Eclectic Homeschooler

Homeschool Ideas for a Customized Education

1st Grade

Cat Activities for Kids

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Looking for cat activities for kids? Well look no further. Here you’ll find all kinds of activities, cat crafts for preschoolers, and cat games for kids. It’s all the cat-tastic fun you’ll need for your cat theme homeschool unit for toddlers to 3rd grade (with a few activities great for older kids too).

Cat Activities for Kids

For the past several months we’ve been doing weekly themed unit studies with my 2 and 5 year old. They are absolutely loving doing these. We went through several winter animals during the winter and then this Spring we’ve had a different Spring topic each week like seeds, rain, butterflies, bees, etc.

I love doing themed unit studies with my kids because I feel like they get so much more out of it and learn so much more about whatever topic it is. And the ideas are endless. It’s such a fun way for them to learn while having fun.

But in the midst of my awesome Spring unit study plans my 5 year old randomly requested to spend a week on a cat theme. Cats. Hey, who am I to hinder my child’s learning. If he wants to learn more about cats, then by golly we will learn all there is to know about cats. I’m not particularly interested in cats. I don’t dislike cats, but it’s just not an interest of mine. But hey, who knows, maybe he’ll be the greatest cat veterinarian who ever lived one day. I can’t stand in the way of that.

So I’m in the midst of planning a week of learning about cats. And even though it’s not the topic I would choose, this is one thing I LOVE about homeschooling. I love that I can tailor what we are learning about to my child’s interests.

Interest led learning is so important because when kids are interested in something they are so much more primed to learn. Plus, if they are showing an interest in something in particular, it might just be for a reason. They might be working on making some kind of connections in their minds and as a homeschool parent it’s important to take full advantage of those learning opportunities.

So cats it is.

As I was searching for cat themed activities, here’s a few good cat activities for kids that I came across. Most of them are great for toddlers through 1st grade. Plus a few of these are good for older kids too. So if you’re doing a mini unit on cats, I’ve got you covered. 😉

Cat Games and Activities for Kids

1. This adorable cat matching game can also be used as a memory game too. And the cat graphics are just too adorable with all different sized, shaped, and colored cats to enjoy. Sunny Day Family

2. Here is an entire pack of kawaii cat themed activities that covers a range of basic skill concepts for preschoolers such as cutting, counting, visual discrimination, and more.  Miniature Masterminds

3. Let the dogs make an appearance in your cat unit with this free cat and dog bingo game. Make it even more fun by using cat and dog shaped erasers (like these) for the bingo chips. The Inspirational Edit

4. Get creative with these fun printable cat activities and crafts. Among them include a Pete the Cat bingo game, step-by-step instructions for how kids can draw different cats, a square cat craft, and more. Printables Fairy

5. Pick up the Safari TOOB for Domestic Cats or Big Cats and match them with these three part cards for Domestic Cats or Big Cats. Montessori Nature

6. Have your preschooler practice their fine motor skills while helping these funny felines get their pipe cleaner whiskers back with this cat whiskers lacing activity. Your Therapy Source

7. Enjoy some pretend play as your preschooler helps to feed all of the cats with this simple DIY feed the cats activity. Source Unknown

8. Have your preschooler learn number recognition while practicing staying in the lines as they color this cute cat color by number page. My Teaching Station

9. These cute and playful LEGO cats are sure to please your older kids as you work your way through your cat unit. Includes full instructions for building your very own LEGO cat (or cats). Frugal Fun 4 Boys

10. Practice gluing with Pete the Cat in this simple free Pete the Cat gluing practice worksheet. You can even have your child add little buttons to match the colors of the buttons in the Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons book. And remember, just a dot to fill the spot! It’s all good! Dawn King

11. Get crafty while learning the letter C with this cute C is for Cat letter craft. It’s always a great time to talk about letters with your preschooler, even in the midst of themed unit studies. Meow! The Teaching Aunt

12. Practice sorting colors with your preschooler as you do this fun cat fish bowl color sorting activity. This pack also comes with lots of other fun pet activities too. Karen Cox

13. Teach all kinds of preschool concepts such as letter sounds, color words, shapes, counting, and more with this huge pack of versatile feed the cat activities. Your preschooler is sure to have fun with this one! Lodrew’s Hands-On Learning

14. Let your preschooler pick out their favorite coloring page from one of these many cat coloring pages. Then pick out your favorite and color them together. Super Coloring Pages

15. Pretend to be playful cats with these cute cat mask templates. Have all sorts of adventures that you think kitty cats have all day. And yes, cat naps must be included in the agenda. 😉 Itsy Bitsy Fun

16. Don’t let your preschooler have all the kitty cat fun. If you have older kids you can get more in depth on the science side of things with this cat body parts worksheet. ESL Printables

