Preschool Supplies & Resources by Learning Category

Another Supply List??

Up until now I have resisted putting up a supply list on my blog because I did not think it would be helpful to re-invent the wheel. There are a ton of great preschool supply lists out there already — I personally started with The Peaceful Preschool supply list since that was the curriculum we used and will be repeating again.

However, here’s what I have to offer that might be a unique perspective:

1. We live in a small house and do not have much storage space so I try to keep the supplies to a minimum,
2. I prefer nature-based materials because they cost no money, have added sensory benefits, and do not harm the earth when disposed of, and
3. I’ve done a whole year with The Peaceful Preschool and now that I know what we really need and actually gets use, I wish there were some things that I had not bought so I have noted those things below.

I plan to share my supply list based on must-have essentials, nice-to-have items, and, lastly, things I wish I would have skipped buying.

Note, though, that even the “must-haves” on my lists are my based on my preference and what fits with our preschool curriculum. Feel free to disagree with me!

Each supply list also includes some additional resources like free printables that I’ve found useful over the last year.

The Categories

Click on a link below to jump to a specific category of supplies & resources:

• Lesson Preparation
• Read Alouds
• Letter Formation & Phonics
• Numbers & Counting
• Fine Motor Skills
• Sensory Play
• Large Motor Skills
• Practical Life
• Arts & Crafts
• Color Recognition
• Shapes Recognition
• Outdoor Play & Nature Study
• Geography & Culture
• Art & Music
• Bible & Spirituality
• Games & Puzzles
• Calendar & Clock

Lesson Preparation

Must-haves:

• Paper
• Pens, Pencils, Highlighters
• Scissors

Seriously. If you are on a tight budget, I think you can totally get by not having a printer & laminator & paper cutter!! You could have The Homeschool Printing Company print your curriculum and any worksheets, and not do any weekly printing from home. This is preschool, not college! Granted, this works for a non-worksheet-intensive curriculum like The Peaceful Preschool. There are other curriculums out there that require A LOT of printouts, in which case you probably are better off owning one!

Nice-to-have:

• Printer
• Laminator
• Laminating Pouches
• Paper Cutter

The printer I purchased also has a scanner which I use on a weekly basis to keep digital files of all my children’s artwork.

I resisted buying a paper cutter at first but when I finally got one it was SO much better. Such a time-saver for cutting 3-Part Cards especially. I do think if you are not using a lot of printables you could skip all this stuff, though. I have had the one linked for over a year and have not needed to replace the blade yet.

Then there’s the regular office stuff like scissors, paper, hole punch, etc. that you likely already have.

Lesser-used but still nice to have:

• Corner Rounder
• Binder Rings
• Circle Hole Punches (I have 1 inch and 1.5 inches)

The corner rounder cuts through laminated card stock. I love that thing so much.

I use binder rings to hold A-Z memory verses and other flash cards together.

The circle hole punches I have used for materials preparation but the kids also use them for arts & craft projects.

Read Alouds

See this blog post for all the resources I use to select Preschool books.

Letter Formation & Phonics

Must-haves:

• Letter printouts from The Peaceful Preschool
• Movable alphabet
• Uppercase and lowercase sandpaper cards
• Uppercase and lowercase letter stamps and ink pads
• Tray for salt writing (I use 6″ x 9″ drawer organizer trays)
• Phonetic small object basket (using beginning letter sounds)
• Play dough (homemade saves money!) or play foam

Nice-to-have:

• Write-and-wipe pockets and dry erase markers
• Small chalkboard slate and chalk sticks (we break these in half)
• Tabletop pocket chart for 3-Part Cards
• Bananagrams and/or magnet letters and/or alphabet puzzle
• Wood tracing board

What I bought but wish I hadn’t:

• Glitter Glue *
• B is for Breakdancing Bear **

* The Peaceful Preschool has you make your own DIY sensory letters using their printouts and glitter glue. These are redundant since we have the sandpaper letters listed above. My kids also had a hard time using the glitter glue tubes without frustration. AND, I’ve read that glitter has a negative impact on the environment so have tried to stay away from it.

