Free Hot Air Balloon Printables: 6 Worksheets for K-1

These free hot air balloon printables turn a fall afternoon into a week of real learning. The six worksheets cover counting, phonics, handwriting, patterns, coloring, and a little writing, all built around a balloon ride: hills, clouds, sun, a basket, and a bird.

The set is made for kindergarten and first grade, and preschoolers can join in for the counting and coloring pages. Each page is short, so it fits beside your other lessons without taking over the day.

Free for your family, co-op, or classroom. Prints on regular letter paper. Every page is checked for mistakes before we post it.

What's in the hot air balloon printables

1. Counting hot air balloons

Five rows of the same striped hot air balloon, from two to six per row, in mixed order. Kids tally each row and jot the total in the box.

Make it easier: Line up small toys or snack pieces to match each row while your child counts out loud.
Make it harder: Ask which row has the most balloons, or how many balloons rows two and four have together.

2. Word match

Draw a line from each picture to its word: bird, hill, basket, sun, and cloud, all things you’d spot from a balloon basket.

Make it easier: Read the five words aloud together before your child starts drawing lines.
Make it harder: Cover the pictures and have your child read each word cold, then check by uncovering it.

3. Tracing

The same five words again, first in dotted tracing letters, then on a blank line for your child to write from memory.

Make it easier: Trace with a finger first, or trace only the first letter of each word before picking up a pencil.
Make it harder: Write the five words from memory on scratch paper, then use two of them in one sentence.

4. Patterns: what comes next?

Four rows of red and blue balloons and clouds, each with its own rule. The first two rows alternate two colors; the last two mix in a cloud.

Make it easier: Use red and blue counters or buttons to rebuild the first row before drawing it.
Make it harder: Have your child say each pattern’s rule out loud and make up a new row of their own.

5. Coloring page

This hot air balloon coloring page has three balloons drifting over snow-capped mountains, with a few clouds and birds in the sky. Thick, simple outlines make it easy for small hands to stay inside the lines.

Make it harder: Color each balloon a different pattern of stripes instead of one solid color.

6. Draw and write

Kids draw their own hot air balloon ride, then finish the sentence “In a hot air balloon, I would float over…” Drawing first gives them something real to write about.

Make it easier: Your child tells you the ending, you write it lightly in pencil, and they trace over it.
Make it harder: Write two or three sentences about the ride, each with a capital letter and a period.

What kids practice with the hot air balloon worksheets

• Counting to six. Counting a row of pictures and writing the total is a core kindergarten skill.
• Phonics. The five words hold real patterns: the ou vowel team in cloud, the r-controlled vowel in bird, the short u in sun, the blend at the start of basket, and the short i and double consonant in hill.
• Handwriting. Tracing first, then writing each word alone.
• Patterns. Four rows moving from a simple two-color repeat to a pattern with three pictures.

A simple 5-day hot air balloon plan

1. Monday: Look at photos of real hot air balloons, then do the counting page.
2. Tuesday: Read the five words aloud and do the word match.
3. Wednesday: Do the tracing page, then find a real hill, cloud, and sun outside.
4. Thursday: Build a pattern with blocks before doing the patterns page.
5. Friday: Color the balloon scene and finish the draw-and-write page. Date it for your portfolio.

Using the set in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade

Preschool: Stick to counting, coloring, and the first two pattern rows.

Kindergarten: The set works as written.

First grade: Use the “make it harder” ideas above, and ask for two full sentences on the last page.

How does a hot air balloon rise?

A burner heats the air inside the balloon, called the envelope. Warm air is lighter than the cool air around it, so the balloon floats up the same way a beach ball pops back up after you push it underwater. The pilot climbs by firing the burner and comes down by letting the air cool. Balloons can’t steer left or right; the pilot finds a different height where the wind blows the way they want to go. Every fall, hundreds of balloons launch together at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico, the largest hot air balloon festival in the world.

Hot air balloon books to read with this set

• Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride by Marjorie Priceman
• Sebastian and the Balloon by Philip C. Stead
• Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon by H. A. Rey and Margret Rey
• Up and Away!: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot-Air Balloon by Jason Henry

Printing tips and answers

• Slip the counting, tracing, and patterns pages into a sheet protector for a reusable dry-erase set.
• Print the coloring page on cardstock if your child uses markers or paint.

Answers: Counting, top to bottom, in mixed order: 6, 2, 5, 3, 4. Patterns, top to bottom: blue balloon, red balloon, red balloon, cloud.

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