Printables

Bug Action Cube Gross Motor Fun

Using this simple bug action cube, kids can work on their gross motor skills and get that all important sensory input. It also of course gives them something to do. This activity can be done inside or outside and is easy to set up.

This is a great (and inexpensive) way for kids to burn off energy. If you do an insect learning unit in your classroom or homeschool, it’s also a cute addition to your unit study. You can also pair this cube with our Bug Action Cards.

If you use the cube as part of an insect unit study, one way to expand the learning is to have your child read or research or draw each of the bugs represented.

Bug Action Cube:

Supplies needed:

paper
printer
Bug Action Cube (download that here)
scissors
glue or tape

Directions:

Download the action cube.
Print it out.
Cut it.
Fold along the dotted lines into a cube and glue or tape to attach.
Have your child roll the cube and follow the instructions on the side that it lands on.

Sensory and learning opportunities:

exercise (endorphins, improved mood, health)
reading
gross motor practise
improving communication skills
engaging the visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory systems
crossing the midline
provide a brain break

Breaking up schoolwork or screen time by providing a quick five minute brain break like this can actually make a significant difference in focus and concentration. These activities involve whole body movement so they are a wonderful reset to mood as well. You’ll be amazed the difference in your child after just a short brain break like this.

Add your email address to the box below to access your free Bug Action Cube to print off.

You may be interested in these other gross motor activities for kids:

Dinosaur Action Cube

Bug Action Cards

5 Trampoline Games

May Emotions Printables for Kids

By Sharla Kostelyk

It is not uncommon for students to have mixed feelings about summer break coming up, but this year, that is particularly true. These free printable May emotions worksheets can help them to sort through those feelings. They can also help them to realize that it’s okay to feel all of them.

Most children this year didn’t get the closure of their school year ending the regular way. They may feel disappointed about things such as vacations or summer camps being cancelled. They may worry that summer won’t feel much like summer since they’ve already been home for weeks or months.

I know that some of my kids are struggling with big emotions about not being able to go on our usual summer family camping trip and uncertainty about the upcoming school year.

Simple activities that focus on emotions help kids to learn the vocabulary as well as to get used to talking about their own emotions.

The printable emotions copywork pages help kids practise their printing while at the same time, associating the emotion word with the appropriate facial expression.

The My Feelings Log for this month helps kids put a name to the feelings they are experiencing. This is the first step in learning to manage those feelings. It is so important.

May Emotions Printables for Kids:

May Copywork Emotions Sentences:

Supplies needed:

May Emotions Printable pages (download them here)
pen or pencil OR
plastic sleeve AND dry erase marker

If you want the sheets to be reusable, laminate the pages or slip them in a plastic page protector. Students can then use a dry erase marker to do the tracing and writing themselves. Or they can write directly on the pages with a pen, pencil, marker, or coloured pencils.

Copywork Sentences Instructions for the child:

Read the sentence.
Fill in the outline.
Trace the dotted words.
Write the sentence on the lines provided.
Discuss the various emotions.

These worksheets can be a jumping off point for a discussion about various emotions. You can further expand this activity by having your child describe a time when they have felt that emotion. They can also come up with a story describing why the bee might be experiencing that particular feeling.

May My Feelings Log:

Supplies needed:

printed Feelings Log (download those here)
scissors
glue stick
markers, pencil crayons (coloured pencils), or crayons
pen or pencil

My Feelings Log Instructions for the child:

Choose one icon each day to colour, cut, and paste to your log.
At the end of the month, you can look back and see the various emotions you felt.
Discuss your feelings with a parent or trusted adult.

The bee emotion visuals help kids better identify and work through their own feelings in a way that feels less vulnerable because it’s a cute bee face. Once you know HOW they are feeling that day, you can help them dig into they WHY behind those feelings.

After identifying the feeling, you can work together on strategies for better managing that emotion.

Simply enter your email in the box below to download the May Emotions Printable Worksheets. Print them off to use them with your child at home or with your students.

You may also be interested in reading:

Spider Emotions Matching Game

Outdoor Sensory Activities at Home

Where to Find Free Homeschool Printables

Praying Mantis Life Cycle Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

I find that my kids are always fascinated to learn about different life cycles. One of the ways I like to help them reinforce that learning is through sensory play. This Praying Mantis Life Cycle Sensory Bin allows kids to explore through their senses and imaginations. Kids can see how the cycle from soft egg case to hard egg to nymph (young) to adult. The more they learn about this fascinating insect, the more their interest will be piqued.

