I am so excited to kick off the new school year and what better way than to pull out activities from my All About Me themed set!
My pre-k sets are packed with hands-on math and literacy centers as well as fun activity ideas! You can read about these sets and get a feel for them with this FREEBIE!
This year I plan to add the activities from these sets to our themed learning shelf! This will be an awesome way for my 3-year-old to engage with these activities and give her a bit of choice on what she wants to play and learn. I will pick a few centers each week to add to our shelf so she can pick and play!
Today I am excited to give you a look at what’s inside my pre-k All About Me themed set! This one is perfect for back to school time!
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I LOVE reading All About Me books at the beginning of the school year. Here are just a few of our favorites.
What I Like About Me by Nolan Zobel
All the Colors We Are by Katie Kissinger
Marvelous Me by Lisa Bullard
I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont
Whoever You Are by Mem Fox
MATH CENTERS
This fun color sorting activity is perfect to add a sensory bin or center. Cut out the included color picture cards and invite your littles to sort by color onto each matching house mat.
FRIENDS AT SCHOOL NUMBER MATCH
Print and practice number recognition with this friends at school number match mat. This activity is great for working on numbers 1-10 and includes numerals and domino number representations. These number cards are also perfect for working on counting skills – have your little order them 1-5 or 1-10 then count objects to represent each number.
I don’t know about your kids, but mine always love talking about their birthdays! This birthday-themed counting center is hands-on and a great way to practice 1:1 counting. Pair the cupcake mat and candle cards with some real candles for adding on the cake. The first question I like to ask littles when doing this center is, “How old are you? How many candles would be on your cupcake?”
This is a color pattern practice center! Print out the included pattern hand strips and pair with colorful pom-poms for some simple pattern practice. This is resource also includes a FUN hands-on idea where you trace and cut out your littles handprints then pattern with them.
Will you be chatting about your child’s address this year? In this center, children are asked to roll a die, identify the number then count ahead two more to tell what comes next. You can pair it with magnetic numbers for them to pull and place to show what comes next or have them write the numbers in with a dry erase marker.
I am so excited about this hands-on math center! This activity includes six all about me ten frame cards where your child can answer the questions by filling the ten frames! Such a fun way to get to know your littles and practice counting at the same time.
Who’s ready for some measurement fun? In this activity, your child will be asked to use cubes to measure the length of various body parts. This is such a fun way to compare lengths and work on measuring from end-to-end.
LITERACY CENTERS
Grab a piece of string and a few clothespins (great for fine motor work) for this alphabet order and recognition center. In this center, children are asked to look at, identify, and order the letters in the alphabet. They will clip them in order and then if you’d like they can trace the letters on the recording sheet.
Learning to count syllables is an important skill and one that can easily be learned with repeated practice. In this center ask your little to pick a card, say aloud the school supply name, then clap and count to identify how many syllables the word has. They can then clip the matching number to show how many.
When I first start teaching about letters I like to focus on children’s names. A child’s name is important to them and doing lots of name activities in the first weeks of school will help them recognize and learn the letters in their name. This activity is easy to prep and great for recognizing and creating with the first letter in each child’s name.
I love how this activity works on body vocabulary, listening, and labeling skills. In this center, your child will listen to a body part name then find it on the mat and cover it.
Grab your favorite salt tray and invite your littles to practice making letters and numbers with their finger or a paintbrush.
This is an activity for practicing uppercase and lowercase letter matching. You can print just a few letters to work on at a time or include them all. I suggest laying one set (maybe lowercase) letters facing up on a flat surface and then having your child pick an uppercase card and find its match. Not ready for an upper and lowercase match? How about printing two sets and just working on simple letter matching.
You can’t have an all about me theme with a mini book! Help your littles to fill out the pages on this book then read it together and with friends.
HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES & CRAFTS
MOSAIC PAPER NAMES
One of my all-time favorite name crafts for back to school is this SIMPLE mosaic name craft. For this craft sketch, your littles name on a sheet of paper then have them outline it with glue. Ask them to snip squares of colored paper and stick them on top of the glue.
Roll out the easel paper and grab a marker for this awesome activity! Trace the outline of your child’s body and have them decorate or paint it to look just like them!
For this theme, I’ll be tieing in science with a My Five Senses hands-on sort. This sorting activity can easily be set up by placing sheets of colored paper labeled with different senses out on the floor then having your littles explore and sort objects by which sense they would use the most when identifying it.
This is a great activity for beginning a discussion around race and how people have many different skin colors. You can read the story All The Colors We Are by Katie Kissenger then invite your child to use people color crayons to draw and illustrate people on their sheet. Have a discussion about how skin color is one of the many ways people are unique and different which is something that makes us special.
I love a good hands-on activity where kids can move about, are encouraged to be creative, and just have an opportunity to chat. This self-portrait loose parts activity is just that! In this activity, you will set out various loose parts for your child to create and design with when they are done you can have them share and talk about their self-portrait.
Here is a super fun idea for practicing shapes and also talking about how many people are in your family! Grab some construction paper and together help each child to make a house. Then add small cut out shapes and have them create people (one for each in their family) out of each shape they choose. When they are done you can have them practice naming the shapes by saying something like, “this is my triangle mom.”
There you have it! A TON of back to school centers and activities for littles at home or in the classroom, perfect for an All About Me theme.
Which center is your favorite?
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