Make the Most of Mini Erasers in Preschool: What You Need to Know

Are you looking for answers to all of your questions about mini erasers? You’ve come to the right place!

Read below for ideas as to where to find those little erasers, some fun themed erasers, coordinating materials to use with the erasers, tiny erasers learning activities, and even some tips for storing them.

collage of small eraser activities with text that reads all about mini erasers

Where to Find Mini Erasers

These little erasers have been around for years and years. In fact, I remember grabbing my first sets from Oriental Trading Company when I first started teaching in the early 2000s.

But it only seems like recently that their popularity has skyrocketed. Or we’re all just now admitting our love affairs with mini erasers.

Either way, you can find tiny erasers in a variety of places nowadays.

Here are some of the places I know of to get your hands on some:

Target (specifically Bullseye’s Playground, sometimes online)
Amazon
Oriental Trading Company
Etsy
Walmart
Kmart
Dollar Tree

Personally, I have bought the bulk of my eraser stash from Target, Oriental Trading Company, and Amazon.

But I know many teachers who have found great tiny erasers at the other stores as well. It just depends on where you’re located and what stores you have access to.

Fun Erasers for Kids

As promised, I’m going to share some fun little erasers below.

I’m using mostly links to erasers on Amazon, but I plan to come back and add more online stores in the future.

Click on the pictures to be taken to each individual set of erasers. I tried to break it up into separate categories for you.

Be sure to read the descriptions so you know how many little erasers come in each set. There seems to be a big range in that regard.

Food Mini Erasers

These would be great when talking about nutritious food choices, or during a fruit and vegetable theme.

Small Animal Erasers

These small erasers are great for a variety of preschool themes – dinosaurs, insects, pets, zoo, etc.

Valentine’s Day Small Erasers

You can grab some of these erasers around Valentine’s Day or if you’re teaching a heart or friendship theme.

Tiny Erasers for St. Patrick’s Day and Easter

These mini erasers are great for spring holidays!

Fun Erasers for Halloween

Pull out some little erasers during the fall.

They’d be great around Halloween, or for a variety of preschool themes – pumpkins, bats, leaves, harvest, etc.

Tiny Christmas Erasers

The preschoolers will enjoy using these mini erasers around Christmas, during the winter, or even as part of a gingerbread man theme.

Emoji Mini Erasers

I think these little emojis would fit into an emotions theme quite well.

How would you use them with the kids?

An Assortment of Erasers

Below you’ll find a few random sets of small erasers.

These sets would be a great way to get started with mini erasers in the classroom.

Mini Eraser Activities for Preschoolers

There are SO MANY preschool activities that you can use mini erasers with.

Those little erasers make great counters and manipulatives, don’t they?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Mini erasers on printable bunny triangle — Printable Bunny Shape Mats

Free alphabet printable to use with the kids this spring — Spring Alphabet Printable

Gingerbread man printable ten frames with manipulatives — Gingerbread Man Printable

lion printable ten frames — “In Like a Lion” Ten Frames

If you prefer clickable text instead, here you go:

I’ll be adding more mini eraser activities, so be sure to pin this post and come back.

Learning with Mini Erasers

As I’ve already mentioned, you can use these little erasers for so many early learning activities.

I thought it might be helpful to compile a list of ways to use mini erasers in your preschool classrooms.

Math Activities with Mini Erasers

Have the children sort the erasers in multiple ways.
Pair the tiny erasers with ten frames, dice games, or number cards to practice number identification, counting, and one-to-one correspondence.
They are perfect for making patterns of all types. You can start the patterns and kids can extend the patterns. Or the children can make up their own patterns.
Break out the classroom scale. Challenge the kids to see which erasers weigh more and which weigh less.
Use the themed erasers to introduce the concepts of addition and subtraction.
The kids can also use them to explore number formation as well.

Literacy Activities with Small Erasers

The children can use the erasers to practice letter and word formation.
Use them as prompts for initial sound games, initial letter sorting, or phonetic spelling lessons.
They’re great tools to keep track of sounds, letters, or syllables in both written and spoken words, too!
Your students can use the tiny erasers to trace over differently shaped lines (either on tracing cards or on hand-drawn zigzags and squiggles). You could also make funky lines on a table using painter’s tape.
Mini erasers can be helpful in early reading skills by marking each word in a sentence (either spoken or written).
They can also be used to draw attention to the spaces in a sentence.

Sensory Fun with Little Erasers

Add those fun erasers to your classroom sensory bins.
Set out a play dough invitation, with mini erasers as part of the loose parts available.
Use the little erasers inside your sensory bottles!
When you’re learning how to make slime with kids, these erasers would be great additions.
Incorporate the erasers into your sensory writing trays (these trays could be focused on fine motor skills, math, or literacy).

