Earth Day Activities

These Earth Day Activities are great for occupational therapy activities because they are full of fine motor work, bilateral coordination, motor planning, and sensory experiences. Plus, when kids create these Earth day crafts and play experiences, they are learning about recycling, cleaning up the Earth, and nature.

Earth day activities for occupational therapy

Earth Day Activities

Let’s get to the Earth Day fun!

  1. Make a recycled materials craft bin. Kids can gather recyclable materials from food containers, cardboard, artwork, and use them to make a DIY craft bin that is used for making more crafts and using in fine motor or sensory play activities. I love that the wax paper sleeves or egg cartons can be easily stored in cut cereal boxes. What a way to work on scissor skills with a variety of materials.

Here are more crafts and activities using recycled materials.

2. Use recycled materials to make a flower craft– Then, after that recycled materials craft bin is sorted, use the items to make a flower craft. Things like used egg cartons, cereal boxes, paper bags, can be cut and manipulated to craft and work on fine motor skills.

3. Head outside. There are so many benefits to playing and exploring the outdoors. And, kids can learn about the earth, too.

4. Read about recycling. These books about recycling are great to incorporate into therapy activities.

5. Incorporate recycled materials into learning concepts. Use these strategies to integrate therapy goals into the classroom with a recycling theme. You’ll find math, reading, science, and more ideas here.

This series on 31 days of learning using free materials will get you started on lots of ways to use recycled materials in classroom concepts.

6. Plant something- Explore this post on sensory gardens to find ways to incorporate sensory input in the outdoors.

 

I was surfing around on some other lovely blogs and trying to find some fun crafts that we could try.  Here are a few of our favorite ones we came across all geared towards children ages two through five.

 
 
 

 

Itsy Bitsy Learners
This is a fun activity for preschoolers using homemade textured paint.
 

 

Repeat Crafter Me
This Earth Day inspired felt counting book is such a great idea for toddlers.
 
 

 

Imprints From Tricia
What a fun idea- go on a nature hunt and create a Nature Book. Press plants, leaves, and flowers into paint and then write to describe the prints. It’s a great sensory based handwriting activity.
 
 
 
Laugh Paint Create 
Created some great recycled artwork with cardboard food boxes. Work on scissor skills, bilateral coordination, and more.

 

 

Teach Beside Me These adorable Rock faces will make anyone smile and make a beautiful addition to a garden.

 

 
All of these great posts have inspired us to go create something special out of recycled items or something Mother Earth has provided for us…we can’t wait to get our hands dirty!

 

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

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6 thoughts on “Earth Day Activities”

  1. We have done textured paint before and it is very fun. The two different colors look so neat! Definitely want to try this one. Thanks for stopping by!!

  2. Slugs are something I can't stand to look at and my kids can't stop playing with them, lol! Thanks for stopping by and the lovely comment!

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Earth Day activities

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