Free Printables Featured on Mom's Library (+ Weekly Giveaway)

Welcome to Mom's Library! Each week, Mom's Library is filled with parenting tips, activities for kids, stories, crafts, recipes, and more! Also, Mom's Library now includes a WEEKLY GIVEAWAY!!
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Check out last week's Mom's Library for Book Activities for popular picture books, like this fun bird craft to accompany Are You My Mother? that was shared by Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails. See all of the book activities here.

Featured Activities-- Free Printables

Mom's Library is a great source for a variety of helpful resources.  I've noticed each week, there are many writers who share their resources for FREE! This week I am featuring free printables for activities with kids and educational activities. There is a ton of great stuff available for free! I'm just featuring a few of them, so make sure you check last week's Mom's Library for even more freebies.

Laundry Letters (a letter recognition activity) free printable from My Joy Filled Life

Word Family Uno (decoding words in the short a word families)  free printable from The Measured Mom

Transportation Clip and Count Cards free printable from The Measured Mom

If you like this one, also check out The Measured Mom's Free Transportation Matching Memory Game. I'm lovin' all of The Measured Mom's freebies this week!

Fun with Forest Facts (great for kids in grades 2-4) free printable from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom

God Makes the Plants (Plant Lifecycle File Folder Game) free printable from Bible Fun for Kids

Weekly Giveaway

I'm so excited that Mom's Library now includes weekly giveaways. I hope you take advantage of entering to win these awesome prizes each week when you stop by to link up or read posts.

This Week's Giveaway

A Complete Geography Curriculum Set

Everything you need to help develop a love for Geography in your children.

The set includes: Basic Weather Features, Terrain, U.S. States, Major Countries of the World, and Printable Maps.  It also features 2 Project Around the World activity guides that will take you on a virtual tour of New York City and Alaska.  

Check out more about the geography curriculum and watch the videos of the 2 year old and 4 year old. (Their geography skills are amazing! I do not want to take them on in a geography bee!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Preschool Theme Friendship Book List

Friendship is a wonderful theme to explore in preschool. At the beginning of the school year, it can be difficult for preschool children to step out and make new friends. Through out the school year, children often have to navigate the ins and outs of friendships. Near the end of the school year, children often have to say goodbye to the preschool friends they have made. Books can be a wonderful way to help children explore friendship. I've been collecting favorite picture books that fit with the preschool theme friendship.


Knuffle Bunny Too  by Mo Willems fits with many themes that are covered in preschool, but I think it fits well with the friendship theme too. This is the follow up story to Knuffle Bunny, where we meet Trixie, a girl who loves her security bunny. In this story, Trixie has grown up and gone to preschool. In preschool she deals with another student who has the same "nuffle" bunny. The girls have a hard time getting along with each other and eventually the teacher has to step in and solve their dispute by taking the bunnies away from the girls. Traumatically, the bunnies are mixed up and the girls' dads have to arrange a late night meeting to get the bunnies back with their owners. This results in the girls realizing they have more in common than they thought, and becoming friends over their shared interests. 

Dog and Bear (Neal Porter Books) (Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner-Best Picture Book) (Awards)) Dog and Bear by Laura Vaccaro Seeger This book consists of three sweet stories of a dog and a bear. They deal with real friendship topics that kids may face while modeling good ways to deal with friends--such as when one friend wants to play together and the other friend wants to be alone.

Best Friends for Frances  Best Friends for Frances by Russell Hoban In this story, Frances does not want to be friends with her little sister Gloria. Frances wants to play with Albert, but Albert doesn't want a girl to play with him. So, Frances and her sister team up for a little girl power and show Albert that girls can have fun and sisters can be friends! In the end, they all learn how to play together and get along. One of my favorite parts was this dialogue between the sisters,
"And will you show me how to print my name?' said Gloria...
'Yes', said Frances.
'Then you will be my best friend', said Gloria. 'Will it just be today, or longer?'
'Longer', said Frances."

Chester's Way  by Kevin Henkes Chester and Wilson are best friends, they are two peas in a pod. Not only are they always together, they do everything the same way. They are happy being friends... until Lilly moves to town. Lilly does not do things like Chester and Wilson. Chester and Wilson have to learn a lesson about friendship and including others who might seem different.

A Weekend with Wendell by Kevin Henkes is also a good choice for a preschool friendship theme.