Praying Mantis Life Cycle Sensory Bin:

Supplies needed:

kinetic sand (you can use regular sand if you prefer)
decorative foam balls in green (I found these at the Dollar Store)
Praying Mantis Life Cycle Pack
magnifying glass
rocks
various leaves (real or plastic)
plastic bin
optional: scoops, spoons, or tongs

Directions:

Place kinetic sand and foam balls in a plastic tub.
Add rocks, leaves, a magnifying glass, and the figures from the Praying Mantis pack.
If you want, you can also add some scoops or tongs.
Invite your child to play.

This hands-on activity is a great way for kids to get up close and personal with this type of insect. The way it is set up mimics the habitat for some types of praying mantis.

This activity can be used for science at home or in a preschool or classroom. In addition to learning, students will also be getting visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory input as they play.

You can use this sensory bin as part of a unit study on insects or on the praying mantis.

Kids can research their questions such as:

What does a praying mantis eat?
How long does a praying mantis live?
Where do praying mantis live?

Ways to expand the learning:

Read books about insects or about the praying mantis in particular.
If you live in an area where there are praying mantis, you could catch one and place it in a bug habitat to observe before releasing it.
Write a report complete with pictures about the praying mantis.
Print off the Praying Mantis Life Cycle puzzle. Cut out the pieces and assemble.

Praying Mantis 4 Piece Life Cycle Figures The Life Cycle of a Praying Mantis Mini Praying Mantis Finger Puppet Educational Insights GeoSafari Jr. BugWatch How to Draw Insects Manuelo, the Playing Mantis Praying Mantises (Animal Cannibals)

Learn more about the praying mantis:

National Geographic

Interesting Facts about the Praying Mantises (great pictures here!)

Nature’s Perfect Predator (Praying Mantis video)

Download your free printable Praying Mantis Life Cycle puzzle to go along with this science activity.

You may also be interested in checking out these Life Cycle Sensory Bins:

Bee Life Cycle Sensory Bin

Chicken Life Cycle Sensory Bin

Sea Turtle Life Cycle Sensory Bin

2020 Pandemic Journal for Kids

By Sharla Kostelyk

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The 2020 Pandemic Journal for Kids is a powerful tool in helping your child focus on the positive, express their feelings in a healthy way, shift their thinking to gratitude and hopefulness, and create a memorable time capsule keepsake.

As much as we try to shelter our child from the stress of what’s happening in the world right now, we can’t shield them from it all. Their reality has been altered. School closures, not being able to hug grandparents or visit friends, not going out to the playground, movies, or even the store, and maybe hearing the hushed whispers of adults are just a few of the changes your child may be facing.

Even though we are doing our best as parents to make things as normal as possible for them, chances are, they still carry with them some concern. Worry in a child may look like:

teasing or arguing with siblings more than usual
being irritable
having trouble falling asleep or having nightmares
whining
outbursts or meltdowns
being rigid/inflexible
quick or easy to anger
easily frustrated
big emotions
asking a lot of questions
aggression

What can you do to help your child through this?

Offer hope.

Talk about the future without making promises you can’t keep. The statement “Someday, you’ll be able to tell your kids that you were 9 years old during the 2020 pandemic.” is very powerful. It conveys to them that this will not end the world. That they have a future to look forward to and it also helps them feel like what they are doing now will hold a place in history.

Help them focus on the positive.

There is so much surrounding them that is difficult right now that it can be easy for kids (and adults) to slip into negative thought patterns. “It’s never going to get better.” “I can’t do …”

By helping them reframe what they are going through in more positive language, kids can shift their thinking to gratitude and hopefulness.

Give them an outlet for expressing their feelings.

When kids are able to identify their feelings, they can better manage them. By tracking their emotions, they can also learn to communicate about them. This helps parents and teachers be able to help them through even the most difficult emotions and enables them to equip their child or student with appropriate calm down strategies and tools to better manage those.

What the 2020 Pandemic Journal for Kids includes:

19 printable pages
prompts to help kids document the journey for a time capsule keepsake
pages for them to help identify and process their emotions
new habit tracker
gratitude journal
encouraging colouring pages
ideas to help them focus on the positives
and more

How to Use the Journal:

Supplies needed:

2020 Pandemic Journal for Kids (download yours here)
pen or pencil
markers, crayons, or pencil crayons
scissors
glue stick or glue

Instructions:

Download the pandemic journal.
Print off the pages. You may want to make multiple copies of some of the pages such as the gratitude page and daily journal.
Have your child complete the pages of the journal.
If you want to, you can hole punch the papers to keep them in a binder or duo tang.

