Morning Baskets for Preschool and Kindergarten
What Is a Morning Basket?
If you've been in the homeschool world for any length of time, you've likely heard the term “morning basket” or “morning time.” But what exactly does it mean?
A morning basket is a simple, intentional way to gather beautiful and meaningful resources for your homeschool day. It’s a curated collection of books, activities, and materials that support your family’s values and learning goals—often shared together at the start of the day, but flexible enough to be used any time.
Best of all, it’s portable, making it easy to bring learning to the couch, the porch, or even outside under a tree.
A typical preschool and kindergarten morning time schedule might be:
- Sing a song together
- Read or review a Bible verse or poem
- Read a story
- Review the calendar, weather, days of the week
- Pray together before you start your other subjects.
This might only take 20 to 30 minutes and then you can move on to your phonics, counting, and motor skills.
What if my kids won't focus for morning time?
Getting young children to sit and engage during morning time can be a gentle learning curve, but with the right tools and expectations, it can become a cherished routine.
For wiggly toddlers and preschoolers, offering quiet sensory toys—such as wooden puzzles, lacing cards, or playdough—can help keep their hands busy while their ears and hearts stay open.
Some families find that sitting on a balance ball or wobble board gives active children the movement they crave while still participating. Others might use a cozy rug or small basket of fidgets nearby, allowing little ones to move in and out as needed while maintaining a peaceful environment.
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Keep the reading and activities brief at first—just 10 to 15 minutes—and gradually extend as attention spans grow. With consistency and flexibility, morning time can become a grounding start to the day, even for your youngest learners.
Peaceful Press Morning Basket Resources
With thoughtful resources from The Peaceful Press, you can build a morning basket that nurtures curiosity, connection, and delight—especially for your youngest learners.
If you are using The Peaceful Preschool, or Nourishing Nature Kindergarten, these are excellent resources to easily implement in your morning collective to start your days well.
Some elements to include:
Early Years Morning Time Menu-The Peaceful Press Early Years Morning Time Menu is a helpful resource so your child can practice basic skills during morning time. We include 10 pages of skills practice including name, address and phone number, counting to 100, emotions, calendar, weather and more!
The Good Gospel: A-Z Bible Resource for Young Children- The Good Gospel is an A-Z gospel devotional guide intended for use in preschool Sunday School, or as a weekly accompaniment to The Peaceful Preschool. The guide includes 26 lessons with verses, crafts, Bible stories, declarations, and fine art geared towards helping young children connect with the stories of Jesus in a Sunday School or home setting.
ABC Bible Verse Cards- Alphabet learning and Bible Verse Cards for scripture and letter learning for a strong and beautiful foundation.
Nourishing Nature Bible Verse Cards- Nourishing Nature Bible Verse Cards are a set of 53 cards. Seventeen downloadable sheets feature the coordinating bible verses from our Nourishing Nature Kindergarten. Simply print, cut, and laminate, for a beautiful way to keep Scripture in your heart and the hearts of your children. The letters on the top of the cards correspond to the first letter of each word in the verse. This makes these cards ideal for memorizing scriptures.
Through the Season Guides: Summer, Spring, Winter, & Autumn- These can be purchased as a bundle or separately although the bundle is the best value.
Summer Guide
The Peaceful Press: Summer Guide includes four weekly grids with activities to inspire your child with new skills centered around the themes of growing and thriving. The unit includes Bible lessons, recipes, supply lists, recommended literature, and projects to make savoring summer a multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate unit for your 3-7-year-old learners.
Autumn Guide
The Peaceful Press: Autumn Guide includes four weekly grids with activities to inspire your child with new skills centered around the themes of harvest and thankfulness. The unit includes Bible lessons, recipes, supply lists, recommended literature, and poems to make savoring autumn a multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate unit for your young learners.
Winter Guide
The Peaceful Press: Winter Guide includes four weekly grids with activities to inspire your child with new skills centered around the themes of comfort and sustenance. The unit includes Bible lessons, recipes, supply lists, recommended literature, and poems to make savoring winter a multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate unit for your young learners.