17. This printable cat activities pack has a wide range of adorable cat themed activities for toddlers through 3rd grade. Lots of great literacy and math activities in this one. Royal Baloo

18. Expand your cat themed activities to a full blown unit study for your older kids with this cat unit study pack. It includes things for handwriting, cat recognition, and learning lots of cat facts. 1Plus1Plus1Equals1

19. Exercise those mad visual discrimination and counting skills with this adorable I Spy Cats and Dogs printable. And if your little one loves I Spy games then try laminating this one to do it over and over again. And Next Comes L

20. Target specific skills while having loads of fun with this customizable create your own feed the cat activity. Simply write your own text on the fishes after downloading, print, and enjoy! Ms Gardenia’s Speech Room

21. Help your child practice their handwriting with this C is for cat handwriting pack. It includes six handwriting pages with cute cat graphics to set the kitty-cat-writing mood. 🙂 Only Passionate Curiosity

22. If your preschooler is ready, help them to practice number sense (or recognizing numbers in different representations) with this clever cat and mice number matching game. Math Skills 4 Kids

23. Have an older child that you want to include in on the cat-tivities? Why not give them this fun cat word search to do. They can work out those brain muscles as they admire the adorable cat playing with a yarn ball. Aww. Puzzles to Print

24. These simple and fun cat quantity puzzles will help your preschooler with number recognition, counting, and logic. Plus, they have cats on them! Eeeee. Prekautism

25. A beginning reader in the family will love this cute and educational printable cat emergent reader book. It introduces the very simple sight word “a” and also includes some writing practice sheets. Fluffy Tots

26. Have you had enough cats yet? I hope not! Because this free cat preschool pack has lots of great little printables including printables to focus on the letter C, patterning, colors, counting, and more. 1Plus1Plus1Equals1

27. Practice pre-writing skills as your child learns number recognition with this simple and yet effective cat connect the dots worksheet. Day Care Worksheets

28. Round out all the activities with a fun black tissue paper cat paper plate craft inspired by Eric Carle’s book, Have You Seen My Cat. It’s got everything a preschooler could want in a craft: cutting, gluing, pipe cleaners and sticky fingers! Plus…cats! Glued to My Crafts Blog

 

You asked for cat activities for kids!

And boy did I deliver for you. There’s plenty of fun cat theme activities here to last you for awhile. I know we’ll only be spending a week on cats and this is more than enough ideas for us to try. I hope you enjoy them too!

And if you need any more ideas for your cat theme like ideas for cat books, cat crafts for preschoolers, more cat printables, etc. then be sure to check out my other posts about cats here.

Did I miss any fun cat games for kids or other cat theme ideas? Let me know in the comments below your favorites!

Picture Books About Being Helpful for Kids

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Teach your children about helpfulness with these picture books about being helpful for kids. We’ve rounded up over fifteen books on helpfulness for you to incorporate in the character training portion of your homeschool. Enjoy!

Picture Books About Being Helpful for Kids

Being helpful is an important value to impart in your children. Not only will it help YOU for them to be helpful, but it will help them to learn how to be kind people who positively contribute to their society and those around them. So let’s get to the list of over fifteen pictures books about being helpful for kids.

List of Books About Being Helpful

Note: This list (with the exception of the first book) is not in any particular order, only in the order in which I added them.

The Good Samaritan Bible Story

This Bible story is of course available in lots of formats and depicted by lots of different authors. But I included the version by Su Box because I love her illustrations. No matter which book you choose or even if you read it directly from the Bible, the story of the Good Samaritan is a great story to read to your children about the value of being helpful, even to the most unlikely people.

 


Handy-Dandy Helpful Hal: A Book About Helpfulness by Michael P. Waite (Building Christian Character)

Helpful Hal shows Sam and Sue the importance of helping their parents by doing chores such as hanging up clothes, washing the car, and feeding the cat. This is from a Christian perspective and includes a related Bible verse.

 

 

Little Hands Help by Mike Morrison (Small Voice Says)

Little Hands Help is as much of a story for the parents as it is for children. It’s a story about a girl named Angela who loves to help. But her parents won’t let her help with the “grown up chores”. So she devises a plan to communicate with her parents how much she wants to and is capable of helping them around the house more. This is a great lesson for us parents too. It can be all too easy to “just do it ourselves” when it comes to chores that need done. But instilling a mindset of helpfulness starts from a young age and as parents we have the responsibility to nurture their hearts towards being helpers.

 

 

The Berenstain Bears Lend a Helping Hand by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Brother and Sister have agreed to help their elderly neighbor, Miz McGrizz, clean her attic. Although they aren’t excited to spend their Saturday helping her out, they just might end up having more fun than they thought.

