a whole other world in the deep blue sea. 

Here is what you’ll need for this activity: 

• Printer
• Crayons, Colored Pencils, or Markers 

Check it out below! 

Once you’re done with your coloring page, hang it up on a window and see how the sunlight reflects through the ocean water, just like how it does with real ocean water. If you have any sea creature stickers at home, add them to the page for a unique touch!

Do you have a favorite sea creature? A fish? Or maybe a shark? Let us know in the comments below and snap a picture of how your underwater coloring book page turned out!

Terrific, tremendous, and tasty are all words that start with the letter “T”, and they also describe today’s special “T”-themed activity: Tic-Tac-Taco! 

This fun and re-usable activity includes a printable game board and pieces that kids can color however they want before cutting them out to use as moveable game pieces. All you need to get started is a printer and some crayons, markers, or colored pencils.

The first step to this activity is to print out the following game board:

While the board comes pre-colored, you can always choose to print it in black and white to let your kids have complete control over how it looks after they have decorated it.

Once you have the game board ready, it’s time to print out your tic-tac-taco pieces. What sets this game apart from regular tic-tac-toe is that instead of playing with Xs and Os, this version of the game uses two different foods that start with the letter T: tacos and tortilla chips. Even better, these game pieces can be cleared off the board and re-used time and again so you aren’t using an entirely new sheet of paper every time you play!  

To get your game pieces, print out the following sheet and have your kids color in the tacos and tortilla chips however they want. Once they have been brought to vibrant life, it’s time to play! 

If you’re making your way through the alphabet with your preschooler, it’s easy to get stuck on what seems to be the simplest letters! In trying to find inspiration for the later letters in the alphabet, I realized that so many activities for learning the letter “s” are about snakes. Yikes! I know I hate snakes, and maybe you and your kid do too. What if you want something a little more fun and seasonal? 

For this activity, we’re going to be focused on one of my favorite flowers, and one of my favorite “s” words: sunflowers! This activity is perfect for the spring and summer, which are also great seasons to get your preschooler familiar with the letter “s”. Today, we’re making paper plate sunflowers! This craft is simple, inexpensive, and uses materials you’re likely to already have around your house! 

Here’s what you need: 

• 1 paper plate
• 1 craft stick
• 1 piece of green foam paper
• Yellow paint
• Green paint
• Handful of sunflower seeds
• Scissors
• Glue

First, cut small triangles out of the rim of your paper plate. Show your child how to cut on an angle so the gaps look like flower petals. Cut all the way around the plate. Then, paint the craft stick green and the paper plate yellow. Let the paint dry and then begin to glue the sunflower seeds to the middle of the plate. 

At this point you can also cut two small leaves from the green foam paper and glue them to the craft stick. Now you’re ready to glue the craft stick to the back of the paper plate to act as your stem, and your paper plate sunflower is complete! 

Looking for more ways to teach your child the letter “s”? Check out the printable coloring page of a beautiful sunflower field below! 

ROOOOOOOAAARRR!

That’s the sound of a lion, and it’s also the sound of today’s featured letter – R!

Many parents and little ones are cooped up inside right now and craving connection with the outdoors, which is why our letter “R” activities are all about nature and the outside world.

Along with letters, animal names and sounds are among preschoolers’ favorite things to learn and explore. How many “R” animals can you think of together? Here are some animal names that begin with R:

• rabbit
• rooster
• rhinoceros
• raccoon
• rat
• rattlesnake
• reindeer
• ram

Preschoolers love imaginative play, so a great way to learn this letter is pretending to be “R” animals together! Emphasize the letter “R” as you turn yourselves into rabbits, rattlesnakes, or roosters. For more immersive fun, print and cut out these adorable animal masks to complete your transformation.

Another great “R” word is RAIN! You can enjoy the soothing sound of rainfall even indoors by making a rainstick. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Pencil
• Scissors
• Paper towel roll
• Aluminum foil
• Brown paper grocery bag
• Rubber bands
• Dry beans or rice
• Colorful yarn or ribbon (optional)

Your paper towel roll will serve as the body of the rainstick, while the grocery bag will be used to cap the ends. The aluminum foil will be coiled up inside the tube, helping to slow the beans and rice as they fall and creating that familiar rain sound.

Begin by gathering all of your supplies.

Trace the end of the paper towel roll onto the grocery bag.

Then, draw a larger circle around the traced one, leaving about two inches of space between the circles. Do this two times. Cut out your circles and set them aside.

Use the aluminum foil to create a spiral. We recommend making one skinny spiral and one fat one, then nesting one inside the other. This will do the best job of filling up the tube and making your “rain” fall nice and slowly.

Measure out ¼ to ½ cup of rice or beans to go inside the tube.

Now it’s time to put it all together! First, cap one end of the tube by folding a grocery bag circle over the end and securing it with a rubber band. 

Next, insert your foil spiral. After that, you’ll want to carefully pour in the beans and rice. Finally, cap the second end of the tube just as you did the first.

And that’s it! If you want to decorate your rainstick, you can add some pretty ribbon or yarn to cover the rubber bands. If your preschooler wants to color on the tube or decorate it with stickers, it’s best to do this before the rainstick is assembled.