This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Ticonderoga. All opinions are 100% mine. Affiliate links included in this post.

Teaching young children to learn to write is one of my most favorite things to do. Giving a child the right writing tools to be successful is an important step. A large size round No. 2 pencil is easy for small hands to hold making them ideal for children in the early stages of their writing development.

Have you bought your Ticonderoga pencils yet for your beginner writer this school year?

Using a Beginner Pencil for Handwriting

In my Kindergarten classroom, I prefer to teach how to properly write using large diameter pencils. This back to school season we’re kicking off our writing with a very special pencil from Ticonderoga Pencils, just for beginning writers ages 7 or younger.

The larger pencil is so much easier for little hands to hold as they develop their fine motor skills and story writing skills. Plus it helps with learning to form the proper way to hold a pencil which can make a huge impact on handwriting in the future.

BUY NOW ON AMAZON

With oversized beginner pencils the thicker core of graphite helps to prevent the frustrations from the graphite breaking, and they stay sharper longer as your child practices writing with a pencil. It gives them time to be creative and write down their thoughts.

If they make a mistake the erasers remove marks easily without smudging. You’d be amazed how distractive little tasks like erasing can be to beginning writers.

Handwriting Skills for Preschoolers and Kindergartners

Handwriting skills start off at an early age as fine motor skills that you learn through hands-on play. If you have a preschooler at home I’d recommend starting off this school year by heading to your favorite store for school supplies and look for the My First Ticonderoga Pencil. These larger pencils come pre-sharpened plus they come with a bonus sharpener too.

If you’ve never seen them before, you need to know that they are much thicker than regular pencils which helps with easily being able to grip. The pencil’s graphite is big enough to withstand even the hardest writers for smooth writing. These pencils are great for beginning writers who would like a substantial size that is easier to hold on to as they work on proper pencil grip.

How to Develop Proper Pencil Grip

You might be wondering how do I teach my child how to hold a pencil?

You start by developing the skills that are required, which requires a lot of hands on play and exploration. Playground time can make a huge impact in your child’s handwriting as they grow up, so go PLAY! Below I’ve listed some of the things your child will develop for their handwriting skills and proper pencil grip.

• Very young children even start by tummy time to build their postural strength through so they can sit up at a desk eventually.
• Develop shoulder and upper arm strength and stability so they can hold their arm steady whilst they write by playing push and pull games and hanging from the monkey bars.
• When writing you’ll need to stabilize their wrists so activities like painting on an easel or using a rolling pin. Even holding onto swings is important in developing these skills.
• One key element to proper pencil grip is the arch of the palm. Invite your child to play with the trigger of spray bottles, tongs, or hole punches to develop hand grip strength.
• To help develop a child’s pincer grip you can encourage them by threading small beads, using pegs, or pinching playdough.

Continue doing these activities while your child is developing their proper pencil grip.

To set your child up for success it’s important to remember that very young children will not be strong enough to hold small pencils. They are working on the ability to control and stabilize their shoulders/wrists. Because of this kids tend to use chunkier writing tools, like My First Ticonderoga Pencils, and write using whole arm movements. As their strength and control develops, the movement of writing will move from the whole arm, to the wrist, and finally to the fingertips.

The goal is around ages 4-6 years old your child will develop a static tripod grip on their pencil.

This is the ideal grip to help move the pencil efficiently, accurately, and at a good speed. Once your child masters these skills they are ready to start practicing and perfecting their letter formations!

Here are some additional tips to improve handwriting for your child.

Pencil Themed Handwriting Activity for Kids

For a playful idea for a handwriting activity you can create fun letter cards together that are inspired by pencils. The pencil clothespins help to develop hand drip strength and focus on letter recognition too. We used some chubby clothespins from a local craft store and some leftover paint to create these pencil clothespins.

Grab some paper and your beginner pencil for writing fun with your child. Or you can use these pencil themed clips to display your child’s handwriting work for the school year!

Head to the store this back to school season and look for the Ticonderoga large diameter pencils (also called primary or beginner size pencils) for young children (7 and under), or differently-abled individuals and start working on your writing skills.

They’ve spent 100 years of helping families tell their story. Ticonderoga focuses on being #1 in quality just for you!

Looking for more ideas for handwriting and fine motor skills with kids? Try these…

Here is one child’s progression on kindergarten writing throughout the year, a glimpse into the kindergarten writing standards, and resources for teaching writing to kindergarten.

What Kindergarten Writing Looks Like

My daughter is 5 years old. As a former kindergarten teacher, writing at this stage is my absolute favorite. I find great joy in “seeing” progress through writing and I have tried to take pictures of her writing samples to create an online portfolio of her work, meaning, a post here on the blog that I can look back at and see how far her writing has come.

