File Folder Activities

File folders are fun and engaging activities that are designed for a variety of purposes. The best part about these activities is that they are reusable. I am sure there are some days when making another craft or creating a small group lesson, just doesn’t seem possible. Working with preschoolers activities need to be hands on and engaging, and it takes a lot of prepping! This is why file folder activities that you only have to make once, are ready to use, and last forever, are life savers!

How to use File Folders

The awesome thing about file folders activities is that you can use them in a variety of ways! Whether you are a parent or a teacher these activities can be used as independent work. In my class, student’s have to complete 3 file folder activities before going to a play center. Independent work time should be able to be completed without adult support.  Thus activities are chosen based on concepts and skills students have a basic understanding of, but need continue working on and gaining exposure to.

File folders can also be used for individual lessons or small group lessons. If you have students who are working on similar goals (i.e. patterning) you can pull 3 or 4 in a group and have them all work on separate patterning file folders. This way, when teaching them you are talking about one subject, but you can also differentiate or scaffold because each student is working on their own file folder.

If you are in a preschool or kindergarten classroom setting, file folders can be used as a center! During early childhood years, there is a big focus on letting students play. In our full day classroom students of free choice centers for almost 2 hours of the day. Using file folders as a center is a great way to incorporate a variety of academic skills into play. You will find that once students become comfortable with using them, they will love completing the activities with their friends!

You can find all of our file folders on our Teachers Pay Teachers page!

Themes and Categories!

There are a variety of themes and categories for file folder activities.  Themes range from holidays, seasons, and fun children topics (i.e. monsters, trucks, trains, fish, cupcakes, and more). Within each themed file folder packet, there are individual file folder activities which contain materials and resources that focus on:

• match by size
• basic matching
• sort by size (big and little)
• order from big to small
• 3 levels of patterns
• match numerals to numeral words (1-10 and 11-20)
• connecting a given set of objects to corresponding numeral
• order the alphabet
• match uppercase letters to lowercase letters

Fun Tip!  Some of these concepts for early learners (especially at the beginning of year) can be difficult i.e. matching numerals to numeral words or uppercase to lowercase. An easy way to differentiate for your younger students is to print out the numeral page twice and have your students match numerals to numerals and similarly, print out the uppercase letter page twice and have your students match uppercase to uppercase.

In addition to themed bundles, there are a variety of categories ranging from, science and social studies to sequencing and sorting! Within these categories you will find specific activities related to academic skills being targeted. Here are a few of our category bundles you an find our store.

Non-Identical Sorting– This packet includes 10 activities that work on sorting concepts by common features i.e animals, food, vehicles, etc.

Advanced Sorting–  Within this bundle there are 11 activities that focus on more complex sorting. Concepts include: Real vs. Make Believe,  Buildings vs. Vehicles, Healthy vs. Unhealthy Food, Hot vs. Cold Items,  Breakfast vs. Dinner, Electronics vs. School Supplies, , and Animals that Swim vs. Animals that Fly.

Association and Function– In this packet there are 8 activities that target categorizing by identifying things that go together i.e an iPod and headphones and identifying objects by their function/purpose i.e. things you write with. We also have an association bundle focused identifying common community helpers and things associated with them.

Sequencing- There are several file folder bundles that focus on sequencing common events or routines. This can be a challenging skill to target but is key to developing comprehension and time orientation. Themes range from fall, winter, and general sequencing.

Weather and Season- These 12 hands on activities, help students develop a better understanding of weather concepts, seasons and expected weather, clothing associated with each season, and vocabulary items associated with each season.

Science and Social Studies– these 2 bundles come with several activities that teach basic science and social studies concpets. They focus on reading and math skills while expanding vocabulary.