The best time to introduce figure skating to children is when they're tots or preschoolers. 

It's so magical to them and they have the ability to learn without too much frustration. 

If you're planning to introduce figure skating this winter, these are fabulous activities to put on the shelves in preparation for the big day on the ice.

Even if you're not planning to try out skating, these figure skating activities for tots and preschoolers with printables are sure to bring joy this winter season!

And if don't hesitate to check out our other winter activities and printables as well!

I am so excited about our new figure skating activities!  As a little girl I LOVED figure skating.  (I still do today.)  

I will always remember going to various events, watching Christina Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton live.  At one specific event I just happened to be sitting next to Christina Yamaguchi's mother.  It was quite a treat. 

Of course my parents had us all in figure skating lessons at a very young age.  One of my sisters continued for quite some time.  

Princess and Dinomite are asking to learn how to skate now. 

We took them once, when they were very little.  

They still remember it and feel they can do much better now.  

Enough about that though, check out our fun classroom activities!

Figure Skating Activities for Tots and Preschoolers with Free Printables

S is for Skate

Sunshine will use the "s" stamp and ink to fill in circles on the "S."

Source:  I created the printable for this activity. The Figure Skating Activities for Tots & Preschoolers Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Figure Skating Sensory Play & Number Creations

Sunshine can either enjoy sensory play using the mirror and other fun materials, or she can practice creating numbers using the materials provided.  Either way, it's a super fun activity!

Source:  I created the printable for this activity. The Figure Skating Activities for Tots & Preschoolers Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Figure Skating Tweeze & Sort

I found these cute little foam pieces at my local Rite Aid around Christmas time.  There are cute little hats and figure skates in blue and pink.  

Sunshine will sort the pieces using her fingers or tweezers if she feels up to it.  (Her fine motor skills are quite developed.)  She can sort the pieces by color, or by item.

Figure Skate Glitter and Glue Activity

Sunshine has superior fine motor skills, however she lacks muscle strength in her hands and fingers.  

It's funny how that happened, but I know a lot of it has to do with Sunshine's obsession and stemming with fine motor tasks.

In this activity she will squeeze the glue onto the figure skate, and then sprinkle glitter on it.  The activity will definitely be messy, but it should be loads of fun too.

Source:  The printable for this activity can be found at The Kidz Page.

Ice Play

We can't have a figure skating unit without an ice activity.  I froze foam snow flakes in containers of various shapes and sizes. She can play with the ice, stacking ,building, holding, etc.

Let's Get Ready to Skate!

Sunshine will practice putting on a tutu, winter hat, and gloves in preparation to go figure skating!  I can't wait for her to have fun with these activities!

These are such adorable figure skating activities for tots and preschoolers. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

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Hockey was my favorite sport growing up. I was so excited to pass along this passion to my kids this winter with our new Hockey Unit with Free Printables.

It's the perfect winter themed unit study, especially for kids who enjoy sports. 

There's something about sports that invites children to try and practice skills in ways that they otherwise would not do.

Some people may wonder why I decide to create sports units.  They are definitely not part of the Montessori curriculum.  The truth is, I want to provide my kiddos with the best well rounded education I can possibly provide.  

Doing so enhances their love and appreciation of the world and people around them.  The more they understand, the more than can contribute.  

Sports are a BIG part of our society.  If my kiddos learn about them, they may be able to participate in more conversations, than if they hadn't.  

Talking about sports may sound silly to some, but to a mother with four special needs kiddos who all have speech impairments, finding a common topic to talk about with anyone is a big deal.  

And when it comes to Montessori, I've learned you can take any topic and create Montessori activities around it.  Just take a look at our activities this week!

Hockey Unit with Free Printables

Hockey Spelling & Vocabulary Words

With any new sport, there are new vocabulary words.  

What better way to learn them than to practice spelling them?  Especially when you have a picture to help you understand the meaning of the word.  

The kiddos LOVE using our movable alphabet letters.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Unit Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Hockey Scale Activity

Check out our new scale!  It's beautiful isn't it?  The kiddos are in love with it.  

This activity has been very popular on our shelves this week.  