Although my daughter struggles with some vision and fine motor issues, her desire to write and creative imagination helps her to be a successful writer.  She is an average kindergartner with an amazing passion and zest for life.

Since she was 3, she has spent almost every day of her life writing something; a letter to Grandma, a grocery list, recipes for food, and more recently, stories.

I am Snow White.  I am raccoon.  I am deer.

Resources for Teaching Kindergarten Writing:

Disclosure: Amazon affiliate links are used in the article.

• Teaching Writing in Kindergarten: A Structured Approach to Daily Writing That Helps Every Child Become a Confident, Capable Writer
• Getting to the Core of Writing
• Complete Year in Reading and Writing: Kindergarten

Writing Standards of a Kindergarten Student

Here is a sampling of her writing for parents who may be interested in knowing what a kindergartner can and should write like. 

Our current standards require kindergartners to

• Draft writing by drawing, telling, or writing about a familiar experience, topic or text; that is appropriate to the topic, audience, and purpose.
• Edit for correct use of end punctuation, including periods, question marks, and exclamation points.
• Edit for correct use of knowledge of letter/sound relationships to spell simple words.
• Produce, illustrate and share a finished piece of writing.

Their end of the year portfolio states that they must write a paragraph about a given subject with a topic sentence and three supporting sentences.  Gone are the early stages of writing continuum that I was taught to use with early writers. 

Kindergartners now have higher expectations in writing.  Although I feel that not all children may be developmentally ready for these tasks, I would like to believe that with strong parent support, our children can meet (or come close to meeting) these expectations. 

Can my daughter meet and exceed all these new standards and assessments – I hope so, but realistically, I know that she is not currently quite at the stage of writing that these standards require. 

Although her thoughts and ideas are expressed with creativity, she writes with energy and uniqueness, and she uses “lively” word choices, her conventions and spelling need some more attention!

Writing Samples of a Kindergarten Student

We use mostly primary writing paper that has a space for drawing pictures too.  Look for the following terms when purchasing writing paper for kindergarten students: (Click the words to view the product in Amazon)

• 

  Draw & Write 
• Storytelling Paper 
• Primary Journal 

Hot chocolate is hot. Salad is green. But my favorite thing is …

Ravioli, ravioli and soup, soup, vanilla, water, milk, juice

Christmas was great.  I liked what Nicholas gave me.  It was a dog.

The book is Hannah and the Seven Dresses.  She does not know what dress to wear.  The fourth dress has ruffles.  She put black pants on her birthday.<

I do not like to get a shot. It hurts a lot. Oweee.

This is the first time that we start to see speech bubbles. In my kindergarten classroom, I would encourage reluctant readers to use speech bubbles.  Many kids find them interesting and motivation to write in. 

She is using longer sentences in her writing now – 8 words in this one – with no adult prompting. She is capitalizing and spacing on her own! You can’t see it, but after the Owee is an exclamation point!

This bee is a special bee. It pollinates roses.  It has wings like a butterfly.

We try to change up our writing so it does not get boring.  Writing can and should be fun and interesting. After a visit to an art festival where we talked with a local artist, I did a directed draw activity with her to make the bee and she wrote her sentences afterwards. 

I really need to explore mediums other than markers, crayons, and colored pencils when creating a picture or illustration for our writing. Research has shown using art before writing, especially with water colors help improve creative writing, as the colors flow and change, creating new thoughts and writing directions. It is something for me to work on doing more!

Once upon a time, there was an old woman. Her name was Emilesa. She was poor. (My Thing)

We have found that as the year of kindergarten progresses, the teacher asked for more specific writing tasks such as book summaries or using 3 specific words of the week. The more specifications included, the less my little one wants to write and the more she craves creative writing. 

This was a little story that she wrote a few days ago after writing a book summary for her school homework, a letter to her Grandma, and 2 other stories. She sat for hours (her choice) just writing. Those are the days when I am so very thankful that we do not have a television!

So what are your thoughts on Kindergarten writing?

Are you a teacher?

• Are the expectations in your school and ours just about right?
• Do you think we are on the right track?
• How can parents better support their children’s writing development?

Are you a parent?

• Are you kids enjoying writing?
• Do you think they are getting enough “time” writing?
• How can you help to facilitate an improvement the quality and quantity in their writing?

