Printable Earth Day Activities for Preschool

Looking for simple and fun activities to do with your preschooler this April as you celebrate Earth Day? 🌎 Check out some of our favorites below, and learn about all the educational benefits that are happening under the surface as they play the day away.

If you'd like a done-for-you version of all these activities that you can download and print today, we've got you covered right over here. ☺️

In this preschool Earth Day activity, kids use colorful printed bottle cap markers (or real bottle caps if you have them!) to practice colors and sorting.

This activity may look simple, but it offers a whole bunch of benefits for preschoolers...

🔵 First, this activity enhances children's cognitive development by sharpening their ability to categorize and classify objects based on a specific characteristic: in this case, color.

🟠 Using the bottle cap counters also fosters the development of fine motor skills as preschoolers manipulate objects to group them accordingly.

🟢 In addition, sorting by color encourages language development as children learn to articulate and express themselves by naming and discussing the colors they observe.

Not too shabby, color sorting!

I thought my newly-five-year-old daughter might find this a bit basic and boring, but nope! She loved it. Remember, just because a skill is mastered doesn't mean kids can't be engaged with further practice. It's fun to be an expert!

In this preschool Earth Day activity, kids use their printed bottle cap markers to complete pattern mats that progress from basic AB repetition, to AABB, and finally, to designing their own patterns.

Here is another activity where there is A LOT going on under the surface as the kiddos work...

🔴 First, preschoolers develop their cognitive skills as they observe, analyze, and replicate patterns, fostering their ability to recognize similarities and differences. 

🔵 This activity also lays the foundation for mathematical understanding, as the kids begin to comprehend concepts such as sequencing, symmetry, and repetition. 

🟠 Language development flourishes as children describe the elements of the pattern using vocabulary such as "repeat," "same," and "different." 

🟢 Additionally, creating patterns fosters critical thinking as kids predict what comes next and justify their reasoning. 

🔴 Through hands-on manipulation of the counters, preschoolers hone their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. 

🔵 Finally, the creative aspect of pattern-making encourages imaginative exploration, allowing them to experiment with colors and arrangements. 

In this preschool Earth Day activity, you'll print out cards with answers from 1-20. The kiddos have to count the number of items on the card (all recycling + green-themed!) and use a clothespin to mark the right answer.

🟠 Count and clip cards build essential math skills such as counting, number recognition, and one-to-one correspondence in a fun and engaging way (my daughter LOVES these!). As they count the items and choose the right number, preschoolers learn to associate numerals with their corresponding quantities, laying a solid foundation for mathematical concepts later on. 💪

🟢 Here's those fine motor skills again! Count and clip cards promote fine motor skill development as children manipulate the clips to mark their answers, also building that hand-eye coordination and dexterity. 

🔴 This activity also fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills as children determine the correct answers and make decisions about where to place the clips.

In this preschool Earth Day activity, kids roll a die twice to find out how many bottle cap counters to put in each "recycling bin". Then they count the total number of bottle cup markers to find the sum. Hands-on addition practice, going green style!

Here's all the good stuff going on in this activity...

🔵 Introducing addition to young children lays the groundwork for essential numeracy skills, forming the cornerstone for understanding more advanced mathematical concepts later on.

🟠 Regular practice with addition fosters a deeper understanding of numerical relationships, helping children recognize patterns and develop problem-solving strategies.

🟢 Choosing a certain color bottle cap counter for each roll builds further on the classifying and grouping practice gained in the color sorting activity.

🔴 Rolling dice is FUN! This simple element makes the activity feel like a game, and the chance of which number will appear adds a feeling of excitement.

In this preschool Earth Day activity, you'll give your kids a stack of cards with a recycling bin and a number on them, and another stack with a number of cans. When I did this activity with my daughter, we laid out the twelve recycling bins, then put the can cards face-down and turned them over one at a time to match.

When preschoolers match number cards to cards depicting the corresponding quantity of items, they are engaging in a fundamental mathematical activity that helps them develop several key skills...

🔵 Children are practicing basic number recognition and literacy as they read the numbers 1-12.

🟠 Through this activity kids are also learning to connect numbers with real things they can see and count, which helps them understand what numbers really mean. In this case, learning that the number "2" means two cans for the recycling bin.

🟢 Like the previous activity, this feels like a game as kids flip over cards and find the right match. Fun!