Animal Moms & Babies Matching for Preschoolers
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Children in general love animals, especially babies. That’s why I think that this Animal Moms & Babies Matching activity will help your preschoolers develop a wide range of important skills that will create the foundations for later concepts.
The reason behind this statement is that this type of activity requires that little learners identify patterns, similarities, and differences, which involve visual discrimination, memory, problem-solving, one-to-one correspondence, and fine motor skills. All of these skills will also help them develop and improve their ability to differentiate between letters and numbers, which will therefore improve their literacy and math skills.
These matching activities will also create a little extra challenge for children, since will force them to pay attention to details, because mothers and babies have different positions and, in some of them, different coloring as well.
This FREE set includes two different types of matching activities. The first one has nine sets of moms and baby cards to match, and the second one includes two pages to match the animals with a line. You can find it at the end of this post.
These Animal Moms & Babies Matching activities can be used in many ways such as:
- Small group activity.
- Math center option.
- Take-home game.
- Quiet area option.
You can also combine it with my other FREE Mother’s Day activities, to give your preschoolers multiple choices. You can get all of them by clicking on the links below:
- Mother’s Day Beginning Sounds.
- Mother’s Day Cactus Letter Match.
- Mother’s Day Memory Game.
- Mother’s Day Match Puzzle.
- Mother’s Day Pre-Writing.
- Mother’s Day Vocabulary Words Pre-Writing.
- Mother’s Day Word Wall Cards.
- Mother’s Day Portrait.
- Mother’s Day poems.
Getting the Animal Moms & Babies Matching Activity Ready
To get this activity ready you only need a handful of materials which are:
- Animal Moms & Babies Matching printable (found below).
- Printer.
- White paper or cardstock.
- Laminator and laminating sheets.
- Scissors or paper cutter.
- Crayons, markers, and pencils.
- Optional: dry-erase pockets and dry-erase markers.
Print the pages on white paper or cardstock, cut the cards out, and laminate them for durability, or place them in dry-erase pockets.
For the matching cards activity, have the children match the mom’s pictures with their baby’s pictures. You can also use these cards to play a memory-matching game, having the children place the cards upside down and try to find the matching pair.
For the second activity, have the children look at the pictures and find which baby belongs to what mom, and trace a line between both, using a crayon, marker, or pencil. If you place the sheets in a dry-erase pocket, then they have to use a dry-erase marker, but that allows you to use them multiple times.
Books About Mother’s Day
As usual, I will recommend filling out your library, centers, and book baskets to support this theme and help children get more knowledge. Below you can find a big selection of Mother’s Day-related books. These books can be found at your local library, in used bookstores, and at Amazon. I also added my affiliate links to every book below, to make it easier for you to get the ones you want.
- The Fox Who Swiped Mother’s Day by J.P. Anthony Williams. Join the animals as they plan a special celebration for their moms, only to have it all jeopardized by the naughty fox. This exciting and heartwarming tale is the perfect way for kids to learn the importance of appreciating their mothers.
- The Berenstain Bears Mother’s Day Blessings by Mike Berenstain. Join the Bear family and all of Bear Country as they spend Mother’s Day together remembering just why our mothers are so special to all of us!
- The Night Before Mother’s Day by Natasha Wing. It’s the night before Mother’s Day, and Dad and the kids are determined to show Mom just how much they love her. They whip up a cake from scratch, and offer a special coupon for a day at the spa, right in their kitchen! Kids and moms will love reading this sweet story aloud together for a fun way to celebrate Mother’s Day.
- Mother’s Day Love: A Beautifully Illustrated Bedtime Story Celebrating Mother’s Day by J.P. Anthony Williams. Determined to show her appreciation, Amelia prepares a special surprise that will make her mom feel loved and cherished. With charming illustrations and a touching storyline, this book With charming illustrations and a touching storyline, this book teaches readers about the importance of expressing love and gratitude to the special people in their lives, especially on a day as important as Mother’s Day.
- T. Rex and the Mother’s Day Hug by Louis G. Grambling. In this sweet, funny story, the author shows us that sometimes a hug is the best gift of all and a way to celebrate moms on Mother’s Day and every day!
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 this to one of your boards on Pinterest.
Don’t forget to grab your FREE Animal Moms & Babies Matching activity below. Just type your email for an immediate download. It will subscribe you to my weekly newsletter, where you are going to receive freebies every time.
I hope you and your preschoolers enjoy this activity and have tons of fun learning during Mother’s Day.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.S. Please let me know if these activities worked for you, and if you would like to see an article or a printable about how to make something specific, please let me know and I will try my best to create it for you. My goal is to help you in any way I can and I don’t like anything better than to post something that you might find useful.