** We bought this book and my son enjoyed it to a degree. He liked the stickers, but really I did not feel it was worth the money, in the end, because we already did enough letter-learning activities and I felt that this book was not adding anything of value. 

Other Letter Learning Supplies: Printables & Resources

• 3-Part Cards
• Handwriting Without Tears letter formation chart (free)
• ABC See, Hear, Do and associated printables
• A-Z Stamp It! Write It! Poke It! from Simply Learning & foam board (I’m sorry but this site no longer exists)
• A-Z Letter Identification sheets used with Do-a-Dot markers

Numbers & Counting

Must-haves:

• Sandpaper numbers
• The Peaceful Preschool number cards (with purchased curriculum)
• The Peaceful Preschool hundreds chart (with purchased curriculum)
• Manipulatives for counting. Here are some options:
  • Natural materials: acorns, sticks, cut wood discs, rocks, shells
  • Beads, marbles, popsicle sticks, buttons, pom poms
• Trays / compartments for counting (you can even write numbers in these):
  • Egg cartons
  • Muffin tins
  • Ice cube trays

Note: Preschool Math is a category where I feel like it is easy to get creative, see what is already in your house, or explore a thrift store. In my opinion, there is very little spending that needs to be done here for preschool. Recycle your egg cartons or thrift some trays and tins!

Also, I feel a lot of counting for this age can be done simply by reading books and through the regular day-in day-out play. If I do a pre-planned math activity, I try to keep it playful.

Nice-to-have:

• Number magnets
• 123 Count With Me
• Small dot stickers
• Dice (regular dice and I also like using 12-sided dice with numerals)

Other Supplies: Printables & Resources

• Handwriting Without Tears number formation (free)

Fine Motor Skills

Must-haves:

• Scissors
• Helping Hands Fine Motor Skills set
• Eyedroppers
• Clothespins
• Play dough scissors
• Pipe cleaners
• Manipulatives for grasping & transferring. Here are some options:
  • Natural materials: acorns, sticks, cut wood discs, rocks, shells
  • Beads, marbles, popsicle sticks, buttons, pom poms
• Any kind of bead that can be threaded (e.g. pony beads or a lacing bead set)
• Hole punch
• Lacing Cards (You can find lacing card printables to laminate and then punch around the edges OR purchase a nice wooden set)
• Large tweezers

Nice-to-have:

• Geoboard (wood or affordable)
• Plastic yarn needle & thread
• Magnetic discs & wands
• Sorting trays
• Carabiner clips
• Plastic Easter eggs
• Nuts, washers, and bolts
• Toy wooden hammers, golf tees, and foam board

Again, a lot of things here can be found around your house or thrifted!

Sensory Play

Generally I prefer the great outdoors for this type of play: playing in dirt or mud or water. But, we have winters and rainy days in Indiana and it’s nice to have a few fun options for indoor sensory play:

• Homemade Play Dough
  • I use this no-cook play dough recipe
  • Play Dough tools
  • Play Dough scissors
  • Natural materials
  • Small animal figurines
  • Cookie cutters or other random kitchen tools
• Sensory play materials:
  • Large plastic bins that hopefully won’t spill out (and/or a good vacuum!)
  • Rice bins (I love this DIY recipe for rainbow rice — our original batch has lasted over a year)
  • “Dirt” bins (I use a mix of black beans, pinto beans, brown rice, and green lentils)
  • Play dough (I used this recipe — It’s much cheaper to have a large stock of play dough if you make your own versus store-bought)
  • Sand (real or homemade)
  • Snow dough
  • Shaving cream
  • Small scoops
  • Small buckets, cups, or bowls
  • Measuring cups
  • Helping Hands Fine Motor Skills set