Additional Writing Resources for Kids

• Gratitude Writing Prompts for Kids
• Story Writing with Stickers
• Ways to Keep Writing Fun
• Reading and Writing Connection with Ways to Support Your Child’s Writing
• What Does 2nd Grade Writing Look Like
• Writing and the 6+1 traits of Writing with Links to Printable Rubrics
• Why You Should Be Using Beginner Pencils for Writing Practice with Kids
• Tips for Writing with Kids at Home

Why You Should Be Using Beginner Pencils for Writing Practice with Kids

Finding fun Easter crafts for preschoolers in one of the things I love to do. My daughter is beginning to form her letters of the alphabet pretty well but we can always use more practice as she prepares for Kindergarten. Especially when it comes to name writing practice keeping her lower case and upper case letters in all the right spots!

This month for Virtual Book Club for Kids is featuring The Tale of Peter Rabbit as one of our books to read.

This post contains affiliate links to amazon.

Name Tracing Rabbit Game

One of the most popular names in literature are the four names of the rabbits Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter. Featured in Beatrix Potter Books are these adorable rabbits and Mr. McGregor’s garden in the Tale of Peter Rabbit. Grab this classic book this spring and let’s have some fun with names!

The Tale of Peter Rabbitby Beatrix Potter

Materials Needed:

• Chalk
• Chalkboard
• Rabbit Erasers
• Stuffed Rabbit
• Easter Container
• Book:The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Having a special friend that helps you with writing can sometimes help little ones to be encouraged to keep at it a little bit longer. This activity was created to help foster that connection. Search around the house to find a special bunny to join the fun or grab a new stuffed Peter Rabbit online.

You canlisten to a readingof The Tale of Peter Rabbit on youtube too.

Directions for Rabbit Name Game:

1. Encourage your child to place bunny erasers into container and set up your special rabbit friend to join the writing fun.

2. Using chalk have your child write the letters of their name. Be sure that their first letter starts with an uppercase letter and the rest of their name uses lowercase letters.

3. After they write their name with the chalk on theChalkboard,encourage your child to take theRabbit Erasersandtrace the letters in their name by placing the rabbits along the lines.

TIP: Younger children might need a little extra help by writing the name first and then the child copies their name onto the chalkboard. We use this mini chalkboard/dry erase board for projects like this. Another way to help them along is to write a list of family names that they can copy the letters and play this Easter Themed game with rabbits.

TIP: Be sure to encourage your child to form letters the proper way as they are name tracing. One way to do that is to also encourage them to trace the alphabet letters with the rabbit erasers in the same order they would write them starting from Top to Bottom, left to right etc.

Additional Bunny Activities for Kids from The Educators’ Spin On It

• Bunny Math Activity
• Bunny Bread Recipe
• Bunny Snack Idea for Kids
• Bunny HeadBand Tutorial
• Carrot Math Activities
• Gardening Activities for Kids

Classic Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit Stuffed Animal Plush, 6.5-Inch

The Tale of Peter Rabbit Story Board Book

Be sure to get a special book & stuffed friend to add to your child’s easter basket this year.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit Activities from The Virtual Book Club for Kids

The Virtual Book Club for Kids are featuring in March activities to go along with The Tale of Peter Rabbit. They include not only book ideas but also Easter craft ideas for kids too!

• The Tale of Peter Rabbit ABC Carrot Patch by Growing Book by Book
• Carrot Number Matching Activity by 3 Dinosaurs
• Peter Rabbit Sensory Bin by Still Playing School
• Rabbit Food Lettuce Wraps for Kids to Make by Rainy Day Mum
• Plant Science Experiment Inspired by Peter Rabbit by Inspiration Laboratories
• Bunny Color Sorting by Toddler Approved
• Carrot Painting PreWriting Practice by Preschool Powels Packets
• Feed the Rabbit by Mom Inspired Life
• Peter Rabbit Pop Up Plate Garden by I Can Teach My Child
• Bunny Treat Bags by Mama Miss
• Bunny Cracker Snack by The Pleasantest Thing

Will you join us by sharing your ideas on the Virtual Book Club for Kids Facebook page?

You may also enjoy these activities with your child…

Geared for Early Childhood, Ages 3-6

Writing About Fruits and Vegetables

Learning Objective

The child will formulate a vegetable or fruit based on the provided beginning letter and write the word based on the sounds heard; phonics.

NOTE: Every child is different.  For this writing lesson, you may also work on

• plural endings -s and -es.
• correct spelling using a dictionary
• writing simple sentences with sight words

Materials Needed

• Fruits and Vegetable Printables
• Pencil
• Crayons
• Books about Fruits and Vegetables (optional)

Directions
1. Print the Fruits and Vegetable Printables
2. Set a printable and a pencil at each child’s snack area.
3. If you are feeling fancy, serve a variety of fruits and vegetables.  Or, just talk about them.
4. Point to the letters in each box.  Say something such as:

“This is the letter C.  The letter C makes the /c/ sound like in the word cookies.  Cookies are food, but we need to think of a vegetable that begins with the sound /c/.”

