Teddy Bear Tracing Activities for Preschoolers

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Teddy Bear Day is celebrated on September 6. Since children love teddy bears, you can use this theme to help preschoolers develop critical pre-writing skills with these FREE Teddy Bear Tracing activities.

Adding these activities to your September lesson plans will attract children’s attention, and it will only take a few minutes to prepare them.

Teddy Bear Tracing Activities for Preschoolers

This printable includes four sheets with four different tracing activities each. It is available at the end of this post.

Importance of Tracing Activities

Young children love to scribble and explore their abilities. This is considered the emergent writing stage of their development, an essential step before they start writing letters and words.

When you offer preschoolers multiple opportunities to trace, you are helping them refine essential skills such as:

Fine motor skills: Tracing builds strength and coordination between their hands and fingers, allowing them to grasp the writing and painting utensils better and control their movements.

Hand-eye coordination: They have to look at the lines and move their hands along them to trace them.

Creativity and drawing skills: When they create movements to trace the lines, they are making connections about how they can use the same movements to draw on their own.

Concentration and focus: When they pay attention to follow the lines with their writing tools.

Visual-spatial awareness: Tracing allows preschoolers to practice spatial vocabulary (below, behind, next to, etc.), and make sense of the relationship between the lines.

Uses for the Teddy Bear Tracing Activities

There are many uses for these Teddy Bear Tracing Activities, and the best part is that you don’t have to limit the possibilities to just tracing the lines. You can also use these tracing sheets in many ways, considering the different levels of development of your preschoolers’ skills. Some of the ideas I can give you are:

Small Groups

You can use these activities to prepare small group activities in different centers, such as a writing center, take-home game, and quiet area option.

Finger Tracing

Have your preschoolers trace the lines with their fingers. That will give them a sense of how the lines go. Don’t forget to tell them to go from left to right since that is the correct direction to write.

Grasping

Have them grasp a pom-pom with a clothespin and “trace” the lines using the pom-pom. This particular activity will have them working on their fine motor skills more because it will force them to use their pincer grasp, which is essential to learning how to grasp a pencil correctly.

Stamping

Children love this simple activity. Give them some small Teddy Bear stampers to follow the lines. The children will be especially interested if you provide stampers. Remember that changing the materials, toys, and routine will keep them interested.

Pasting

The use of stickers is also great for working on fine motor skills because when children peel and paste stickers, they have the opportunity to work on their finger muscles and concentration. Give your children some Teddy Bear stickers for an extra kick and paste along the lines.

Marking

If you use an unlaminated sheet of paper, you can have your preschooler trace the lines using crayons, pencils, or regular markers. If you laminate them or place them inside dry-erase pockets, have your preschooler trace the lines using a dry-erase marker.

Using Small Manipulatives

Remember to offer variety and choices to help your preschoolers develop their fine motor skills, and using small manipulatives is a great way to do this.

There are many Teddy Bear-related small manipulatives that you can add to your writing and manipulative centers to switch things around and keep them interesting. Some are buttons, mini pencil toppers, sequins, or counters. Present the tracing sheets and the small manipulatives to your children, and invite them to choose one type and line objects along the lines. To ensure your children succeed in this particular activity, give them an unlaminated sheet of paper instead of a dry-erase pocket. Otherwise, it will be too slippery, which could cause frustration in your children, something you don’t want.

Using Playdough

Invite your preschoolers to roll OK playdough snakes and place them on top of the strips to form the lines.

Cutting

These activities can also be used as cutting rather than tracing, using safety scissors.

To prepare these low-prep activities, simply download the file at the end of this post, print them on white cardstock, and laminate or place them in dry-erase pockets if you want to use them multiple times. Alternatively, you can print them on regular paper for a single use.

Books About Teddy Bears

I am a huge fan and user of storybooks for everything, and I wanted to include some of my favorite books about teddy bears. You can find them at your local library, used bookstore, and on Amazon. Following my affiliate links on the titles will bring you to the correct page.

The Magic of Me Box Set by Becky Cummings is a captivating collection in which children embark on self-discovery, guided by vivid illustrations and a diverse cast of characters. Each book is a treasure trove of timeless wisdom, highlighting the incredible influence of our words, thoughts, and actions.

What I Like About Me! by Allia Zobel Nolan discusses how we are all different but unique, just the way we are.

I Like Me! by Nancy Carlson is a simple story that helps kids feel good about themselves.

It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr uses colorful illustrations, playful humor, and inclusive storytelling to promote an essential message of love and acceptance that is inspiring, empowering, and accessible.

All By Myself by Mercer Meyer is a classic, funny, and heartwarming book that teaches children about independence. It shows all the things Litter Critter can do for himself.

I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont uses high energy and imagination to encourage kids to have self-esteem and appreciate everything about themselves—inside and out.

Pin It For Later

If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin it to one of your Pinterest boards.