Earth Day is an important day of every year that helps remind us that we are responsible for taking care of the Earth, our home. When teaching children, we can cover a variety of different topics when introducing Earth Day. Some of these topics are covered in our Earth Day Snap Cube Mats.
Earth Day usually encompasses recycling, reducing pollution, protecting endangered species, encouraging plant & tree growth and saving water. These are all incredibly important to protecting and helping to continue life of the earth.
Earth Day Snap Cube Mats
Our Earth Day Snap Cube Mats are a brilliant way to help encourage the learning and understanding of these topics in a fun and engaging way! Encouraging children to learn in a hands on way can be more beneficial for them!
Plus, this is is an easy activity to prep and will last you weeks in your classroom. Not to mention you can use it year after year!
Materials Needed For Earth Day Snap Cube Mats
Paper | Laminating Pouch or Dry Erase Pocket |
Dry Eraser Marker | Mathlink Cubes or Snap Cubes
EXPO Low Odor Dry Erase Markers, Chisel Tip, Assorted Colors, 8 PackTYH Supplies Reusable Dry Erase Pockets, 9 x 12 Inches, Assorted Neon Colors Set of 10
Learning Resources Mathlink Cubes, Educational Counting Toy, Set of 100 Cubes, Ages 5+
Please note: These mats do require 3 sets of snap cubes because some mats use 20+ of a color.
To Prep: As I mentioned above, the prep for this activity is incredibly easy and will last a lifetime, if you’d like it to.
The first that I do is print each of the ten mats. If you are doing this activity for a classroom, you could print multiple of each page to ensure each of your students have a mat.
I like to ensure that activities will not get easily ruined by kids. This is bound to happen, they are kids, but we can prevent it with lamination or dry erase pouches.
Both of these work great in their own way. When I know that my kids will use an activity over and over, like a literacy center, I will laminate. If this is more of a day long activity, I may just slip it into a dry erase pouch.
If not working with a classroom, I have printed or laminated sheets back to back to save on paper or lamination. A classroom might need single sheets, though.
Now grab your snap cubes and let’s play!
Learning Resources Mathlink Cubes, Educational Counting Toy, Set of 100 Cubes, Ages 5+
To use: Playing with these mats is not only great for strengthening fine motor skills, but it is FUN! We use these snap cubes but we also have these. Both are great for this activity.
Choose which mat you would like to work with first.
The first step to playing can be to trace the letter with a dry erase marker. The letter on each mat is the first letter of the word written and the picture.
The next step is to fill in the picture by snapping together the cubes. If you are using the Math Link Cubes, you can have children place them on the corresponding colored square. The squares of the picture are color coordinated. Use the cubes to create the picture.
When the picture is formed, the next step is to sort or count the colors. An easier way to sort and count is to pull the snap cubes off of the picture. Sort them by color, then count each cube for the first color. Write that on the space provided on the bottom of the mat. Move on to the next color and so on.
A more challenging way would be to count the cubes of each color while on the mat and write them in the designated areas.
Repeat the process with each picture and mat. Please note that in a traditional snap cube set there is only one blue and one green, so while the multiple colors of green and blue on the mats are great for visual discrimination of hues, students should just use the colors that they have to build the images.
Additional Ideas
- To increase fine motor skill strengthening even more, put cubes in one big tray or bowl and ask child to pick out the color they need using fine motor tweezers. This not only helps strengthen hand and finger muscles but is increasing the challenge as well.
- Have children create the picture with cubes on the side of the mat, this will add more challenge.
- Instead of using a dry erase marker or crayon to trace the letter, ask child to form the letter with play dough and place it on the letter.
- Ask child to count the color of cubes, sorting them, but then add up all of the numbers to see how many blocks were used in total.
Earth Day Inspired Books
The EARTH BookThank You, Earth: A Love Letter to Our Planet
Earth Day, Birthday!
Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth
Fancy Nancy: Every Day Is Earth Day (I Can Read Level 1)
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