5. If your child says cucumber or carrots, have them sound it out and write it down.  If they are having trouble, say the word S – l – o- w – l – y with them.  Give them time to think before suggesting the letter or sound.  It’s OK if they don’t spell it like the dictionary.

This is often refered to as inventive spelling.  Meaning, the child invents how a word is spelled based on how it sounds.  Most children will progress in stages of writing.

Scribbles to Letter like Shapes to Letters to Letters for sounds to Dictionary spelling.

This progression will occur over a long period of time ranging from 6 months to several years.

See more kindergarten writing samples here 

NOTE: My middle child is a reluctant writer. We are working on just getting ideas on the paper and praising any and all efforts. As you can tell by the pictures, he is started to make the connections between the oral and written sounds!!!!

Are you looking for more FREE Early Childhood Printables? You may enjoy the following articles and learning activities:

• Friends Can DIY Writing Click here for instruction
• All About Me Cut and Paste Diagram Click for instructions
• Color Insect Writing Click here for instructions
• My Teddy Bear Writing page Click here for instruction
• Numbers 6-10 Click here for instruction
• Arctic Tundra Animal Mini Books Click here for instruction
• Writing About Fruits and Vegetables  Click here for instructions

MORE Learning Activities with Fruits and Vegetables from the Early Childhood Education Team

14 Ways to Build Language Skills While Making a Pot of Soup by Growing Book by Book
Fruits and Vegetables Beginning Sounds Sort by Learning 2 Walk
Fruits and Vegetables Beginning Sound Clip Cards by Mom Inspired Life
Describing Fruits and Vegetables-Learning About Adjectives by Capri + 3
Sorting Fruit and Vegetables by Color by Powerful Mothering
Potato Printing Tessellation by Rainy Day Mum
Fruit and Vegetable Hunt Farm Sensory Bin by Life Over C’s
Writing about Fruits and Vegetables by The Educators’ Spin On It

You may also enjoy these activities…

Here is one activity that keeps my 2 youngest, ages 2 and 5, happy and busy for at least 15 minutes.

DIY Travel Busy Bag for Writing Practice

Affiliate links included.

Materials Needed:

• Multipurpose Paper
• Construction Paper
• Heavy Duty Quart Freezer Bags
• Stapler
• Permanent Marker
• Low-Odor Dry Erase Marker

How to Make the Writing Practice Travel Busy Bag

1. Cut your multipurpose paper to fit inside your plastic bag.

2. Write letters, words, patterns, or shapes on the paper.

3. Stuff the paper inside the bag. 

4. Assemble a set of filled bags together with the tops facing up. Include 1-3 bags with the tops facing
down. These bags will hold your marker and eraser. The kids also like to make their own tracing sheets, so they can slide theirs into the bags that can open.  Staple one time to hold. 

5. Place the set of bags inside 2 pieces of construction paper. Staple shut at the top.

6. Cut the cover to look like a bag if you want or leave it rectangular.

How to Use the Writing Practice Travel Busy Bag

1. Sit down with your child and talk to them about the letters and the words.
2. Encourage them to trace, making sure to start at the top and using downward strokes.
3. When they are done, have them erase with a damp sock or white board eraser.

*** all baggies will work, but the heavy duty freezer bags tend to hold up better to erasing.

My 5 year old traced the letters and said them.
My 2 year old was excited to trace the circles.

Here are a few tips for the secrets to surviving a long flights with kids.

Busy Bags for Little Travelers

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:

Engineering Kits: Kids’ Travel Sized Stacking Cups // Lemon Lime Adventures

This activity is great for helping kids to hone in on their problem solving and building skills. Keep this activity kit in the back of your car for on-the-go engineering.

Colouring Page Airplane Scavenger Hunt // Mama.Papa.Bubba.

Print this scavenger hunt out if you are headed on an airplane trip this summer with your littles. Play this activity to encourage your little traveler to use their observation skills and record what they see.

My Busy Book for Travel // Powerful Mothering

Are we there yet? My oldest child likes to write, so having a notebook filled with little activities is the perfect way to keep her entertained and learning!

Tic Tac Toe Busy Bag // The Pleasantest Thing

Games are the perfect way to pass the time while you are waiting for your airplane to arrive. Try this updated version of the classic tic-tac-toe.

