Main navigation

Young Thriving Minds

Preschool printables, craft & activity ideas for parents and educators of early learners.

Join the YTM Tribe

Early Learning Resources on TPT

Freebies

DIY Card Board Car Garage

VROOM, HONK, BEEP BEEP! This card board car parking garage will be the perfect place to park the little ones favorite cars!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2020 is here and we are wishing you all joy, laughter, and lots of teachable moments in this most exciting New Year! We decided to kick off the New Year exploring the concept REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE! What better way to make the most of all the Amazon boxes left over from holiday deliveries?!

This Cardboard Car Parking Garage was easy and fun to make! I can remember 2 years ago, my husband and I purchased an all inclusive car garage for our son for Christmas. It was pricey and took forever to put together. We assembled all the pieces and put the stickers on ( all 100 of them) then, we sat back as proud parents and couldn’t wait for our son to become completely obsessed with his new shiny car garage!…… Yea, he played with it for all of 3 days. Then it sat, taking up space, collecting dust.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Oh the power or re-purposing! What I loved about this project was working together with my son to create something new to enjoy! Seeing his face light up while looking over his finished product was priceless! He took so much pride in this project! The best part? When he has played until his heart is content with this Cardboard parking garage we can simply place it in recycling. Nope, it won’t be collecting dust or taking up space! WIN!

Here’s a light tutorial. We used a fairly sizable box that our air fryer was delivered in. (Everyone has been raving so we got ourselves one for Christmas!) Modify as needed, to suit your little one best!

I found folding the cardboard into a triangular shape was easiest. We secured with clear box tape!

The ramp can be secured with tape so that cars can “drive” up. Make sure you place a ramp on the back side and one on the front side. (MIDDLE PICTURE) To secure columns in place I used a hot glue gun. Tacky Glue could possibly work as well but will require alittle more drying time. Paint as desired, we used black plaint and I drew “parking lines” with a white paint marker!

And there you have it! My son couldn’t be more proud! It has fueled his imagination for hours. We’ve added more surrounding roads and city buildings.

If you decide to give this a try, have fun and enjoy! And remember, creative experiences are all about the process not the finished product! If you had fun, you did well!

Hope you enjoy!

New Year’s Festive Activities

Use this FREE New Year’s Activity set during your gathering or as an addition to your themed unit activity!

We certainly hope you all had a wonderful Holiday! We enjoyed time with our family and friends and are currently getting ready for the NEW YEAR! Goodness, where does the time go? 2020 is officially among us! In preparation for family gatherings and get-togethers in celebration of the New Year, I put together this festive printable activity set! If you’re hosting the family and friends this year and are having a hard time coming up with ways to include the kiddos in all the festivities, you’ll need these!

2020 Vision!

I LOVE the idea of creating a vision board for the new year! A vision board is a visual representation of the things you want to accomplish or acquire. Encouraging children to create vision boards  will allow them to have a constant visual reminder of what they are working towards. It is a fantastic tool for teaching goal setting, and can be an encouraging way for children to learn to believe in themselves. In this free new years activity download, I have included two vision boards:

  • Vision board featuring writing prompts: This version may be better suited for students who are a little older. Perhaps you’re hosting/having a gathering of little ones of various ages! Add photos, magazine clippings, encourage students to make it personal and be creative!
  • Vision board without writing prompt: This version may be better suited for pre-k and kindergarten. Encourage them to draw, color or glue photos of goals or things their looking forward to in 2020!
  • Perfect for writing centers!

How amazing is it that we can encourage children to accomplish all of their own desires in such a positive way!  It’s the quintessential, visual representation of “You can do anything you set your mind to,” because it serves as a regular reminder to fuel the achievement of all they’ve depicted.

Party Hats are sure to be a hit!

These party hats are so cute and festive! They are super simple to assemble you’ll only need few things:

  • scissors
  • tape
  • color pencils, markers ore crayons
  • printer
  • paper or cardstock
  • balloon string or ribbon

Happy New Year!

From my family to yours, I sincerely hope you’ve had a beautiful holiday season! We’re wishing you joy, laughter and lots of teachable moments in 2020! Stay tuned with us here at YTM as we welcome this new year! There’s so much we are looking forward to sharing with our YTM Tribe!

Positive affirmations for children

Use this FREE printable with your little ones, encouraging them to use affirmations to improve their self esteem, over all well being, and creative expression.

Thinking Positively is a powerful tool that can improve your over all well being, help to manage anxiety, overcome challenges, and make better choices. As parents and/or educators, I’m sure we all affirm our children positively and praise them often in an effort to maintain their self esteem. I think it is equally important to ensure that our little ones are able to self affirm.

I have been working on “ I AM” statements with my son and get so excited when I hear him use these statements without prompt! There is something magical about teaching young people the concept of “Believing in self!!!

