What’s In Your Basket?
This post was originally published March 19, 2018
Looking for goodies to add to your child’s basket that aren’t candy? Below are some ideas for fun items to add that promote literacy, fine-motor skills and social-emotional development.
BOOKS
I love any reason to give books… Here are a few of my favorite spring books to gift to little readers:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle (Available in Spanish!)
Bug Alphabet – Mrs. Peaknuckle
Eating the Alphabet – Lois Ehlert
I’m A Frog – Mo Willems
Little Butterfly – Chronicle Books
Planting a Rainbow – Lois Ehlert
Little Bunny – L. Rigo
Little Lamb – L. Rigo
Little Duckling – L. Rigo
click here to view more of my favorite spring books
FELT BOARD + STORY FELT PIECES
Felt boards are great for practicing storytelling, working on fine-motor skills, using language and role-playing. There are some awesome felt sets on ETSY & below you’ll find some other sets that I think are great!
Felt Boards
Double-sided Standing Felt Board
Foldable Felt Board
Felt Board With a Few Sentence Strip Rows
(You can also use a piece of felt fabric to save $ and make more portable)
Story Felt Pieces:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes
Classic Storybook Sets
FINGER PUPPETS
Finger puppets are great for building fine-motor muscles, role-playing(which helps social emotional development), storytelling and using language. If you’re a Sonoma local or in the area – my favorite place to pick up handmade finger puppets is Global Heart Fair Trade
If you’re not in the area, here are a few online options:
ETSY
has some AMAZINGLY beautiful sets
that are reasonably priced and made by hand
Amazon
Animal Set
Monarch Butterfly
Farm Animal Set
Family Set
FELT LETTER BOARD + EMOJI ICONS
I have loved using this letter felt board with my students! It’s a different way to experiment with word building and it’s sneakily a fine-motor skill exercise as well! Adding the emoji symbols encourages talking about emotions, which helps build social-emotional language.
Found these in the Target dollar section and the closest online option I can find is here: Letter board + letters & emoji symbols
MAD LIBS
Oldie but a goodie – these fill in the blank stories are a great way to practice parts of speech, writing and reading.
SMALL STUFFED ANIMALS
Stuffed animals make great reading buddies and tools for pretend play and story telling. Here are a few of my students favorite spring friends:
Robin
Duckling
Butterfly
Bunny
REUSABLE STICKER BOOK
Great for fine-motor skills and storytelling. I got this one at Cost Plus World Market.
WIND UP TOYS
Wind up toys are good for building fine-motor skills and children often like to pretend play with them which encourages social-emotional development.
I snagged these at Cost Plus World Market.
Here is a similar set from Amazon.
As an Amazon Associate I earn a tiny percentage from qualifying purchases for sharing my recommendations based on my personal experience as an educator. This does not cost you anything and helps to support buying books and materials to use with my students. Thank you for checking out my website and please let me know if you have any suggestions 