Color Road Sign Match Up Activity // Mommy Needs a Coffee Break

This busy bag is the perfect combination of math and fine motor skills.  Make sure to talk about colors and shapes. Introduce the concepts of sides and vertices too! It is amazing what little kids can learn.

Printable Road Trip Games for Kids // Lalymom

Print this packet of games, hole punch, and throw them in a 3 ring binder for easy traveling. Don’t forget to include a page of stickers in too. Encourage your child to give themselves a sticker after they complete each activity.

Free Airport Scavenger Hunt // Playdough to Plato

We always talk about expectations for behavior while at the airport. Print this sheet out before your trip and use some of the pictures to guide your discussion. Then, while you are in the airport, color in the items that you see.

Little Red Riding Hood Finger Puppets // Easy Peasy and Fun

Finger puppets are one of my go-to travel activities. They lend well to open ended play and my kids will spend at least 30 minutes creating their own stories. Print and make this set of finger puppets for a classic story-telling busy bag. Include a notebook in this busy bag for older kids to write their own spin on the story.

DIY White Board Busy Bag for Kids // Sugar Aunts

Practice building and writing words with this cute travel size white board busy bag.

Magnetic Buttons Busy Bag // Teach Me Mommy

Don’t worry about loosing your buttons on the floor of the plane (Oh, I have lost so many things on airplane floors including plastic dinosaurs). These ones have magnets on them. A great travel activity to do while you are sitting next to your child. Make sure to store the magnets out of the reach of little ones.

Transportation Memory Game // Itsy Bitsy Fun

There are many ways to get from place to place. Play a game of travel memory to pass the time while traveling with a preschooler.

You may also enjoy these activities for kids…

We’re having fun with these forest activities, so I couldn’t help but think of one of my favorite bear stories Where’s My Teddy by Jez Alborough when I found out we were exploring the forest this week! It’s a story about a little boy who has lost his teddy bear and ends up discovering a real bear’s big teddy bear instead believes that he has grown far too big for him to hug and sleep with.  

You’ll never guess what the real bear discovers at the same time. It’s such a fun story that your child will love.

Teddy Bear Picnic Story Writing Activity for Kids

Actually, all three of the books about this bear and boy are a great find! It’s the Bear and My Friend Bear are two more that are written by Jez with the same characters. You could spend a whole week with just bears in the forest if you wanted to!

For our activity, we decided to create our own Teddy Bear Adventure from our Teddy Bear Picnic!

Teddy Bear Music and Snacks 

First you gather a few Teddy Bear Songs . Then you bake some Teddy Bear Bread! Or make some bear claw cookies.

Teddy Bear Picnic Ideas 

Now it’s time for a special Teddy Bear Picnic!  Gather your supplies for your Teddy Bear.  We gathered our play kitchen toys and a few other toys and books for our bear and a special blanket to sit on.  Now it’s time to turn on your imagination!  Allow your child to make believe, it may take some imagination from you for younger children to role model what to do.

Picture Time with Teddy Bears

Here’s the fun part.  It’s time to take out your camera and take pictures of the bears and what they are doing.  Here are some ideas of what our bears were doing!

• Drinking Tea
• Reading a Book
• Talking on the Phone
• Combing their fur
• Playing a Game

Have your child or you, depending on the age, take pictures of the bears and what they are doing. Be creative!

Write a Teddy Bear Book 

Then it’s time to create your own book of bears!  You can print out the images and then have your child write the story. For younger children, you can write the story together on your computer.  It’s a great way to build up writing skills and their imagination.  

I can’t wait to see what types of things your Teddy Bears are up to!

For more ideas for a Teddy Bear Picnic visit Ready, Set Read and her adorable Teddy bear Books!

We’re sharing this activity on the Jez Alborough Virtual Book Club for Kids.

For More Teddy Bear Ideas explore these with your child

This post contains an affiliate link to Amazon.com for easy reference for the books. 

Welcome the new year with this fun family tradition.

New Year’s Interview for Your Kids

Here’s a printable new year’s interview which also includes a coloring sheet for 2025 and a 2025 word of the year printable. Plus a special Remembering 2024, a month-by-month recap of this past year. 5 Activity Pages in all.

A fun way to capture the year-end with interview questions for kids.

Printable New Year Interview Questions

You can download this new year’s interview printable template to do with your child as the year comes to an end and we welcome 2025.

It’s been quite a year for all of us as we’ve all learned to help our kids cope with the changes. I’m really looking forward to planning a special New Year’s Eve Party with my kids for our family. This new year’s interview will be one of the activities we’ll be doing on December 31st.

I’ve added several New Year’s Activities for kids here below for you to plan your own special New Year’s party for your family. It’s going to be a quiet one this year but sometimes those are the ones our kids remember, spending special time together.