I've provided a matchbox car sized Zamboni (which came in a package of hockey sports cards), weights (came with the scale), a real hockey puck, and glass beads.  

The kiddos can weigh as many or as few objects as they like.  It's a very open ended activity.  

I figured this would be good considering it's their first introduction to the scale.

Source: This activity was inspired by a post at Suzie's Home Education Ideas.

Multiplication with Hockey Pucks

We have been plugging away at multiplication and skip counting for a couple of months now.  Each time I try to introduce it in a different way because the kiddos still don't quite get it, I fail.  That is until this week.  

To be completely honest, I didn't know I was introducing it in a different way.  The materials we used, I picked up because they matched our theme, and not for any other reason.  Little did I know the power of magnets.

The mini hockey pucks in this activity are plain black refrigerator magnets (no adhesive).  They love to stick together, but they can also be used individually.  For my kiddos, this made skip counting and multiplication easy. 

They understood the individual value of three "pucks," and then they visually saw the value of one set of three "pucks."  

It was as if a light bulb turned on inside their heads, especially for Dinomite.  I LOVE that he thinks multiplication is easy now.  (I may need to buy more magnets.  Lol.)

Dinomite working on a multiplication problem.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Unit Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Greater Than/Less Than Hockey Activity Cards

It's been a while since we've practiced doing Greater Than/Less Than problems, and it definitely showed this week.  

My guess is you'll be seeing more of these activities in future units. It's amazing how quickly kiddos forget things.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Unit Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Hockey Sports Card Sort

Over the past six months, Dinomite has really developed a love for sports and sports cards. He's taken over his father's collection and LOVES receiving new packs of cards.  

When I started putting together this unit, I thought it might be fun to surprise him with some new hockey cards.  Little did I know how hard they would be to find.  

Walmart had two choices, the set that I purchased and one other one.  

I ended up going with this one.  It came with the Zamboni used in one of our math activities.   The players are older ones, but it still works.

In this activity the kiddos can look through the cards and sort them as they wish.  I love seeing how their minds work when it comes to sorting.

Top 10 Hockey Countries

Hockey is an international sport, one that's played mostly in the Northern Hemisphere.  

Last week, the kiddos identified countries in the Arctic.  

This activity expands a little bit further. 

The kiddos will find the top 10 countries where hockey is most popular.  They're doing a fabulous job with this, applying their knowledge from last week.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Unit Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Hockey Teams in the NHL

Identifying the states where NHL teams are located is a great way to review.  The kiddos will use push pins to mark where teams are located.

And since some teams in the NHL are from Canada, I thought we'd introduce the kiddos to provinces.  They can choose what map they want to work on.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Unit Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Hockey Puck Rubber Band Wrap

The kiddos loved our last rubber band activity, I thought a hockey puck would be a fun shape to work with.  Sure enough, it is!

Water Transfer with Markers

The kiddos love water transfer activities but tend to get carried away with them.  This week I have marked the bottles with rubber bands.  They are only to fill the bottles up to the rubber bands.

Ice Hockey Tray

All of the kiddos have fallen in love with Playmobil this year. Dinomite saw this set at the grocery store around Christmas time. I couldn't resist purchasing it to add to our activities this week.  

What better to play with than a real ice rink.  I took a plastic lid to a cake pan, filled it with water, put it in the freezer and viola!

For those who would like more winter activities and free printables, be sure to subscribe to our free newsletter by clicking the link below.

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Hockey Activities for Tots & Preschoolers w/ Free Printables

Are you looking for a fun winter themed unit study for a little one in your life?

These Hockey Activities for Tots and Preschoolers with Free Printables are exactly what you need!

For some children, sports are the best way to capture interest, draw attention, and help with mastery of a skill.

I love how sports, especially hockey, teach kids skills, they may never learn otherwise.

Hockey is my all time favorite sport.  There's just something about it.  I could watch it for hours, especially if I'm at a hockey rink.  The fans are as entertaining as the actual game.  

While growing up my brother played hockey.  As an adult he continued to play, and then started coaching once his boys were old enough to play.  

