Here are one dozen muffin related preschool activities that are sure to give you and your little one lots of simple and fun ideas to make summer memories together! Using a muffin tin and some simple household items, let’s learn & play together!
1. First, Check Out Some Books for Your Muffin Activity Days
I absolutely love pairing picture books with activities we do in our homeschool. Here are a half-dozen muffin-themed books I recommend for enjoying alongside your muffin activities:
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff
The Muffin Man by Constanza Basaluzzo
Albert the Muffin-Maker by Eleanor May
The Mystery of the Missing Muffins by Sheila Higginson
Molly the Muffin Fairy by Thomas Nelson
Little Red Riding Hood by Jenna Mueller
I found many of these at my local library, but have provided Amazon links if you’d rather purchase!
2. Nature Counting
Counting with one-to-one correspondence is an important skill for young mathematicians! Using a muffin tin, go exploring in a local park or your own backyard, and invite your child to collect interesting objects like rocks, leaves, flowers, pinecones, and seeds. Practice placing one item in each muffin cup while counting the objects!
3. Color Scavenger Hunt
Secure a colored circle in the bottom of each muffin cup, and invite your child to hunt down objects of that color. This can be done inside AND outside, so its like a two-in-one activity!
4. Toy Rescue
Let your child practice their fine motor skills by rescuing toys you’ve trapped! Place one tiny toy in each muffin cup. Then, criss cross painter’s tape over the top of the muffin tin in several directions, trapping the toys inside. Have very young preschoolers use their fingers to peel the tape back, and older preschoolers will love using kid-safe scissors to snip the tape away and save their treasures!
6. DIY Crayons
Don’t throw away your broken crayons! Instead, soak them in water, remove the labels, break them into smaller pieces, and put them in a silicone lined muffin tin. In the photo below, you can see we used silicone candy molds, but we have also made them using silicone muffin liners in a muffin tin, and they’ve worked perfectly!
Set your oven to 275 degrees and melt the crayons for about 15 minutes. When they’re completely melted, you can pop them in the freezer to cool. Your tie-dye creations make coloring SO much fun!
7. Frozen Animal Escape
Place small animals or other figures into muffin tins and pour water to fill up the muffin cups. Freeze overnight. In the morning, add the frozen animals to a water table or kiddie pool and have your children work hard to save the frozen toys!
8. Muffin Man Memory
Play Muffin Man Memory using the circle cards found here. Print and cut out the pairs of cards you want to use, tape them to the bottom of paper liners, and take turns searching for matches.
9. Pattern Practice
Start a pattern for your child and encourage him to finish it. The youngest preschoolers can work on AB patterns, while older preschoolers might be ready for more challenging patterns. After doing this activity with my three-year-old, she happily played with this set-up for over 30 minutes!
10. Paint the Letters
Use up those tiny extra bits of sidewalk chalk by turning them into paint! For the safety of your kids, please make sure to do this part alone! Simply place similar colors of chalk together inside a zippered bag and smash them! (I used a rubber mallet). Then, carefully pour the chalk dust into muffin tins. I wore a mask to make sure I didn’t inhale any dust.
Add water to the cups and stir, and provide paint brushes for your preschooler. You can write their names using chalk and have them paint over each letter.
11. Muffin Sensory Fun
No preschool muffin activities list would be complete without sensory play! Use the sensory material of your choice to set up a bakery for your preschoolers! We used dough, but you could use sand, slime, rice, or any material you like. The free printable packet includes some cute signs if you want to add a little extra fun to this sensory activity.
12. Make Muffins!
Finish up your muffin fun by baking muffins together! You can use any recipe, or use the free printable I’ve created to help your child “read” the directions all on her own!
After completing these 12 preschool muffin activities, your child will have practiced name writing, counting with one-to-one correspondence, following a recipe, matching colors, completing AB patterns, and lots more play and learning!
If you’d like to keep learning with fun structured activities in the coming year, be sure to check out ThreeSchool! This 10 month, low prep curriculum is absolutely wonderful for easy and simple learning alongside your preschooler. Many families (including mine!) have been enjoying the ThreeSchool activities for many years. You can get started this September with ThreeSchool, which follows typical holidays, or start anytime with ThreeSchool Anytime!
If you’re interested in finding out what’s included in this at home preschool program, make sure to check out this in depth blog post discussing why I created the program and get answers to frequently asked questions.
Want MORE Summer Activity Ideas for Your Preschooler?
Jen from Running Turtle Resources has put together this super fun collection of lemonade themed activities that is just perfect for summer time! Check them out here!
OR
Check out the complete Summer Preschool Activities List HERE!
Leave a Reply