A Sick Day for Amos McGee A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead Amos McGee is a zoo-keeper. Amos McGee goes beyond simply caring for animals. He plays chess with the elephant and runs races with the tortoise. Amos McGee is a good friend. When Amos gets sick, his animal friends pay him a visit at home to return his kindness.

City Dog, Country Frog In this story, City dog visits the country in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. In the Spring, Country Frog teaches City Dog to play frog games. When City Dog returns to the country in the summer, they play Dog games. In the fall, Country Frog is tired and so they spend time just remembering. In winter, City dog arrives in the country but frog is not there. He can't find him anywhere. In Spring again, Country Dog finds a new friend- but he doesn't forget his old friend as he smiles a froggy smile. 
While it seems to be inferred that the frog dies, this story could be a beautiful way of helping a child deal with death, moving, changing friends, or deal with change in general. 

Free PDF Book Activity for City Dog, Country Frog
Good Dog, Carl  by Alexandra Day is a book about a loyal dog, but I think it's a beautiful picture of man's best friend. In this nearly wordless picture book, a mother leaves her baby alone with the dog for the day-- I know, I know, that is irresponsible parenting. Let's just say this book is a fantasy more than a realistic fiction book. Don't leave your baby alone with your dog for the day, ok?-- The dog exhibits traits of friendship and loyalty as he carefully tends to the child. It is sweet and it will make you laugh! I love subtle friendship that is displayed in this book.

The Rainbow Fish [Board book] Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister In this story, rainbow fish has beautiful scales. The other fish admire him, and one little fish even dares to ask for one of Rainbow Fish's scales. Rainbow fish snubs the little fish, and soon the other fish begin ignoring Rainbow Fish out of fear. Well, what good is it to be beautiful if you have no friends? Rainbow Fish goes on a quest to find a wise Octopus who tells him to give away his beautiful scales, no longer will he be the most beautiful, but he will be happy.

Hunter's Best Friend at School Hunter's Best Friend at School  Have you ever had your child choose the "wrong" friend? Maybe a friend who made bad choices and was a poor influence. Hunter's Best Friend at School is a good book for exploring this common issue. Check out the full review and free printable on Wise Owl Factory's Book a Day Blog.

Henry and Mudge Series by Cynthia Rylant is a fun first chapter book that explores the friendship between a little boy, Henry, and his dog, Mudge. The books follow Henry on all sorts of adventures and his loyal companion is always beside him.

The Frog and Toad Collection Box Set (I Can Read Book 2) Frog and Toad Series by Arnold Lobel is the classic story of a frog and a toad who are faithful friends. These are great books for the 5-7 year old crowd. They are beginning chapter books with lots of pictures to support the text. The difficulties that Frog and Toad face together will be funny anecdotes that your young readers will be able to relate.

Do you have a favorite book that you use to teach children about friendships? I'd love to hear your ideas. Leave a comment here or check it out the discussion of friendship themed picture books on my facebook page.

Check out all preschool themes book lists on my preschool themes page. Next week I'll be sharing favorite books for a dinosaur theme.
Follow my preschool theme Pinterest board for books and activities for each theme.

Coloring Pages for Disney's Planes

Coloring Sheets can be a fun way to keep little hands strong for writing. Disney has offered FREE coloring pages for this summer's newest movie, Planes. Click on the image below to get coloring pages and connect the dot pages. These coloring sheets would be fun end of the year activities for kids too!





 Click on the image to go directly to the free PDF coloring pages.

Disney’s PLANES releases in theaters everywhere on August 9th!

“Like” Disney’s PLANES on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DisneyPlanes

"Follow" Disney’s PLANES on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DisneyPictures

Visit the website: www.disney.com/Planes

Preschool Themes Book Lists

Summer break is a time when many teachers review themes and units used in the past year, and begin to plan for the next school year. I've been excitedly planning themes to use in preschool with my three year old next fall. As I've been planning, I've been organizing my book reviews and book activities by preschool theme. I've created a quick reference page at ready-set-read. You can find all of my books categorized by theme by using the button on my sidebar.

Also, each Monday this summer, I'll be adding a new preschool theme book list. Here are some of the themes I'll be covering in the month of May.

• friendship
• dinosaurs
• community helpers
• transportation

I gathered ideas for themes by brainstorming with other parents and teachers on my facebook page. If you have a favorite preschool theme, please join our discussion. I'd love to hear your thoughts!