You could start the fun by creating this Free New Years Eve Escape Room Game for your family.

2024 New Year’s Coloring Sheet

We’ve included a 2025 New Year’s Coloring Sheet so that your child can have fun coloring the numbers for this new year. {DOWNLOAD HERE}

It also works as an art project using random materials to create a 2025 Collage Art Project .

Want more 2025 Coloring ideas, try these 2025 New Years Eve Coloring Hats!

You can also make your own 2025 banner using your recycled wrapping paper. Little tip the shiny ones look pretty amazing.

Here’s how –>> DIY 2025 New Year’s Eve Banner

Word of the Year

Here’s a simple process to help you choose your word.

1. Reflect – Look at years past and find an area of your life that you want to improve or make better.
2. Visualize – Sit for a few minutes with your eyes closed and visualize what you want this next year to look like.
3. Pick a Few Words – Look at a list of empowering words and pick one that is the best fit.
4. Refine – With the words you chose, narrow it down to one or two that will be the easiest to stay focused on all year.
5. Commit – Once you’ve gone through this process, commit to a word, write it down and see how it impacts your daily life!

Now it’s time to add it to the Word of the Year Printable. {Download}

New Year’s Eve Activities for Kids

There are so many fun ways to celebrate the end of a year and welcome the new year. I put together a collection of my favorite New Year’s Activities for kids.

NEW YEAR’S COUNTDOWN TIP: You can do a countdown or midnight or even a countdown to noon for younger kids who may not make it to the ball drop.

• 2025 Shadow Puppet Craft
• New Year’s Wand Craft
• Star Shaped Bubble Wands
• Wishing Wand for New Years
• Confetti Cannon STEM Challenge
• Tape Resist 2025 New Year’s Project
• 2025 Collage Art Project for Kids
• New Year’s Sparkling Sun Catcher
• 2025 New Year’s Bead Threading Craft

New Year’s Sensory Play

• New Year’s Eve Slime
• Free printable New Year’s Eve Playdough Mats
• Confetti Slime for Kids
• Silver and Gold New Year’s Slime Recipe
• Celebration Playdough Recipe
• New Year’s Sequin Sensory Bin
• New Year’s Confetti Writing Tray

New Year’s Eve Party Ideas with Kids

• New Year’s Eve Games for Family Night
• New Year’s Countdown Cake
• Balloon Clock New Year’s Eve Countdown
• Glow in the Dark Party Ideas
• New Year’s Eve Games for Family Night
• New Year’s Countdown Cake
• New Year’s Eve Countdown Bags
• Shooting Star Pinata for New Years Party
• Balloon Clock New Year’s Eve Countdown
• New Years Coloring Hats
• DIY 2025 New Year’s Eve Banner

Snack Ideas for your New Year’s Eve Party

• 2025 New Year’s Breadsticks
• Pinwheels Shaped into 2025
• Rocky Candy Mocktails
• Gummy Bear Mocktails
• Sugar Cone Party Horns
• 2025 Shaped Pizza Recipe

Year-End Interview Questions for Kids for only $2.99

Looking for more New Years Activities for Kids? Try these…

Welcome the new year with these fun Winter Activities for Kids…

Here’s how to kickstart this simple 30 day gratitude challenge!

What are thankful prompts for kids?

One way to encourage children to observe the world around them and teach gratitude is by creating a gratitude journal together. This collection of writing prompts will help your child reflect on family, friends and their community to find all the things they are grateful for in their daily lives.

This gratitude challenge is a thoughtful way to connect and bond together with your child and their world. It makes for a sweet keepsake as well this holiday season.

Here are 30 questions to encourage gratitude in kids.

30 Gratitude Prompts for Kids

1. What is the best thing that happened to you today?
2. Who is your favorite person and why?
3. What is your favorite thing about school?
4. What is something that makes you happy?
5. Who makes you feel loved and how?
6. Name a friend and describe what makes them special to you.
7. What is your favorite toy?
8. Where is your favorite place to go?
9. Who makes you feel loved and how?
10. Describe one of your favorite memories this year.
11. What is your favorite thing about your home?
12. What was the last gift you received?
13. What is your favorite thing to do for fun?
14. What is something you use every day?
15. What skill are you most thankful for?
16. What is something that smells nice to you?
17. What is something nice your parents do for you?
18. What do you love about each family member?
19. What do you enjoy eating?
20. What is your favorite time of day?
21. Describe where you like to visit the most?
22. What is your favorite animal?
23. What is your favorite thing about your room?
24. What is your favorite song?
25. What accomplishment are you proud of?
26. What family tradition is your favorite?
27. What was your favorite trip?
28. Describe something that makes you laugh.
29. Describe a time someone was kind to you.
30. What are you most thankful for?