Positive thinking begins with positive self talk

Introducing positive affirmations is one of the many ways you can encourage the maintaining of positive thoughts! Everyone can benefit from improving their positive thinking skills! Positive thinking can lead to an improved sense of control of your emotions and your actions. Positive thinking skills often start with positive-self talk. By beginning to think more positively, kids can learn to believe in themselves and work towards their individual potentials.

Ideas for use of this printable:

  • If you have a student who can read simply cut these out and place one in their lunch box/bag. This would be a perfect mid-day “replenishing” reminder for your child!
  • If your student is pre-k or kindergarten, cut these out and choose one daily or weekly. Read it aloud and explain that this affirmation can be your focus for the day (or week).

For example: “I choose kindness”.  You may choose to discuss what it means to be kind with your little one(s) and/or why its important. List/discuss some ways you can be kind to yourself, your peers, your belongings etc. and how you plan to be kind that day/week.

  • Hang affirmation(s) where they are visible, the refrigerator, in a bedroom on the wall or classroom.

Ready to download? Of course you are!

Hope you enjoy!

Butterfly Life cycle

Use this activity to help your little ones learn the butterfly life cycle!

Summer time is the perfect time for bee’s, bugs, and especially BUTTERFLIES!

We recently visited our local science center for an up close encounter with many different butterfly species! Exploring the butterfly habitat was engaging and fun! My son was able to closely inspect his favorite butterfly, the Monarch, by using the q-tip provided by staff. The q-tip’s had been dipped in Gatorade in an effort to tempt the butterflies to flutter down for a “sweet treat.” This was a great learning experience for him, we both greatly enjoyed ourselves.

Inspired by this hands on experience, I decided to dive into the world of butterflies and expand on all we learned. I created a simple Life cycle activity (available for download for free) and also purchased some books about butterflies to add to our home library.

You can download this butterfly activity for FREE!

Hope you enjoy!

Spring Birds Alphabet Activity

Enjoy this Spring alphabet activity with your blossoming little ones!

Spring is in the air! This is my favorite time of year! The weather is that perfect combination of cool crisp air and yet sweet warm sun. My son Trey and I are quickly filling up our calendar with fun outdoor things to do! How exciting is this beautiful time of flowers blossoming and birds singing sweet songs of hello Spring!

Your little one(s) will enjoy this interactive Spring Birds activity as we all welcome the new season! This resource is a great hands- on learning activity intended to help build letter recognition and letter sound association skills.

What’s included with this resource

  • 26 uppercase bird houses
  • 26 lowercase bird houses
  • 26 uppercase birds
  • 26 lowercase birds
  • 26 beginning sound example (without labels)
  • 26 beginnings sound example ( with labels)

Prep for this activity

Simply print this activity on to paper or cardstock. I recommend laminating for durability. Then cut out the components along the dotted lines. One of my favorite things to do is add hook and loop tape! It allows easy attaching to matching cards and multi-use!

Many opportunities for building literacy skills

There are 2 different birdhouses and 4 different birds for each letter of the alphabet. Because there are so many options for each letter, you can easily adapt the activity to suit the need of your children.

For example, little ones can match uppercase letters to uppercase letters, lowercase to lowercase letters, or uppercase to lowercase letters.


Finally, the beginning sound birds can be matched to the corresponding letter birdhouse!  If your kids are just beginning to understand the concept of initial sounds of words, use the bird beginning sound example with labels.  To make the activity more challenging, use the bird beginning sound example cards without labels.

This set is perfect for use in home, school, and therapy settings. It is a great addition to your spring unit and is appropriate for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, SPED, RTI, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. It would make for a great addition to your language arts or literacy center. Additionally, it could be used to create a file folder game, a busy bag activity, or a take home activity bag.

Additional activities ideas

  • Add magnets to the birdhouses and use on a magnetic board or cookie sheet.
  • Use the activity in a pocket chart.
  • Ask kids to find birds with the first letter of their name!

Purchase This Activity

Ready to try this activity with your little one(s)? It is available for purchase in my store. Click on the image to purchase and download!

St. Patrick’s Day Number Mat Activity

Free St. Patrick’s Day activity for your little Lucky Charms!

This activity will be a great addition to your St. Patricks Day theme! It also requires little prep! Use this free printable Number Mat activity for your St. Patrick’s Day themed math centers or workstations!

What I love about number mats is the various ways you can use them to build number skills. I love to laminate them for durability and use dry erase markers for tracing and shading. I also love to use holiday themed “markers” of my choosing! In the photo below my son did this activity with St Patty’s day buttons I found at Dollar Tree! LUCKY you, there are clover markers included in this activity!

This St. Patrick’s themed activity is festive and interactive! It would be perfect to use in small groups, in your math centers or as an individual activity.


This activity is intended to help build skills in numeral recognition, number order and one to one correspondence. It is also listed as a freebie on my TPT store! While you’re there be sure to follow me for updates that detail when I post new resources and freebies.


Hope you enjoy!