Spring Guide
The Peaceful Press: Spring Guide includes four weekly grids with activities to inspire your child with new skills centered around the themes of blossoms and rainbows. The unit includes Bible lessons, recipes, supply lists, recommended literature, and projects to make savoring spring a multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate unit for your young learners.
Calendar Bundle- The Peaceful Press: Calendar Bundle is a free preschool resource for learning dates!
Chore & Routine Pack- We all know that good habits are an important part of a successful homeschool experience, but sometimes we need a little help. This chore pack is the perfect resource for making good habits fun. The chore pack includes a habit tracker, 116 different cards in 47 pages of color, and black and white printables. We've also included 10 handy instruction guides to help teach your children the step-by-step skills for caring for their environment. This updated bundle now includes a habits checklist and habit tracker for parents. The 47 Page chore pack is only $7. All you do is print, cut, and laminate!
Fine Art Memory Game- Our Peaceful Press Art Memo Game is a lovely way of working on picture study, visual processing, and memory with your child. Included are fine art prints, along with corresponding title and artist, which coincide with The Kind Kingdom, The Precious People and The Playful Pioneers. All you do is print, laminate, and cut, for a beautiful and multi-purpose learning activity with your child.
Picture Word Card Bundle- Our Picture Word Cards are a lovely way of working on phonogram review, labeling, sight words, and speech articulation with your child. You can also use these with small objects for a simple object game, or as a memory game to match up words and pictures, or letters and pictures. We've even added twenty-six rhyme cards that can be used as an extension activity for beginning readers. It’s a gorgeous way to enhance your child’s learning, at a very affordable price. Included are pictures for each letter of the alphabet, along with a corresponding letter, word, and rhyme. All you do is print, cut, and laminate, for a beautiful and multi-purpose learning activity with your child.
Phonogram Bingo- Our Phonogram Bingo is a free downloadable gift from us to you. These bingo cards can be used with the Picture-Word Cards for another fun way to work on fine motor skills, counting, and phonics. Included is a digital downloadable PDF with six different Phonogram Bingo cards, in easy to read, lowercase print, for the entire family to enjoy! All you do is print, cut, and laminate, for a long-lasting, fun, and multi-purpose learning activity with your child.
The best part is that many of these resources can be found on The Peaceful Press website for $5 and some of them are even FREE! Be sure to check them out and get started on your morning basket today!
Do you use a morning basket or have a morning collective time?
What are some of your favorite things to include in it?
Grab the award-winning Nourishing Nature Kindergarten today and start creating a peaceful daily rhythm for your young learners.
Q&A
1. What exactly is a morning basket?
A morning basket is a curated collection of books, activities, and materials used to gently start the homeschool day. It's often used to build family connection, develop a peaceful routine, and reinforce foundational learning goals.
2. What age group is a morning basket ideal for?
While morning baskets can be adapted for all ages, this post focuses on preschool and kindergarten learners—generally ages 3–6.
3. What does a typical morning time look like for younger children?
It might include singing a song, reading a Bible verse or poem, enjoying a story, reviewing the calendar or weather, and ending with a short prayer. The suggested time is 20-30 minutes.
4. My child won’t sit still—how can I make morning time work?
Sensory toys, movement tools (like wobble boards), snacks (especially protein), coloring or painting activities, and clay, playdough, or beeswax for shaping can help young children stay engaged while listening. Flexibility and consistency are key.
5. Do I have to do morning basket activities in the morning?
Not at all! Despite the name, these activities can be done anytime during the day when your family is most receptive, but it can be a great way to get everyone together to begin the school time.
6. Do I need to purchase specific materials for my morning basket?
You can use what you have at home, but The Peaceful Press offers beautiful, affordable resources like Bible verse cards, chore charts, phonogram games, and seasonal guides that make it easy to build your basket.
7. Are any of the morning basket resources free?
Yes! There are several free printables including the Calendar Bundle and Phonogram Bingo. Others are affordably priced at $5 or less.
9. Can I use Peaceful Press curriculum alongside a morning basket?
Absolutely. Curriculums like The Peaceful Preschool and Nourishing Nature Kindergarten are specifically designed to integrate beautifully with early learning morning basket time.
10. Where can I find the supply list or purchase the materials mentioned?
The Peaceful Press Amazon supply list and The Peaceful Press website, where many of the resources are available for immediate download or purchase.