You made it! 30 Gratitude Prompts for kids to answer and explore more about themselves and the things that they are grateful for in their lives.

I used each of these prompts to create a printable gratitude journal for your child. The quickest way to raise thankful kids is to practice journaling!

Part of focusing on gratitude can help your child practice mindfulness for kids while developing inner calm, focus, and emotional resilience.

Printable Gratitude Prompts for Kids

You can use these Printable Gratitude Journaling Pages for Kids to get started!

These simple 30 Gratitude Challenges are purposefully not labeled by number or put into a calendar format so that your child can pick and choose from the list to describe things they grateful for.

To take this gratitude challenge a step further, as a family, I’d encourage you at the dinner table each day, name three new things that you’re grateful for. No repeats and no skipped days. On days when you can’t think of three things, dig deep.

Dinner Table Gratitude Cards

You can use these printable dinner table gratitude cards to help with this gratitude activity.

Did you know that there are ways to teach kids gratitude with mindfulness? Traditional yoga intrinsically has a set of morals that can inspire us to live a life of gratitude, self-love, and caring for others (among other things).

Gratitude Journal for Kids

Here’s a look at the pages includes in this gratitude journal for kids. We’ve included prompts, response pages, weekly, daily and month journal sheets to pick and choose what you want to do together.

This gratitude journal contains 26 printable pages for your child.

• 30 Gratitude Prompts
• 10 Gratitude Journal Pages
• 9 Dinner Table Gratitude Card Pages
• Gratitude Quotes for Kids
• Monthly Journal
• Weekly Journal
• Daily Gratitude Journal
• Gratitude Outline for art

You can print multiple sets to continue your gratitude journaling throughout the year.

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Gratitude Activities for Kids

As we focus on gratitude, here are a few craft ideas for sharing gratitude and thankfulness for your child.

Work on household chores and create a new way of Teaching Gratitude at Home with Your Child while getting your house ready for holiday guests.

Decorate the house with this easy DIY Thankful Banner Idea for Kids.

Create a Magnetic Thankful Tree to display in your home for Thanksgiving.

Here is a set of Kindness Elves Free Printables to inspire your family for a celebration of kindness and giving to others.

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Gratitude Books for Kids

Here are some books that are focused on gratitude to include in your bedtime storytime this month as you take the 30 Day Gratitude challenge.

• I Am Thankful by Sheri Wall
• Thankful by Eileen Spinelli
• We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell
• Namaste Is a Greeting by Suma Subramaniam
• The Grumbles: A Story about Gratitude by Tricia Goyer and Amy Parker
• Gratitude is My Superpower by Alicia Ortego
• The Gratitude Jar by Katrina Liu
• Apple Cake: A Gratitude by Dawn Casey
• A Very Thankful Prayer: A Fall Poem of Blessings and Gratitude by Bonnie Rickner Jensen
• The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gaines
• Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids by Carol McCloud
• Being Thankful by Mercer Mayer
• Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora
• The Thank You Letter by Jane Cabrera
• The Thank You Book by Mary Lyn Ray
• When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Jamie L.B. Deenihan
• God Gave Us Thankful Hearts by Lisa Tawn Bergren
• The Giving Snowman by Julia Zheng
• The Fig Tree: A Lesson in Gratitude by Heather Lonczak
• A World of Gratitude by Claire Saunders
• Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson
• The World Needs the Wonder You See by Joanna Gaines (Jan 2025)

Explore our list of the best Gratitude Books for Kids! You may also find this heartwarming collection of Kindness books helpful too!

Gratitude Challenge for Kids

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Give kids the opportunity to strengthen and develop their writing skills with this Printable Thanksgiving Writing Pack.  Make lists, fill in the blank, create charts and more!

Thanksgiving Writing Prompt

Thanksgiving is a great time to write about turkeys, the first Thanksgiving, and all the things we are thankful for.

It is a season for

• pumpkins
• turkeys
• fall leaves
• family get-togethers
• pumpkin pie

It is a great time to pay attention to the sights, tastes, and smells of Thanksgiving. Click here to download the Thanksgiving writing prompts. 

When and How to Write about Thanksgiving

Kids should start writing (scribbles) as early as toddlers.  As they develop in fine motor strength and coordination, children begin forming letters and making the connection between oral and printed language. Some children begin making these connections between 4 and 7 years old.