What I bought but wish I hadn’t:

• Water Beads (I just don’t care for the waste and environmental impact of these)

Large Motor Skills

• My ultimate recommendation for developing large motor skills for small children: play outside in nature! I highly recommend reading Balanced & Barefoot for inspiration on this topic.
• Games Children Sing & Play
• Let’s Dance and Sing
• Once Upon a Mat Kids Yoga DVD
• The Habitat Schoolhouse Garden Yoga Cards
• Good Morning Yoga
• Good Night Yoga
• Clap Your Hands
• Jam With Jamie – How to Sing Classic Kids Songs
• Rhythm stick songs (you can use actual rhythm sticks or we just use unsharpened pencils)
• Play silks for imaginative play. If you are stuck indoors: build forts & obstacle courses out of whatever you can find!

Practical Life

For us, this mainly means including my children in our regular daily rhythm.

We have daily chore tasks which I discussed on our Daily Rhythm blog post.

We try to give the kids independence in self-care as appropriate.

Here are a few things I have found useful to have around:

• DIY Montessori Dressing Frames (using this size embroidery hoops)
• Small pitcher
• Scoops (2 ounces is a great size for little hands!)
• Measuring cups & spoons
• Nylon knife set
• Aprons
• Mini dustpan
• Small hand fine mesh strainer
• Spray bottle with natural cleaning solution plus hand rags
• DIY IKEA learning stool hack (my husband did this and it’s such a great & safe way to have littles in the kitchen)
• I use the book Help Your Preschooler Build A Better Brain (Bowman) for lots of practical life ideas (or follow ANY Montessori mama on Instagram!)

Arts & Crafts

This category can get CRAZY real fast. My main recommendation for those first starting out: do not feel like you need EVERY SINGLE art supply available to your children right off the bat! Pick just a couple, see how they like it, and as budget allows try to slowly incorporate some others. We have a wide variety of supplies right now but my children love crayons and watercolor the most. If I was on a super tight budget I would start with those. I’m putting a wide variety in my “must-haves” list but know I do not think you need ALL of these things.

Must-haves:

• Watercolors
• Crayons (we use regular old Crayola, though I know those with beeswax crayons seem to love them)
• Colored pencils
• Washable tempura paint
• Paint brushes & trays
• Toddler smocks
• Sidewalk Chalk
• Kwik Stix
• Oil Pastels
• Do-A-Dot Markers
• Glue sticks
• Elmer’s glue
• Craft sticks (standard, mini, colored, jumbo)
• Scissors
• White printer paper
• Construction paper
• Plain white paper plates
• Color card stock

Nice-to-have:

• Large paper roll
• IKEA SMULA tray(s)
• Googly eyes
• Pom Poms  (I highly recommend buying at a craft store so you can see what size and colors you are buying — it’s hard to get a good set on Amazon)
• Stamps
• Ink pads
• Crayon sharpener (the kids can use this)
• Chalkboard table runner
• Glue gun (we craft with natural materials often and Elmer’s glue doesn’t get the job done)

What I bought but wish I hadn’t:

• Glitter
• Sequins

Seen on other lists I’ve never bought:

• Contact paper

Color Recognition

For color sorting there are a lot of cheap and DIY options:

• I hand-painted our wood jewelry sorting tray (with 12 spots), and we use this a lot.
• You could also make your own version of something like this using an old cupcake tin & construction paper.
• We have also used our colored bowls from IKEA or I just make something simple with construction paper.
• You could also make something simple out of felt if you are that kind of crafty.

I also love Grimm’s rainbow peg dolls that could double as a toy and used for color sorting preschool activities.

Lastly, I love these FREE Color Nomenclature Cards to introduce color names.

Shapes Recognition

I mainly use this shape sorting printable set I created to go along with our Melissa and Doug Wood Shape Sorter — we had the shape sorter already so I went with that. You can find the free printable on this page.

