Storytime Crafts: Bringing Books to Life with Hands-On Projects
Bring picture books to life with book projects. Little ones will love creating elements of their favorite stories at home.
Benefits of Doing Book Projects
Fine Motor Practice
Preschool is the perfect time to work on fine motor skills. Children strengthen their skills by pinching, picking up, gluing, cutting, and drawing.
Not only are these tiny hand muscles important for preschoolers to hold a pencil, but they are the same muscles used to zip up zippers, hold a toothbrush, and button pants.
Brings Literacy to Life
Littles love curling up with a good book and a loved one. After spending these fleeting moments together, extend the story by doing a craft or activity related to the book.
Book projects are the perfect way to get preschoolers to think about what happened in the story, a foundational skill for comprehension.
Reinforces Shapes and Colors
Many of the book projects below incorporate colors or shapes. Talk about the colors in the story and the colors your little one chooses. Are they the same or different?
Yay for sneaking in early math skills in book projects!
Promotes Creativity
Little ones are born to be creative. Fostering and encouraging creativity becomes increasingly essential as your little one gets older.
Let your preschool choose the colors, designs, shapes, etc., she wants to use on these book projects. It’s a great way to let her use some of her hard-earned independence and creativity.
Plus, little ones feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in knowing their book projects will be just as they dreamed they would be.
This article may contain affiliate links to products that may help you when homeschooling preschool.
Book Projects to Bring Storytime to Life
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
Create animal masks from paper plates to match the animals in the story.
Check out this animal mask tutorial for inspiration. Add a popsicle stick to make it easier for your little one to stick.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Make a rainbow caterpillar to go along with this cute story! The tutorial for an egg carton caterpillar can be found here.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
Use a paper towel roll and add some green construction paper leaves to the top. Have your preschool add sticker letters to the tree to make a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree for this fun pick for our book project list.
Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
Grab a paper plate and cut a medium-sized triangle from the right side to make a tail. Little ones can add tissue paper or color the plate to make a rainbow fish of their own.
You can also make a friendship bracelet because Rainbow Fish was a wonderful friend!
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
Create a mouse headband by cutting mouse ears from paper and stapling them into a strip long enough to go around your preschooler’s head.
After becoming a mouse, create a cookie from brown construction paper and use cotton swabs to dab brown paint on the circles to make chocolate chip cookies.
There is always the option to make some fresh cookies together, too. đź’—
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin
Draw a shoe on a white piece of paper. Little ones then color and decorate their own white shoe.
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Glue different colored circles into a stack. Then, attach the stack to a headband so your preschooler can ‘wear’ the caps.
Elmer by David McKee
Decorate a white elephant outline by gluing tissue paper squares to make Elmer.
Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
Make a dancing giraffe by taking a giraffe outline and cutting off the legs. Poke a small hole where the legs need to attach to the body and add a brass fastener and the legs. Now, the legs should be able to move and dance!
The Gingerbread Man
No baking is required for this cute gingerbread man!
Make a paper gingerbread man out of brown construction paper. Add eyes, buttons, and other embellishments to make him your own.
We have a post full of other gingerbread man activities here.
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Germinate your own tiny seed! It’s pretty simple—the hardest part is waiting for it to sprout.
Find the steps for planting a bean written out here.
Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
Make thumbprint animals of the animals in the story! Your little one may want to make a little blue truck to accompany the animals.
A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
Color on a coffee filter with markers. Spray the coffee filter with a spray bottle, and watch the colors mix together!
The Mitten by Jan Brett
Cut out a large mitten from construction paper. Hole punch around the outside of the mitten. Let your little one use yarn to sew the two mitten pieces together.
Leave the flat side (where your hand would go in) open.
Print off (or make) pictures of the animals into the mittens. Let your little one retell the story using the paper characters and the mitten.
Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
Use cardboard to cut out key shapes carefully. Let your little one paint or color the keys. Put them on a chenille stem to make a ring.
Come up with what animal pens each key goes to.
We’re Going on Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
Make some DIY binoculars and a map of the different places that they went in the book. Let your little one follow the map to reenact going to the places and using their binoculars to look for the bear.
Sarabella’s Thinking Cap by Judith Byron Schachner
Use a paper lunch bag to make a ‘thinking c.”. Roll down the edge a few times and cut slits up both sides to fit your preschooler’s head. Let them draw and decorate the bag with markers.
Twig by Aura Parker
Create your own Twig by gathering a twig and wrapping one chenille stem near the top to make hands and another near the bottom to make legs. Add on googly eyes.
Book-Based Crafts for Preschoolers
Creating book projects is a fun and engaging way to bring picture books to life for your preschooler. Most of these book projects use supplies you probably already have.