These writing prompts are adaptable.
For younger children

• You can write what they say.
• You can write with a highlighter and have them trace the words.
• You can write what they say on another piece of paper and let them copy.

In a classroom, you can print these activities out for the writing center or whole group instruction during writing class.

In your home, you can print these writing prompts out and set them up on your kitchen table as an invitation for kids to write when they come home from school.

As a former kindergarten teacher, now stay at home mom, I try to re-inforce what my kids learn at school in a fun and exciting way. I’ve learned over the years that writing is a great way to connect academics in a quick 20 minute activity. I have used each of these prompts with all three of my own kids ages 3, 6, and 9.

Printable Thanksgiving Writing Activities

The following activities are included in this printable thanksgiving packet.
It is available for download on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Page 2-3 Sensory Turkey. Fill in the blank writing prompt and craft.

Page 4-6 Thanksgiving Chart. Read and write the sights, smells, and tastes of the season.

Page 7-12 Turkey Disguise writing prompt and craft. Optional family connection take-home note.

Page 13- 14Thanksgiving themed thank you letter.

Page 15-17 Thankful Pumpkin Bulletin Board or Class Book writing prompt.

Pages 18-20 Number Turkey Writing

Page 21-22 Thanksgiving Colors

Page 23-24 Compare and Contrast the First Thanksgiving

Page 25-26 Thankful List Writing Activity

Download and print your Thanksgiving Printables here.

You may also enjoy these activities for kids this November…

This activity is great for parents to do with their kids or teachers to set up as a literacy station.

Envelope Format for Kids

In school, children with strong writing skills often outperform their peers in daily work and tests. Outside the classroom, writing skills enable children to collaborate, connect and share their experiences. Most professions require the skill of addressing envelopes, so why not introduce it to children at a young age.

To perfect their writing skills, children need to write often. One of the simplest ways they practice is by writing plenty of letters and addressing the envelopes by themselves. We like to print a TON of blank envelope templates and set them in the literacy center.

Place a set of children scissors, sharpened pencils and glue next to the stack and children will make and address their own envelopes.

If you are a parent or know the child’s home address write the child’s name and address on a 3×5 note card and let them copy the information. Then copies this information off the card and onto the envelope. Then the child not only learns about envelope format, but also an important life skill – their own address.

Speaking of mailing something, your child may also enjoy creating their own drawings on this free printable postcard template.

How to write the address on an envelope

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Materials Needed for Envelope Format Activity

• Envelope template
• Children’s scissors
• Glue Stick
• Pencil

Directions for Envelope Format Activity

1. Cut the outside edge of the envelope template. (Solid black line only)

2. Put the printed side down.  Fold inwards along the dotted line.

3. Place glue on the left and right flaps. Bring the bottom upwards to form the envelope.

4. Address the envelope with the recipient’s address and return address. Add a stamp.

5. Place the card or letter inside and seal with tape or glue on the top flap.

CLICK TO PRINT THE ENVELOPE TEMPLATE on TPT for $1.00

CLICK TO PRINT THE ENVELOPE TEMPLATE on TPT

Recipient’s address:

This is the name and address of the person to whom the letter is being sent to. The recipient’s full name, street name, as well as city, state, and zip code, should be written on separate lines. Postal abbreviations of the state name can be used, but only in capital letters.

This section of the writing is placed in the middle of the envelope. It is traditionally written bigger.

Return address:

Also known as the return label, this address outlines the information of the sender. It is included so that the postal service will know where to send it in case delivery to the recipient fails for one reason or the other. On separate lines write your full name, your street address as well as your city, state, and zip code. Again, postal abbreviation codes of the state can be used, but only in capital letters. The return address should be written on the top left corner of the envelope.

This section is traditionally written smaller.

Stamp: This should be placed at the top right corner of the envelope. The stamp is how the delivery of letters is paid for. You should know that stamps are canceled before delivery to ensure that they can’t be used twice. Let kids check the mail that has been through the post office. 

How can you tell the stamps were canceled?

hint – the postal service inks over the stamp.

How to Fill Out an Envelope

If children are making and addressing the envelopes for classmates. Have them sort and deliver the envelopes just as a mail carrier would. This would make a great pretend play center in an early learning classroom.

Learning how mail gets sorted is also an important lesson for children. For starters, the mail sorting process depends a lot on the country and the postal service used. Many postal services use an automated system to address mail. All the mail is first checked for a stamp to ensure that the delivery fee is paid. Afterward, it is sorted based on the cities and zip codes.

To get to the right destination, a single letter can be sorted a few times based on the zip code criteria.

With the increased popularity of emails and the advancement of technology, the necessity to teach children how to address envelopes correctly becomes more important every day.

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