Keep reading for some fun preschool activities based on the The Kissing Hand books by Audrey Penn. These activities are part of our Storytime Club, which includes a variety of book-inspired activities. To learn more about our Storytime Club, click here!
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THE KISSING HAND ACTIVITIES
One of the most popular books for parents and teachers to read before our little ones start a new school year is The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. This book is a classic for so many reasons…it has the most beautiful illustrations and tells a sweet story about being brave when starting school.
In this story, Chester Raccoon is about to start school, but he’s feeling very nervous about leaving his mom. Mrs. Raccoon teaches Chester all about the kissing hand, which is a way they’ll always be connected, even when they’re not physically together.
If your little one is heading off to school (or any place where you won’t be right next to them), this is the perfect book to read! It’s one of our favorite back-to-school books and I know your little one will love it, too!
Click on the picture below to learn more about this sweet book!
This is just one of many books all about Chester Raccoon. Click here to check them all out!
Check out these fun activities to bring this story to life for your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten littles. These are great to use at home with your own kiddos or in your early childhood classroom. If you’re interested, all the printables can be found here.
LITERACY: CVC WORDS
CVC stands for Consonant-Vowel-Consonant. CVC words are short, 3-letter words that can be sounded out phonetically. These words are great for our beginning readers to practice putting letter sounds together to form words.
In this activity, your little one will choose a card with the last 2 letters of the CVC word (called a “word family”) on it. Then they’ll choose a picture card and figure out which letter should go at the beginning of that word family to create a CVC word. This activity includes 3 different word families for all of the short vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 3 picture cards for each word family. So it adds up to A LOT of CVC words to practice!
We added these letters to create the CVC words. I love these letters because the consonants are blue and the vowels are red, which is helpful for our beginning readers.
MATH: SIZE ORDER
Measurement is one of the main areas of foundational math skills in preschool. According to early learning standards, our preschoolers should work on ordering objects by measurable attributes and using vocabulary to compare objects (such as heavier, lighter, bigger, etc.) So I created this activity to practice those skills.
Your little ones will choose one of the pictures and then put all of those picture cards in order from biggest to smallest (or smallest to biggest).
I’ve also included black/white copies of each picture, so you can have little ones match the color and black/white versions first before they put them in order. You could also have them make patterns with these cards, use vocabulary to compare them, or put them in a sensory bin. So many possibilities!
FINE MOTOR: DOT STICKER HEARTS
If you haven’t used dot stickers with your preschoolers yet, I highly recommend them! They’re so simple but very effective…plus kids LOVE using stickers!
For this activity, your little one can match the colored dot stickers (red, green, yellow, & blue) to the colored hearts, or they can count the correct number of stickers and place them on the numbered hearts.
Pulling the stickers off the sheets is great for fine motor development, but if it’s too challenging, you can always peel off the white backing to make things a little bit easier.
GROSS MOTOR: SHORT VOWEL HIGH-FIVES
This gross motor activity builds on the CVC Words from our Literacy Activity. It’s a great way for your little one to listen for the middle vowel sound in CVC words and differentiate between them (which is a very important phonemic awareness skill.)
Tape up the vowel hands on the wall on one side of the room. Have your little one choose a CVC picture card, name the picture, and determine which vowel sound they hear in the middle of the word. Then have them run to the correct hand and give it a high-five, drop the picture below that hand, and run back to grab another picture.
You can make this into a race by using a timer, or just keep it casual. Do whatever works best for your learner! You can also have them do different actions to get across the room, such as galloping, jumping, crawling, or skipping.
CRAFT: YARN HEART
Something else I love to do after reading books with my preschoolers is create a craft that helps us remember the main message of the book.
This Yarn Heart is a simple yarn craft that gives your little one a chance to work on their fine motor skills while also remembering how truly loved they are! (*Directions are included in the pack for this book.)
SNACK: PRETZEL HEARTS
If you’ve been around here for awhile, then you probably already know that I LOVE to make almond bark pretzels like these flowers and these pumpkins (oh and this snack mix, too!) Almond bark is just SO delicious!
I brought my favorite almond bark & pretzel combination back again for this book-inspired snack…Pretzel Hearts!
These pretzels are the perfect combination of sweet & salty, plus they’re easy enough that your little one can help you make them. (*Directions are included in the pack for this book.)
READING RESPONSE: JOURNAL WRITING PAGE
Teaching our little ones to reflect on what they’ve read is a skill we want to start from the beginning. This journal writing page allows them to draw and write a response to this story.
I’ve also included a bookmark that your little one can keep forever to remember this story and the main message: Love Keeps Us Together.
HANDS & HEARTS PACK
All of the activities in this post can be found in our Hands & Hearts printable pack, which can be found in my shop here!
Do you love this story, too?! Do you have any fun activities that would be great for it? Comment below or find me on Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and let me know!
love these ideas? pin for later!
To check out more book-inspired activities, head over to our Storytime Club!
Happy Learning!
