There’s something magical about the forest—rustling leaves, tiny paw prints, and the quiet wonder of woodland creatures going about their day. I wanted to bring a bit of that magic into our homeschool mornings, so I put together a Woodland Animals Morning Basket for my preschooler. This themed basket is filled with picture books, hands-on activities, and playful learning tools that spark curiosity about the animals who live in the woods. It’s a gentle, cozy way to start our day, blending storytime, nature study, and imagination into one simple routine.
What is a morning basket?
A morning basket is a simple, intentional way to begin the day with your little one. It’s usually a collection of books, activities, and learning tools gathered around a theme or interest, designed to spark curiosity and set a gentle rhythm for the day. Morning baskets aren’t about checking off tasks or rigid lessons—they’re about connection, exploration, and making learning feel cozy and fun. Whether it’s reading stories, practicing early skills, or enjoying hands-on play, the morning basket becomes a daily invitation to slow down and learn together. It also doesn’t have to be used in the mornings! We just enjoy our basket really whenever we want. It usually is in the morning, right after we have breakfast, but we’ve used it in the late afternoon as well. I wrote up a blog post about our Summer Basket here, if you’d like to see what we added in there.
What’s In our woodland animals themed morning basket
A majority of these resources are from the Forestry Morning Basket from Harbor & Sprout. You can use my code MYSIMPLEWILD for 10% off your purchase! You can print out what you want- there is a lot!
The basket is from Target, but unfortunately they don’t make it anymore. Here is a very similar one on Amazon.
Our favorite beeswax toddler crayons
I put our forest animal wood toys in a little basket on the table, too. They are from a variety Etsy shops and small stores.
This magnetic doodle board from Target is well-loved in our home! My preschooler practices drawing shapes, numbers, and letters. And my toddler likes to doodle on this while I am doing an activity with my preschooler.
A few coloring pages printed out – from Harbor and Sprout
Cutting pages practice and these loop handle squeeze scissors (my preschooler has had a hard time with regular scissors so I tried these to give him confidence in cutting, and we will eventually switch over to traditional scissors) – Harbor and Sprout
Tracing pages and our favorite Ticonderoga “My First Short” Triangular pencils– perfect for this age!
Poetry For The Wild & Curious Ones by Sara Ernst (a local singer/songwriter/author that teaches kids about nature)
Prayers For Children (Little Golden Book)
Forest Animals- a book from the Our Little Library Collection by Tabitha Paige (this has the most beautiful watercolor illustrations! We love all her books)
Forest Alphabet Cards from Etsy- I laminated these to last longer
A chalkboard for copying the letters- I think I got this from a dollar store
These “Be of Good Character Cards” from Christy Beasley are the sweetest thing! There are 24 scripture cards for kids about godly character. I get so many of my Christian resources from the Christy Beasley Creative Clubhouse- it’s a subscription where you can access ALL of her art and resources while you are a member. There are hundreds of resources, and I use so many of them in our homeschool, it makes sense to have the membership.
This coloring book was picked up from an Amish-type store during a road trip, so I can’t link it here. But we also have this super cute Nature Alphabet Coloring Book that would be a great fit for this theme, but I think I already packed it up because I cannot find it. ( We are moving!)
This “Where’s My Tail ?” activity is simple and fun and my two year old enjoyed it, too. – Harbor and Sprout
My preschooler just loves count and clip cards! I laminated these and I am glad I did, because they are already getting bent and banged up from how rough my boys are with them. –Harbor and Sprout
Number matching- Harbor and Sprout
Picture matching – my two year old also really loved this activity- Harbor and Sprout
Acorn counting- I added velcro to the backs of the numbers to stick the number on and then my son can add the acorns to match the number. This was probably his favorite activity! – Harbor and Sprout
Sorting big and small images- Harbor and Sprout
We are introducing a morning menu for my preschooler, since my oldest has kind of grown out of this. We use a restaurant menu cover as a reusable dry-erase sleeve that holds our morning invitation from A Year of Learning.
I have some baskets from the Dollar Tree and wood trays also sitting next to this little table that our morning basket lives on. That way I can pull an activity out of a ziploc baggie and grab a basket or two or a tray to separate the pieces and they don’t get lost as easy.
We also have a big basket full of books sitting next to our morning basket that we can pull from. There was too many to add to this basket!
Here are some wonderful books to go along with this basket- some are from our local library, some we had already. And we realized that we have SO many picture books about bears! So look through your own home library first and see if there are any stories that have woodland animals in them!
Book List
Creating a Woodland Animals Morning Basket has been such a sweet way to start our days—full of stories, imagination, and a touch of nature’s wonder right at our kitchen table. It doesn’t have to be complicated; just a few thoughtfully chosen books and activities can make mornings feel special and spark your child’s curiosity. It takes more time to print, cut and laminate, but it really does save money! I hope this inspires you to build your own themed basket, whether it’s woodland animals or whatever captures your little one’s heart. After all, morning baskets are really about connection, and that’s the most magical part of all.
Have a blessed day!
-Nat
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