 

 

Biscuit Feeds the Pets by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

This is a sweet little My First Reader book about how Biscuit learns how to help Mrs. Gray feed the animals. From guinea pigs and fish to kittens and puppies, each animal gets their own special food. Everyone wants to play, too! But what happens when playtime gets in the way of mealtime? Biscuit will have to find a new way to make sure everyone gets what they need!

 

 

Heidi Heckelbeck Lends a Helping Hand by Wanda Coven (chapter book with pictures)

This is a small chapter book rather than a picture book, but it does include black and white illustrations throughout and not too many words on each page. It’s geared towards Kindergarten to 4th grade, but if you have a younger one that enjoys read alouds this might be a good choice. One day, when Heidi’s teacher, Mrs. Welli, teaches a lesson on the importance of helping and giving back to the community, she and her friends decide that it’s time to volunteer!

 

 

Clifford’s Good Deeds by Norman Bridwell

Clifford has a good heart, but whenever he tries to help others, it always seems to backfire. But in the end, he manages to be a huge helper by saving some children and helping to put out a fire.

 

 

I Can Help by David Hyde Costello

A cute little book about a string of animals helping each other out. First a little duckling is lost and a monkey offers to help. But as the monkey is helping he starts to fall of a tree and a giraffe helps to catch him. And so on. It’s a very simple book but shows how each of us has something special about us that we can use to help others in need.

 

Want a Printable Book List? Get it here!

 

Patchwork Helps a Friend by Gail Greiner

Patchwork, a colorfully quilted stuffed bear, sets forth on a quirky journey and enlists the help of his wildly eclectic bunch of buddies including a great blue whale, a mama-loving llama, and a gracious narwhal to help him repair his best pal, a raggedy bear named Fred.

 

 

One Good Deed by Terri Fields

One Good Deed is a book that shows how helping out one person and doing one act of kindness can impact an entire neighborhood for the better. It demonstrates how thinking about others can bring light and joy to not only one person, but a community as a whole.

 

 

Berenstain Bears Good Deed Scouts to the Rescue by Jan and Mike Berenstain

This is a collection of three different Berenstain Bears stories: Kitten Rescue, A Neighbor in Need, and Little Lost Cub. All three of the stories feature themes where the bears learn to help others in need.

 

 

Big Enough to Help by Jason Fruchter (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood)

Daniel gets discouraged when he finds out he’s not big enough to use the tools to help dad build the playhouse. But Daniel learns that there are lots of other things that he IS big enough to help with. Because everyone is big enough to help with something.

 

 

Friends Help Each Other by Farrah McDoogle (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood)

Katerina Kittycat and Daniel are having a tea party. Daniel tries to help but Katerina doesn’t want help. In the end she learns that it’s okay to ask for and accept help and Daniel demonstrates an eagerness to help his friends when needed.

 

Friends Help Each Other! by Scarlett Wing (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood)

Although it has the same name as the book above, it’s a different book. In this one Daniel and his friends learn how to help each other in several different scenarios. It has some noises and sliders to help keep younger children engaged.

 

 

The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

The classic tail of a little train helping another train that has broken down. The little blue train needs to help get all the toys and goodies over the hill for the little boys and girls on the other side. It’s a great message about helping others even when you’re small. I also think it is a good parallel to The Good Samaritan story from the Bible. Just make sure to get the original complete story, some of them are abridged.

 

 

We Help Mommy by Jean Cushman

When I was a little girl this was one of my favorite books. I’m not sure why, but it just seemed so wholesome and sweet. So when I had my own children I knew I wanted to include this precious Little Golden Book in our collection. It’s about a boy and girl named Martha and Bobby who help their mom with all sorts of chores around the house. Mind you, it’s from the 50’s. So some of the chores and pictures are outdated. But I still love it. It’s a great book to teach good work ethic.

 

 

We Help Daddy by Mini Stein

This is the companion book to We Help Mommy. I didn’t even know it existed until after I started hunting down We Help Mommy for our own collection. And it’s just as sweet and adorable. In this one Benjy and Sue help their daddy with his chores and tasks around the house. And boy are they busy. They get quite a bit done in one day. But it’s a good example of kids helping out and doing their share within the family unit. As with We Help Mommy keep in mind that this is from the 50’s so it can be a little outdated, but still totally enjoyable and sweet to read in my opinion.

 

 


Pooh Helps Out by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

Poor Pooh doesn’t have a thing to do until he decides to do a little something to help each of his friends, and it isn’t long before Pooh finds himself lending a paw with cleaning, dusting, putting away, and gardening.

Want a Printable Book List? Get it here!

Did I miss any books about being helpful? Be sure to comment below with your favorite books about helpfulness!