When I started No Time For Flash Cards I started it with the intention of trying to give my friends who were at home with their kids some fun activities to fill in their day. When I taught I would always link the book I read at opening circle time with our art exploration for the day. It gave the students focus and padded the learning on both ends. We didn’t hit the kids over the head with facts or structure but a little themed continuity went a long way in our exploration of the chosen topic. After more than 5 years of blogging, I have paired countless books with crafts. Consider this list of 25 a cheat sheet. I hope you find it useful.
1. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
by Laura Numeroff and Puffy Paint Cookie Craft.
2. Small Knight and George by Ronda Armitage and Knight’s Shield Craft.
3. Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert and Sticky Window Flower Garden.
4. The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle and Spider Web Walking.
5. Firefighter Frank by Monica Wellington is a wonderful read before working on writing and counting with our Count & Write Fire Trucks.
6. How Big Is a Pig? by Claire Beaton and Paper Plate Pig Craft.
7. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems goes perfectly with this Squeeze Painting Hot Dog Craft.
8. The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle and our popular Band-aid Fireflies Craft.
9. Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus goes well with our Paper Bag Tiger Puppet.
10. Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming is the perfect read before you Build With Letters.
11. Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown can be read before or after you play with this Farm Sensory Bin.
12. Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester and our Simple Penguin Craft.
13. Frederick by Leo Lionni and a craft especially made to look like Frederick.
14. Alphabeep A Zipping, Zooming ABC by Debora Pearson and our Car Alphabet is a great match!
15. Leap Back Home to Me by Lauren Thompson and our Easy Peasy Paper Plate Frog Craft.
16. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and our Homemade Puffy Paint Moon.
17. The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle and our simple Ladybug Craft.
18. Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha has been a favorite for years and goes perfectly with our Shape Garbage Truck Craft.
19. Swimmy by Leo Lionni is wonderful to share while creating this cool School Of Fish Craft.
20. Dinosaur vs. the Potty by Bob Shea will have your kids laughing and this Dinosaur Craft with have them using their fine motor skills.
21. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault was the inspiration for this craft.
22. Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo is a great read before learning about shapes with the Shape Bulldozer.
23. The Very Fairy Princess Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton is sweet just like our Shape Princess Craft.
24. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett is a perfect match for our DIY Weather Station.
25. How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers goes so well with our Make Your Own Constellation Craft.
For other books with crafts and matching crafts like these, make sure to stop over and follow me on Facebook!
If you love activities that match with books I have 15 wonderful lesson plans to go with popular children’s books and so much more in my book Little School!
Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says
A fantastic list and lots of inspiration some books that we haven’t read and ones that we have. I’ve pinned and can’t wait to try out the planting a rainbow today with my kids Thank you
Christy, The Simple Homemaker says
Excellent! Thank you! 🙂
rebecca at thisfineday says
Great ideas! I’ll need to keep this post in mind next time we head to the library, just to get a little bit more mileage out of the activity (walk to library, check out books, read books, do activity about story!). Thanks for the post.
kristina says
Love this visual and cheat sheet!! Plan to definitely share this! Great post
Veens says
What an amazing resource 🙂 Thank you for putting it all in one place… I keep coming to your amazing site for book, crafts suggestions 🙂 Thank you!
Debbie - teacher says
Good ideas but most are for younger children than my second graders. Another good book for older kids is Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter. Then you could make constellations and talk about the Underground Railroad.
Allison McDonald says
Yeah they really are geared towards preschool & kindergarten . I love your suggestion!
Jessica says
Oh, man…my job as a nanny is going to be a lot easier than I thought this summer! 😉 Thank you so much for sharing this amazing list!
Waliyyah says
This is absolutely WONDERFUL !!!! My KG class now runs to story time every afternoon ! Thanks sooooo much !
Catherine @ Story Snug says
What a great post – some of our favourite books are on here 🙂
Shannon says
This is fantastic! Thanks for sharing – I’m forwarding on to my early childhood and preschool teacher friends.
Adam Miller says
Nice list! Arts and crafts help to improve kids coordination and visual processing abilities.
Primary school tuition says
Its a great collection of books. These are very helpful for children. Thanks for a good post.
youzizz says
When your child is ready, leave out the rhyming word for him to fill in. Or try this fun rhyming activity with picture books. You just need the book and a counter or post-it note .
gonewild says
Beat the Clock: Set a timer and see how many words your child can read from the stack of flashcards in one minute. Increase or decrease the time for more fun!
Daniel Woo says
Good info.