I also love these free shape flashcards from tinyn3rds.

Outdoor Play & Nature Study

See the following blog posts for more detailed information for this category:

• Forest School Backyard Play Supplies
• Books to Inspire Outdoor Learning & Play
• Nature-Inspired Books for Children
• Inspiring Kids with a Love of Nature

Here is what I use for a nature journal for my kids:

• Spiral-Bound Pad (6×9)

Geography & Culture

See this blog post on our Preschool Cultural Studies supplies.

Art & Music Appreciation

• Art Treasury (famous paintings AND corresponding craft ideas)
• Book of Famous Paintings
• Child’s Introduction to Art
• Picture Study from Ambleside Online
  • PDF files of all the artwork can be downloaded for free at this Yahoo Group
  • A Humble Place has free Picture Study Aids
• Music Study from Ambleside Online
• Classical Music (I get most from our library)
• Story of the Orchestra
• Instrument Nomenclature Cards (free from The Helpful Garden)

Bible & Spirituality

See this blog post on our Bible Lesson supplies and units.

Games & Puzzles

Do not underestimate the value of games & puzzles! I think this doesn’t get labelled as “school” but for preschool-aged: it totally counts.

Here are some favorite games:

• HABA First Orchard
• HABA Go Go Little Penguin
• Memory
• Busytown
• Bird Bingo
• Uno
• Spot It! Junior
• Candyland

And some favorite puzzles:

• Melissa & Doug Wood Jigsaw Puzzles
• George Luck Wood Puzzles
• Ravensburger 60 Piece Puzzles
• Melissa & Doug Floor Puzzles
• Pattern Magnets
• Tangrams

Calendar & Clock

We update our hanging wall calendar. You can also make a free version of a perpetual calendar using The Peaceful Press Calendar Bundle or find a different version.

At the beginning of a new month we read a monthly from Around The Year (Elsa Beskow). There is also a days of the week poem in here that’s fun.

There are clocks that can be purchased but I felt at this point for preschool-age I just wanted something simple that my son could manipulate so I made one using a wood circle and numbered rocks, with two sticks for hands.

What I Wish I Would Have Thought About Last Year Before Stocking Up On Supplies

Lessons I’ve learned after doing through preschool at home for one year:

1. Use natural materials whenever possible! Sensorial experience with natural materials is a huge bonus, PLUS items from nature don’t cost anything and don’t create excess trash in landfills. Hooray!
2. Thrift it. Pretty much all of my baskets and trays came from a thrift store. If it’s thrifted, then you don’t have to get mad if it gets ruined.
3. Find things around your house before you purchase something new and cool. Seriously, you probably have a drawer of random buttons somewhere that can be used for math or sorting or even letter formation.
4. Think of ways to use materials in multiple ways. For example, wood beads with holes can be (1) laced as a fine motor skill, (2) used for a transfer tray, (3) counted up for simple math lessons, (4) added to play dough for some letter formation fun, or (5) used for arts and crafts. You do not need marbles AND beads AND pom poms AND buttons. Pick one. Simplify.
5. Printables that make for good Instagram photos are not always worth it. Save that printer ink!! Seriously, the more I do this the more grumpy I get about printables with full-color pages.
6. If you are going to print something that takes a lot of ink (like 3-Part Cards), make sure you get a lot of use out of them! We use our 3-Part Cards every week in multiple ways, and I have seen so much wonderful learning happening with their use. Also, I save my 3-Part Cards for repeat lessons since we are going through the alphabet A-Z all over again.
7. Before you buy something, try to plan in your mind exactly where you will store it. If you don’t have a great option for storing it, try to skip buying it.
8. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Most of my kid’s art projects I later turn in to scissor cutting exercises, so we get 2 uses out of the paper … and then we recycle the cut up pieces if we are able.

CONGRATS on Your Homeschooling Journey!

If you have questions, please feel free to email me our DM me on Instagram.

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