Mini Eraser Science Ideas

The children can stack the erasers as high as possible. Add some math fun by having the kids roll a die and count that many erasers to stack. They can even take pictures of their eraser towers. This is an easy way to incorporate STEM into your classroom.
Perhaps the kids can figure out ways to dissolve the erasers?
Put the fun erasers into a rainbow science activity.
Have the kids test if the shapes of the erasers impact how they roll (or don’t roll) down a ramp.
Include them as part of a water displacement science experiment.
Launch the erasers with DIY catapults!
Freeze some tiny erasers in small containers. Then challenge the children to free the erasers.

A Few Other Ideas

Add some Montessori practical life activities to your preschool repertoire. The kids can transfer the erasers from one spot to another.
Use the erasers as place holders during games like bingo.
If an activity calls for dot markers, have the children use the erasers instead.

Okay, I feel like I’ve given you a ton of suggestions! As you can see, mini erasers can be used for literacy skills, math activities, science fun, fine motor skill development, games, sensory experiences, and more!

Isn’t that amazing! They are so very versatile.

Be sure to leave me a message in the comments if I’ve left some ideas off. I’m sure there are so many other learning invitations to add to this list!

Coordinating Materials to Use with Mini Erasers

Okay, so you’ve got your fun themed erasers.

You’ve got so many ideas for using those little erasers, too.

Now it’s time to make sure you’ve got the supporting materials to go along with the erasers.

Below are some additional items you might want to have on-hand during your small eraser activities.

You might have some of these in your classrooms or at home already!

Sorting Trays for Mini Erasers

You can use a wide variety of things as sorting trays for the tiny erasers. Check what you have in your classroom first!

Here are some possibilities to consider:

Tongs and Tweezers to Pick Up Erasers

Encourage your students to practice their fine motor development with fun tweezers and tongs!

Yes, the kids can use their pincer grip to pick up the erasers. But fun tools like these make it even more engaging for the children.

Some possibilities:

Sensory Bins and Trays for Small Eraser Activities

You’re also going to want to have something for the kids to work on.

In some instances, a table will work out perfectly fine! But at other times, you might want the children to have their own individual trays.

You also might want to use the erasers in sensory bins. Hopefully you already have one in your classroom. If not, there are some suggestions below.

Some possibilities:

The wooden boxes these lacing cards come in (great for sensory writing trays!)
Colorful messy trays
Round metal tray
2-part sensory table

How to Store Small Erasers

Okay, now let’s talk about how in the world you’re going to keep all of those mini erasers organized.

If you’re like me, you get caught up in grabbing those little goodies when you find them. And then you get them home or into the classroom and you get a little overwhelmed.

Well, help is here.

Take it from someone who is NOT naturally organized . . . these ideas are just what you need to corral all of those tiny erasers.

Because you’ll use them more if they’re organized. If you’re spending the money on these erasers, then you and the kids should be reaping the benefits of them!

The Best Way to Organize Mini Erasers

I’ve tried many different ways of keeping my erasers organized!

Each method worked fine, but none were “just right” until I stumbled upon a sale at Michael’s a while back.

That’s where I saw these awesome photo boxes. Aren’t they so pretty?!

I ended up settling on the clear version of the photo boxes in the end, though. I figured that way it would be easier for me to see which erasers are in which boxes.

It might seem silly to have a favorite way of organizing mini erasers (I have to admit, I giggled as I wrote that sentence). But I have my reasons. Here they are, in no particular order:

These photo boxes keep the erasers organized.
They’re pleasing to the eye.
I like how I can group the erasers by categories – all of the Halloween erasers in one big box, all of the animal erasers in another.
It’s super easy to pull out one of the individual bins.
The kids can easily open and close the small bins.
I can easily rearrange which erasers are in which little bin.
The big boxes have handles. Makes transporting things oh so simple.
It’s not difficult to store the big boxes wherever I want them to be.

The key with these boxes is waiting until they’re on sale at Michael’s!

They usually go on sale at least once a year, which makes it so affordable to stock up on a few. Especially if your mini eraser collection keeps growing.

Other Ideas for Organizing Small Erasers

Here are a few other ideas for keeping a handle on your mini erasers. I’ve tried out most of them with good results. They’re just not my “most” favorite way to keep things organized.

As I mentioned above, keep an eye out for sales at your local stores. That makes organizing your fun erasers much more cost effective.

Here are some more possibilities:

Okay, I think I have covered everything you need to know about using mini erasers in preschool!

Of course, I could be wrong. I could have left off a key point or two. That definitely happens!

Feel free to leave me some comments below with your own favorite erasers, how you organize them, some of your best tiny eraser activities. I would love to hear from you!

Make Your Teaching Life Easier

Come and check out a huge variety of done-for-you teacher resources at Preschool Teacher 101. You’ll find over 90 thematic lesson plans, activities for literacy, math and STEM topics, and more.

Members of The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101 have access to our printable resources, as well as special trainings and members-only resources. Join the wait list today!

collage of preschool eraser activities with text that reads everything you need to know about mini erasers

The post Make the Most of Mini Erasers in Preschool: What You Need to Know appeared first on Fun-A-Day!.