Very young children learn best in a playful, hands-on environment. Here's some downloadable and online activities to help them practise essential first skills.
Early learning activities
Early learning
Numbers, letters and counting activities for young children
Pen control and first letters
Copying shapes and patterns and tracing over letters all help your child learn to write and develop pen control.
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Shapes and patternsUse a pen to trace over these shapes and patterns? Can you name them too? -
Monster portraitsFinish these portraits of the monsters by tracing over the lines.
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Under the seaDraw some legs on the octopus and waves in the sea, all whilst practising pen control.
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Little lettersCopy over all the lower-case letters of the alphabet.
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Monster body partsThese monsters are pointing to a part of their body. Can you name and trace the word?
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Farm machine word practicePractise your writing by labeling these farm machines.
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Sam's supperWhat's Sam making for supper? Practise writing and sounding the letter 's' with this activity.
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Monster fishing tripHelp the monsters to fish for objects with different starting sounds.
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Elephants on paradeNine elephants are on parade. Finish their heads with the letter 'n' while saying the sound.
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Monster circusCan you help the monsters add starting and ending letters to their words?
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Penguins in the parkSpot things in the penguin park beginning with the sound 'p-u-h' and draw a 'p' on the parrots.
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Monster junk shopEach monster wants to buy something beginning with a particular sound. Can you help them?
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Making wordsSee if you can blend the sounds together to make words.
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Jaguar jazzThese jaguars are jamming in the jungle. Can you make the sound for the letter 'j' and draw it on their instruments?
Counting
There are lots of opportunities to practise counting with your child as you put away shopping, or the laundry. Here are some fun activity sheets to download too.
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Counting strawberriesCan you help the fairies to count the strawberries?
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Counting spotsHelp frog to read the numbers and count the spots.
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Pirates on deckHelp the pirates to count the rats and trace over the numbers.
Numbers and first adding
These activities will give your child practice writing numbers, and doing simple sums too.
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Numbers 1 to 10Trace over the numbers and count the squares.
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Monster favouritesHere are the things that these monsters like best. Count them and trace the numbers.
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Spike's housePractise adding on 1 by adding things to Spike's house.
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Starting to addTrace the bee's route as it visits the flowers from 1 to 10.
Creative play for preschoolers
Here's some fun ideas for creative activities to do with your child - and they all use things you probably have around your home.
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Sticky funToddlers can't handle scissors yet but they'll love sticking faces and shapes onto paper.Age: 3-4 yearsDownload
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Make and buildReuse cardboard boxes, tubes and plastic bottles with these ideas for things to make and build.Age: 3-4 yearsDownload
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Playing with doughRolling, squeezing, pummelling or making shapes, here are some tips on how toddlers can play with dough.Age: 3-4 yearsDownload
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Fun with paintHere are some fun ways to paint that don't involve a paintbrush.Age: 3-4 yearsDownload
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Online early learning activities
At Usborne Quicklinks you'll find links to lots of carefully selected websites with counting, reading and writing activities to do with your child, and more advice for grown-ups on helping children learn their first skills.
