20 Simple Preschool Supplies You Can Grab Today
If your little ones are learning preschool skills at home this year, you’re going to need a few supplies! But, which ones do you need? Which supplies are the ones your kids are going to use again and again, day in and day out, for their learning times? Simply scroll down for the answers as I share all our favorite preschool supplies!
Crayons are an important preschool supply because little ones color so much! They’re also great for developing fine motor skills because they help kids learn to control their small hand movements.
The larger crayons are good for little hands to hang onto, but if you use the small crayons and break them in half, they almost give kids no other choice but to hold them using correct pencil grip. I’ve also found that the Twistables kinds of crayons are nice because you don’t need to sharpen them. But, whatever your preference, having crayons around is a must! :)
Markers are a preschool supply that you may want to introduce to slightly older learners. This is mostly because markers get on hands, tables, clothes, and furniture much more easily than crayons do. We DO use markers at home sometimes, but it’s always under supervision and we always discuss expectations about them before using them too.
Markers are a fun way for little ones to mix up their coloring adventures for sure! Some kiddos get bored with using the same supplies for weeks at a time, so markers are perfect way to add a little variety!
Small manipulatives, like counters or mini erasers, are exactly what young kids need when they’re exploring early math concepts like counting and number sense. To be able to show numbers using physical objects is a skill that needs to be developed, like counting on fingers. Using real objects to show their thinking is a simple way to solidify the learning in their minds more easily.
We use counters, mini erasers, nuts and bolts, goldfish crackers, Cheerios, small candies, pom poms, and all kinds of other little things that we find at craft stores or learning stores, like Hobby Lobby. And, as a bonus, my son absolutely LOVES to play with the “small things” as he calls them. Keeping those kinds of things high interest is another easy way to keep the learning fun and fresh. They’re super easy to trade out for something different when they’re getting boring too.
It’s SUCH a good idea to introduce scissors to kids at home. Not only are scissors a great way to strengthen hand muscles, but they’re also super useful in every day things. My kiddos uses his scissors for learning activities, but also uses them to open his own snacks and create paper art projects when he feels like it.
We started with plastic, “safety” scissors that can only cut paper. I’ve linked those kind here. After I felt he’d mastered the safety scissors, we very carefully moved on to normal kid scissors.
The two things I recommend teaching kids who are learning to use scissors are
1) how to hold the scissors when using them and
2) how to move around while holding scissors.
After you show your kiddos how to hold the scissors and they start to cut, they’re bound to twist their hands every which-way to try to get them to cut. So, you can put a sticker or a smiley face with a marker on the thumb of their dominant hand and tell them that the sticker or smiley ALWAYS needs to face up to the sky. Their thumb should never be facing down.
And when they need to move with scissors, they should always WALK and hold the sharp part securely in their fist. That way, if they happen to fall, the sharp part wouldn’t be pointing up to injure them as they fall too.
We use these worksheets to practice scissor skills pretty often! They’re GREAT for little ones.
Glue sticks are a REALLY fun preschool supply that little ones always love to get introduced to! The liquid glue is fine and if you really want to introduce it at home, you totally can. But, as a former kindergarten teacher, let me tell you: glue sticks are better. Haha!
Glue sticks give them the freedom to stick things where they want to, but not make a huge mess. Glue from glue sticks also dry much faster, allowing their work to solidify more quickly without as much waiting time.
6. NOTEBOOKS AND CONSTRUCTION PAPER
Notebook paper and construction paper are another one of those essential supplies that we definitely use on a weekly basis. Ethan draws, writes, cuts, and glues using these papers all the time. He adds stickers to them, brings them in the car to “take notes” and “make lists”…he loves to mimic work activities that he sees Mom and Dad do, so these papers are perfect for that.
We also use the construction paper for crafts as well! We love to cut out pictures, glue small pieces of paper to other papers, or simple draw pictures that we imagine or see in books. Needless to say, lots of colorful papers are a MUST.
We use the clipboard all the time in our learning times! It’s a great way for little ones to be able to bring their activities with them. Whether it’s to the park, in the car, or just around the living room, having a clipboard to provide a solid writing space is perfect for any spot.
We keep one clipboard in our learning basket, one in the car, and have an extra lying around just in case. Grabbing a clipboard is a normal habit for my 3 year old when he wants to write on something now and it’s great to watch him build that independence and know what he needs.
We use a binder to keep a BUNCH of our learning activities organized in one place. The binder lives in our learning basket, but it’s a great thing to grab our our way out the door for a long day of errands or when we go on trips. We have WAY too many activities to just let them all exist as tons of sheets lying around, so having a binder to keep seasonal or monthly activities in is a perfect way to keep things organized and easy to find.
We actually have one binder that we keep ready to use ALL the time and it’s packed with all the activities from this preschool/toddler learning binder resource.
There is no limit to the amount of stickers in this house, y’all. Haha! Ethan just LOVES to stick them all over the place. However, we do have rules about where the stickers are allowed to be and where they are NOT allowed to be. Stickers are allowed on pretty much ANY paper and piece of clothing, but not on windows, furniture, or walls. I’d definitely encourage talking with your little learners about your sticker expectations before handing them over.
We use stickers for all kinds of things. We use them for fun, for sorting, for letter and number matching, color naming, just all kinds of learning activities like that. The sky is really the limit for the amount of things you can do with stickers!
