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Free printable Are You My Mother activities for preschool and kindergarten make it easy to extend story time into a hands-on early learning lesson. The activities are based on P. D. Eastman’s classic picture book, in which a baby bird searches for its mother and meets several animals along the way. Children can practice listening, vocabulary, matching, sequencing, and storytelling while working with familiar animal pictures.
What the printable activities include
A useful activity set may include mother-and-baby animal matching cards, cut-and-paste pages, story sequencing cards, coloring sheets, tracing tasks, and simple props for retelling. Some sets can also be used to make stick puppets, mini-books, or a small lapbook. These formats give children more than one way to interact with the story: they can look, talk, cut, glue, arrange, and act out the events.
Who can use them
These printables work well for preschool classrooms, kindergarten literacy centers, homeschool lessons, daycare settings, and quiet practice at home. Preschool children can focus on identifying animals, naming babies and adults, and following one-step directions. Kindergarten students can work on story order, complete sentences, beginning sounds, and retelling the plot with less adult support.
How to use the activities
- Read the book first. Pause to ask which animal the baby bird meets and whether that animal is the correct mother.
- Start with matching. Have children pair adult animals with their babies. Encourage them to say both names aloud, such as “cow and calf.”
- Add sequencing. Let children arrange picture cards in the order events happen. Ask them to explain what happened before and after each card.
- Retell the story. Use puppets, picture pieces, or a mini-book. Children can repeat key questions and act out the search for the mother bird.
- Extend the lesson. Invite children to draw a nest, identify animal sounds, compare animal homes, or create a class chart of mothers and babies.
Practical printing tips
- Print activity cards on cardstock so they are easier for small hands to handle.
- Use regular printer paper for coloring and writing pages to reduce ink and paper use.
- Choose “actual size” or “fit to printable area” after checking the preview. If edges are cut off, reduce the scale slightly.
- Print in grayscale when color is not essential, especially for tracing, drawing, and cut-and-paste pages.
- For reusable matching or sequencing cards, laminate the pages after printing and cut them apart. Store the pieces in a labeled envelope or zip-top bag.
- Supervise scissor use and offer child-safe scissors for preschool learners.
Used alongside the book, these free printable activities provide a simple way to build early literacy skills through conversation, movement, and play.
Where to Find and Print Free Printable Are You My Mother Activities For Preschool And Kindergarten
Free Mother & Baby Animals Matching Activity
A free matching printable with ten mother-and-baby animal pairs, designed for use with Are You My Mother? and suitable for preschool practice.
Are You My Mother? Lapbook Printables
A free lapbook resource with story-related printables, including counting, animal sounds, tracing, matching, and retelling activities.