My preschoolers love making books, and I love helping them do so. In addition to being a fun process for my students, book-making is an amazing way to teach so many early literacy concepts. In honor of spring flowers, I put together this free printable book about counting colorful flowers. Perfect for combining literacy with early math concepts.
Related: Preschool Flower Theme Lesson Plan Pack
Some of My Favorite Clip Art
When D.J. Inkers approached me about sharing their “Kids All Year Round” clip art with my awesome readers, I jumped at the chance.
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Long before Fun-A-Day came into being, D.J. Inkers has been one of my favorite clip art sources. I received a free copy of the clip art, but let’s be honest – I would’ve purchased it on my own anyway!
I used the font and some of the clip art to make the below printable book for spring.
Colorful Counting Flowers Printable Book
Here’s how we used the “Counting Flowers” emergent reader.
You can, of course, take things in another direction as you see fit. I love seeing what other teachers are doing with the materials I create, so feel free to share pictures on Fun-A-Day’s Facebook page or tag me on Instagram!
Materials you’ll need for the printable book making
Free printable book “Counting Flowers”
Printer
Stapler
Crayons
Washable ink pads
Counting Flowers bookmaking directions
Download the free printable (available at the bottom of the post) and print it out.
First, fold each page in half with the text and pictures facing out. Press the folded edges down. The printed sides should be facing out now.
Next, arrange the pages in the correct order, with the “cover” of the book on the top. You should have the folded edges on the right-hand side of the book.
Finally, staple along the left-hand side of the book, where the non-folded edges are located.
Here’s a video showing you how to assemble the reader:
Related: Spring Flower Play Dough Dice Game
Using the printable book with your children
Grab the kiddos and get to book-making! This part of the process will look different with each child, as it really depends on their needs and independence levels. Here’s a possible scenario:
Introduce the book. “We’re going to make a book about counting different colored flowers.”
Take a quick book walk through the printable book. “Let’s take a quick look through the book! Can you help me count the flowers on each page? Look, there are numbers on each page too!”
Locate the color words. “Each page has a different color. Let’s find the color words. This page says ‘I see 1 red flower.’ What do you hear at the beginning of the word ‘red’? Yes, I hear /r/! Which letter makes that sound?”
Underline the color words with the correct colored crayon. Better yet, have the kiddos do so.
Related: Coffee Filter Flower Art and Science
Go through each page and let the children color the flowers based on the text. If they’d like to, the kids can add stems, leaves, and an environment to each page too.
The last page is a rainbow of flowers. Children can use crayons or markers to draw these flowers. We decided to use inked fingerprints to make them this time.
Related: Kid-Made Coffee Filter Flowers
Once the books are done, the kiddos can add them to their book boxes to read over and over (and over!) again. Would your children like making and reading this spring printable book?
Originally published April 2016
Preschool Lesson Plans for Spring
Save time and jump right into hands-on, multi-sensory learning fun with done-for-you lesson plans. Each of our preschool lesson plan packs come with:
- Printable plans (both a one-sheet grid plan and multi-page plans that describe the learning activities)
- Whole group ideas
- Small group activities
- Center time activities
- Book suggestions
- Related printables (read below the photo for specific printables)
- Blank, editable lesson plan outlines in case you want to rearrange a few things on your own!
Click on each photo below to read more about the lesson plans:
Get Your Free Counting Flowers Printable Book
This free printable is available to members of Fun-A-Day’s free email community. You can click on the button below to join the email community for even more early childhood education resources (and get the reader as a freebie). Downloading the printable also means you agree to my terms of use.
I would LOVE to create beautiful early readers like you do with D.J. Inker’s clip art!
You are so awesome to share your stuff! Teachers helping teachers is one of my favorite things!!! 🙂
Love this book
That is a totally adorable little book for children. It would be nice for coloring for a adult.
Thank you for the offer.
I’m working on adding more interactive notebook pages and activities to my classroom next year. These would be perfect.
I would definitely use the clip art for my newsletters.
I thought your post and little booklet was adorable and downloaded it. Love DJ Inkers clipart as well and popped over to the site and just purchased the Chalkboard clipart.
Wonderful!
I am a fan of your site.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Your book is cute, but I wanted to say that I love your blog redesign. It looks terrific!
I love your Counting Flowers Book ! I look forward to using D.J. Inkers to make my monthly calendars, create name recognition books and classroom song books for substitutes
I don’t have any D.J. Inkers clip art but I would love to have some. It is really good clip art.
When printed out, the images are actually on the incorrect side of each page. If I staple on the FOLDED side on the left, then there’s no way to turn the pages, which are incorrect anyway.
Sorry to hear you’re having some trouble putting the book together. I really need to make a quick video to show how I put the books together – it’s on my to do list. You need to fold the pages in the middle with the images/text facing out. Then, as the post explains, the folded edges should be on the right side, with stapling done on the left. I double-checked and the printable is correct. Hope that helps!
I could not figure out how to print the counting flowers book, I would like to start working with my granddaughter who will be entering kindergarten to learn how to read
Hi Kim! The printable book is available to members of my email community. There’s a large rectangle near the bottom of the post, under the heading “Get Your Free Counting Flowers Printable Book”. Click on that to join, and then you get the printable book emailed to you as a free gift. Feel free to touch base if you run into any other issues! 🙂
I babysit my daughter’s two-year-old this year. (Last year I watched her three, eventually turning four year old two days a week) I had a 40 year career as an 8th Grade math teacher and was not familiar with Preschool level activities. We have a set schedule on the days the child is at home with me and at 11:00 every time I am there, we do a preschool learning activity. This year I discovered your activities and curriculum ideas. After the Counting Apples activities I am hooked on your creative ideas and activities. My two year old granddaughter loves your suggestions and ideas. Thank you for sharing these great ideas, algebra I know, preschool I don’t know. You area a God-send!
Maureen, your comment made me smile! And I could say the reverse — Preschool and kindergarten I know, algebra I’m a little rusty at! 🙂