I created this cute Ballerina Preschool Pack for my Once Upon A Book series over at Totally Tots!
This month’s theme is sports, and for a girl I thought Angelina Ballerina “A Dance of Friendship” (ballet) was perfect!
A Dance of Friendship by Katharine Holabird
Summary: A Dance of Friendship is about a sweet pair of mice who are in ballet class together. Their friendship hits a rocky path due to some jealousy, but of course Angelina makes things right again and finds the perfect way to apologize to her best friend.
Verse: I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14
Do-A-Dot activity: This has to be one of my Teeny Tot’s favorite things to do! She loves the dotters and did a remarkable job dotting in the little circles. (Download for entire tot pack at bottom of post)
Ballerina Cutting Practice: Cutting is such great practice for fine motor skills and hand – eye coordination. The Teeny Tot loves to cut things. I help her hold the paper when needed just to give a little boost of confidence.
Ballerina Coloring: This one is also a favorite, she’s not so “in the lines” just yet, but she does well for a 2.5 year old. You’ll notice the Ballerina Pack is about bears and not mice…I liked that B went with Bear and also Ballerina.
Pre-Writing Practice: I thought I’d throw this in just to see how well she does with writing. She colored along the lines and did fairly well. On the second page she scribbled all over then laughed and said “didn’t color on the lines!”…turkey.
Lacing practice: This is another great fine-motor skill activity, beads also work well. That would be a piece of cheese in the top right corner. It helps to have a snack when you’re working so hard.
Ballerina Magnet Page: I’m not sure what it is about magnets, but everyone seems to like them. She’s watched her sister do this many times, and so she already knew exactly what to do. Just keep an eye so that none make it in their mouths, magnets can wreak havoc on tiny bodies.
Letter B practice: This went better than the pre-writing. The Teeny Tot did well tracing the larger letters. Still coloring over the lines, but the fluid motion will come with practice.
Number order Puzzle: I had to recruit my preschooler for the number order puzzle, we counted together, but she did the puzzle while the Teeny Tot watched.
Ballerina Puzzle: I had to help a little with this, but for the most part she figured it out. We’ve been doing some larger piece puzzles from Alphabet Alley as well so I think that’s helped.
Counting Practice: We did 1-5 today, I helped her put the cards in order, then we counted and pointed to the numbers. She loves to count! You can also have them add the correct number of cheerios to each card, then eat your snack when done!
Size Sorting: This one surprised me, she knew right away how to sort them, probably from seeing her sister do it, but when I was asking her to point to the small one and big one, she got confused. Good to know…and the cheese makes another appearance.
Ballet Letter Matching: This went well, I told her the letter and pointed to it, she grabbed the correct disk and put it on.
Basic Pattern Activity: Pattern activities are a great way to get in some pre-math and logical thinking skills. I find it works best to point to each picture, and say something like “Arms up, arms down, arms up, arms down” what’s next?
Capital Lowercase Sorting: For the Teeny Tot this went better as a color sorting. I’ll make sure to add more color activities to her next packs. We sorted the blue vs pink bears.
Dress Up: Since I had this cute dress-up bear from my bears post, I let her play with him. She loved it!
Reading: Of course we read A Dance of Friendship, everyone gathered around for this! I was surprised at how still my tot sat! She tends to grab the books and turn pages, a little impatient, but she sat and listened to the whole thing! Probably because she still had her cheese.
Make sure to read to your toddler each day, it’s a wonderful way to build language skills, and a love for reading at the same time! Plus, how often do we get to sit and just enjoy our toddlers?
Click here to download the Ballerina Activity Pack (not all shown above)
This is wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing it. My 3 year old was so happy doing these activities with me this afternoon!!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing your files, they are really appreciated
Thanks.
Thank you so much for sharing this! My daughter LOVES Angelina Ballerina and she will have so much fun learning the letter “B” with this activity. And I LOVE that you have a scripture verse to go along with the curriculum. I’m so happy I found you on Pinterest!
Just wanted to say thank you!! I recently dropped down from working full-time to part-time, so now I can start to teach my 2 1/2 year old more often!! You have great ideas and your little one is adorable! Thanks again 🙂
I just came across your blog and…… I LOVE IT! Thank you so much for the free printables for my girls!
I love your site, I have gleaned so much from all your posts. We have just began using your letter of the week moved to letter b .Unfortunately I have boys , they are not that interested in ballerinas! Do you have something for boys:)
Thanks for sharing this! I am currently using your Letter of the Week curriculum with my 3 1/2 yr old, but I needed more emphasis on letter B. I’m going to add an additional week of letter B using your Ballerina stuff! Thank you!!!!
Thank you so much for these! My 4 year old wanted to do a ‘ballet’ day, and this is perfect.