Preschool Learning Activities with Beads

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My favorite place to buy hands on learning activities material is at the Dollar Tree.

I also hit up the craft aisle of any store we are in frequently. But I love that I can spend $20-$30 at the Dollar Tree and walk away with several items for our craft time and homeschool.

A few weeks ago I grabbed a bag of colorful beads. I loved the look and feel of them but had no idea what I was going to use them for.

I had to have them though and I knew I would think of something!

The first activity we used the beads in was a sensory bin! If you do not know what a sensory bin is, you are definitely missing out and so is your kiddo! Check out this post on how to put together a quick and cheap sensory bin for your child.

Teach your child sight words with these fun activities.

After about a week I thought to myself, surely we can use these beads for more learning opportunities.

Miss S is going to be starting preschool this coming year and she has been showing a ton of interest in learning. She knows her colors and can count up to 10. I thought it would be fun to use these beads to reinforce colors and numbers, and work on fine motor skills!

Here are 5 learning activities you and your preschooler can do with a $1 bag of beads!

Color Sorting

I used a wooden container we had on hand and taped construction paper to the bottom. I placed the wooden beads on the table for Miss S and allowed her to sort them out by color.

Sorting by Size

This activity is similar, but this time your preschooler sorts the beads by size instead of color. This takes a little more concentration to do because your child has to measure sizes.

Number Tracing

Miss S really enjoyed this activity. I wrote numbers from 1-12 on white index cards. She then took the beads and “traced” the numbers by placing the beads onto the cards.

Find the Bead

This activity combined a sensory bin of rice and the color sorting to create a more complex activity.

I hide the beads into the rice and then the girls found them then sorted by color and size. I loved how this activity combined two smaller activities, plus added sensory and fine motor skills as well.

Thread the Bead

This activity is a spin on the straw and rigatoni activity. The girls threaded the beads onto the pipe cleaners, getting in some fine motor skills. They started with the pipe cleaners stuck in the play doh to make them stand straight up. The pipe cleaners eventually got too heavy and they scratched that plan.

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There you go! Five Fun and easy bead activities to do with your preschooler.

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