How to adapt the Pandemic Journal for Preschoolers:

Even preschoolers can easily use this tool. They can colour the title page and colouring pages, a parent can help them fill in the answers for the “my life during the pandemic page” by interviewing them and recording their answers, the Feelings Log pages can be completed by colouring, cutting, and pasting, and all the other sheets can be completed by drawing rather than writing.

How to adapt the Pandemic Journal for Older Kids and Teens:

This tool can actually serve as an inspiration for your teen or older child to expand on this idea. Perhaps they will want to create a video journal or scrapbook of news articles to accompany their Pandemic Journal. Maybe they will choose to write a report on what they are learning through this experience or about the ways the world came together.

They can use the pages in the journal to write their experiences, thoughts, and emotions as well as to document the experience through their eyes. Depending on the age, maturity, and personality of your teen, they also want to follow reputable news sources to create a timeline or even write a book about the pandemic as seen through their eyes.

To download your free copy of the 2020 Pandemic Journal for Kids, enter your email address in the box below.

You may also be interested in reading:

Your Complete Guide to School at Home

How to Talk to Your Child about the Pandemic

Theme Day Ideas for Family Fun at Home

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April Emotions Printables for Kids

By Sharla Kostelyk

It is so important, especially during hard times that kids learn to communicate about their feelings. With these April Emotions Printables, you can help your child process and talk about their feelings. This will also help them expand their vocabulary of different emotions which can also help them with empathy.

The printable copywork pages help children associate the emotion word with the corresponding facial expression using adorable little Easter bunnies. They also offer extra printing practise.

Right now, kids may be experiencing a wide range of emotions and they likely vary from day to day or even from hour to hour. Keeping track of these feelings can be a healthy way for them to work through them. When kids can name their emotions, they can better manage them. That’s why this month’s My Feelings Log is particularly important to use.

April Emotions Printables for Kids:

April Copywork Emotions Sentences:

Supplies needed:

April Emotions Printable pages (download them here)
pen or pencil OR
plastic sleeve AND dry erase marker

If you the sheets to be reusable, laminate the pages or slip them in a plastic page protector. Your child can then use a dry erase marker to do the tracing and writing. Or you can have them write directly on the pages with a pen, pencil, marker, or pencil crayons.

Copywork Sentences Instructions for the child:

Read the sentence.
Fill in the outline.
Trace the dotted words.
Write the sentence on the lines provided.
Discuss the various emotions.

These worksheets can be a starting point for a talk about different emotions. You can further expand on this by having the child describe a time when they have felt that emotion. They can also come up with a story describing why the Easter bunny might be experiencing that particular feeling.

April My Feelings Log:

Supplies needed:

printed Feelings Log (download here)
scissors
glue stick
markers, pencil crayons (coloured pencils), or crayons
pen or pencil

My Feelings Log Instructions for the child:

Choose one icon each day to colour, cut, and paste to your log.
At the end of the month, you can look back and see the various emotions you felt.
Discuss your feelings with a parent or trusted adult.

The bunny emotion visuals can help children better identify and work through their own feelings in a way that feels less vulnerable. Once you know HOW they are feeling that day, you can help them dig into WHY they might be feeling that way. Together, you can then work on strategies for managing that emotion.

Simply enter your email in the box below to download the April Emotions Printable Worksheets. You can print them off to use them with your child at home or with your students.

You may also be interested in reading:

Calming Your Child’s Fight, Flight, or Freeze Response

Calm Down Breathing for Kids

Calm Down Jar Cards

Life Cycle of a Chicken Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

Hands-on learning is the best kind of learning. Let kids explore farm animal science in this Life Cycle of a Chicken Sensory Bin. This lesson can be used with preschoolers and students in early elementary.

You can set up this sensory bin as part of a Farm unit. It’s a cute way to introduce the farm unit or set up a sensory station in your home or classroom. This is also a super cute activity to do in the springtime.

Life Cycle of a Chicken Sensory Bin:

Supplies needed:

plastic bin
popcorn seeds
dry noodles (like the kind you use in chicken noodle soup ironically!)*
life cycle of a chicken pack
optional: scoops or spoons

Note: *I found my dry noodles at the bulk foods store.

Directions:

Place the popcorn kernels and dry noodles in a plastic bin.
Add the figures from the life cycle of a chicken pack.
Invite your child to explore and play.

Ways to expand this activity:

Set out books about farm animals and/or chickens nearby to expand on this activity.
Talk about the sounds chickens make and have your child imitate the noise.
Discuss what kinds of things we use eggs for.
Make a recipe that uses eggs together.
Learn more about chickens and raising chickens using the resources listed below.
Visit a local farm.
Raise chicks.
Print off this puzzle. Cut out the pieces for kids to assemble.