Dry erase markers are a supply we use ALL the time! We use them on sheet protectors and plastic pockets to complete activities all the time. We also use them for tracing activities in our busy books and boxes. You might want to try wet erase markers, like Vis-a-Vis, in some situations too. They tend to try pretty quickly and not erase if they just get bumped.
Pencils are a pretty basic school supply, but they’re great for so many activities! That tactile, pencil-on-paper feeling is good for young learners to experience and pencils are awesome for young kids practicing pencil control. It’s great for them to be able to fix mistakes, erase and try again, and not feel worried that every mark they make is a permanent one.
If you want to get really fancy, these chunky mechanical pencils are a simple way to add some excitement into learning times. The simplest switch up can mean a lot to a little learner.
Tape is almost as popular as stickers around here! My 3 year old uses tape to create paper forts, to connect papers together, and all manner of other things. He LOVES getting to tape his work up on the refrigerator and use it to fix mistakes he makes with his scissors.
I originally got some for Ethan because he kept asking to use mine, so I’d highly recommend grabbing some for your kids that’s less expensive and just as easy to use.
Using sticky tacky is the way we complete a HUGE amount of our learning activities! A lot of the activities we work on for preschool time require Ethan to match or attach a small card to a larger mat. Sensory bins, busy books, busy boxes, and our binder activities all require smaller cards to be attached to a larger mat, so instead of using velcro dots for EVERY space (that gets EXPENSIVE and bulky really quickly), we use little bits of sticky tacky to secure the cards to the mats.
Again, I’d definitely be sure to establish rules and expectations around the sticky tacky putty so it doesn’t end up in hair, furniture, or tummies, but once you’ve established those boundaries, it’s such a great tool!
Sheet protectors are so useful for being able to use activities over and over without reprinting them or laminating them. I laminate some of the activities that I know we’re going to use a TON or ones that will go through more wear and tear. But, everything else, ESPECIALLY activities that are going into a binder, those go right into a sheet protector.
You can write all over sheet protectors with dry erase or wet erase markers and it all wipes right off as long as you do it within a reasonable amount of time. If you leave the marker on the sheet protector overnight or for a few days, it will be MUCH more difficult to wipe off and may require some elbow grease. So, we try to remember to wipe off every sheet protector as soon as we’re finished with the activity.
Plastic pockets are a happy in-between sitting in the middle of sheet protectors and lamination. Haha! They are simple to use, like sheet protectors you just slide the activity right into, but they’re heavier duty plastic like lamination. I use these pockets for seasonal activities that we will only use for a couple weeks. That way, I can use the activity and then put the activities away for next year without wasting a laminating pouch or needing to reprint things.
16. BOOKS
Oh books books books!! You can never have too many books for little ones. :) So, I say they’re a an absolutely necessary supply for preschool! Books that tell stories, nonfiction books, picture books of any kind really can be amazing for preschoolers to learn from. They soak up all kinds of good information from books, so the more the merrier.
You can peek at some of my favorite books for all kinds of seasons using the buttons below!
Magnetic letters are a great manipulative to have around for a ton of reasons! They’re a nice way to mix it up when you’ve been using letter cards for a long time and the 3-D features of magnetic letters makes them more interesting to young kids. We use magnetic letters to match up in our activities, to spell Ethan’s name, just to experiment with magnets and how fun they are! They’re just a great tool to explore the world and early literacy with.
Oh man, playdough is one of those tools that you can use FOREVER. You can use it with toddlers and preschoolers, and even big 4th and 5th grade kids still love it!
In preschool, we use it for a variety of activities. We use it in “pick and smash” activities, to create letters and numbers, to build pictures, and to strengthen fine motor skills and hand muscles. And, playdough ALWAYS adds an element of fun to the learning. Kiddos always know when something is going to be more fun, it’s going to be more interesting, so even using playdough as a tool for engagement is a awesome plan.
Our plastic school box keeps all of our most used supplies organized in one easy-to-find place. Before using a box, we’d never know where the crayons, scissors, or glue sticks ran off too and looking around for them was taking away from our learning times.
Last, but not least, I’d highly recommend having a basket or at least a space to keep all the relevant, every-day learning supplies together and organized. We use a basket and keep Ethan’s binder, school supply box (with all his supplies), stickers, clipboard, schedule, and activities in the basket so he knows where to go when we’re going to have some learning time. This helps instill a sense of confidence that he knows what he’s doing and where to look for the resources he needs to accomplish the learning goal. It also reinforces the learning routine as he goes over to get the basket from the same spot each time we work on something together. Confidence and routine are things little ones DEFINITELY need to develop in their day to day lives, as well as their learning times.
I change out the supplies in the basket as needed. For Christmas time, the basket is all decked out in red and green, with Christmas-themed stickers and activities and books. In January, it’s all about winter and includes all the things he’ll need for the month as we learn our way through snow and cold and winter time fun. You can definitely make the basket your own, but keeping it all in one designated place is recommended.
Those are the top 20 simple supplies I think you’ll need for preschool learning times that you can run out and grab from Target or order on Amazon TODAY. Is there anything else you would add or that you use with your preschooler every week? :) I hope this was helpful! Happy learning!
Cheering you on!
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