I had fantasies of my boys playing hockey.  Dinomite's middle name is Turcotte.  One of the reasons we chose it, was because it was a great name to put on a hockey jersey.  (You can laugh at us. It's okay.) 

Even when we purchased his Christmas stocking before he was born, we chose a hockey themed one. 

My parents had me on ice skates at the age of three.  

Ice skating is one of my favorite ways to exercise.  It's just so much fun.  

Sadly, it's been a while.  I'm super excited about this week's unit. 

It will be the perfect excuse to get back out on the ice, especially now that the kiddos are older.

Jason and I had so much fun planning Sunshine's activities for this week.  She knows nothing about hockey, so it will be fun to introduce her to one of my favorite things.

Hockey Activities for Tots and Preschoolers with Free Printables

H is for Hockey

There are so many possibilities when using my "H is for Hockey" printable.  

Originally I wanted to use a black dot marker to make pucks in the circles on the letter "H."  Unfortunately, I didn't have  black dot marker.  

Then I decided Sunshine could make pucks by pressing her fingertip into washable black ink and stamping the paper with her finger tip.  

But then I thought of a few more ideas.  

I just may switch out a different idea each day.  Lol.  

I purchased plain black circular magnets at Walmart to use for the older kiddos' hockey themed activities.  (They're counters for a math activity.)  

I hadn't realized they fit perfectly in my circles on the "H."  

They will be even more fun, as a cookie sheet is the tray for the activity.  

Lastly, I thought of using black paint and paintbrush, black marker, or black crayon to fill in the circles to look like hockey pucks. 

Whatever way you choose to do it, the activity should be loads of fun.

Source:  I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Activities for Tots & Preschoolers Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Mirror Hockey Letters

This activity can be used in two ways.  If your kiddo knows their numbers, then he/she can use the materials provided to create the numbers.  

The hockey themed number cards can be used as a control.  

If your kiddo doesn't know numbers, then he/she can just have fun with mirror sensory play using the materials provided.

Sunshine has fallen in love with the sandpaper numbers over the last few weeks.  We've practiced numbers 1-5 several times.  

Though she isn't able to identify them accurately 100% of the time, she is starting to understand the process of making the numbers.  

We'll attempt making numbers out of materials.  If it doesn't work, the sensory play will be great for her.

Materials used in this activity include red pipe cleaners, black circular magnets, salt, clear crystal beads, red glass beads, and wooden player figures.

Source:  I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Activities for Tots & Preschoolers Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Hockey Player Color Match

My husband thought of this activity.  Sunshine will match up the colored jerseys with the color card provided.  Though there are various colors on each jersey, the main color is very prominent, making the activity fairly simple.

Source:  Jason and I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Activities for Tots & Preschoolers Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

 Big and Small Hockey Stick Sort

Sunshine is great at sorting, but not so great at understanding what she's sorting and why.  

I thought this activity would be great at helping her with that process.  

She will sort hockey stick cards, placing them under "BIG" and "little" label cards.

Sort:  I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Activities for Tots & Preschoolers Printable Pack is a free printable.  For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Sports Match Up

This activity can be used in two ways.  

For little ones who can't identify different sports balls yet, they can match up balls to the ball cards.  Once they have mastered that, they can start matching ball cards with net cards and the plush balls.

When I introduced this activity to Sunshine, I had no idea she didn't know which balls were which.  

She has two older brothers and a Daddy who LOVE sports.  Who knew?  

I ended up removing the net cards from the activity. We'll see how quickly she learns the balls. Then I'll try to introduce the nets.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Hockey Activities for Tots & Preschoolers Printable Pack is a free printable. For your copy, click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Don't Break the Ice

Don't Break the Ice is Bulldozer's favorite game.  

I just purchased my second game because he wore through the old one.  

Sunshine is very much like Bulldozer.  It was a given she'd love this activity.  I love it because it's a great way to practice fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, and hand muscle strength, all of which she needs to work on.  

Once she is confident in her ability to hammer ice blocks, we'll add a second player and practice taking turns.

For those who would like more seasonal activity ideas and free printables, be sure to subscribe to our free newsletter by clicking the link below.

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Don't forget your free printables!

Hockey Activities for Tots and Preschoolers Printable Pack

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