These free printable Earth Day pattern block mats are a fun, hands-on, activity that kids will love!
Kids will have fun comparing and combining shapes to create these Earth Day pictures, while working on important maths concepts, fine motor skills and more!
These Earth Day pattern block mats are ready to print and use, and make a great quick and easy Earth Day activity for preschoolers and kindergarten kids.
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
Pattern blocks are a great activity for learning and reinforcing important maths skills, along with working on fine motor skills, encouraging creativity and fun!
This hands on maths activity will help kids learn shape recognition, symmetry, area, and beginning geometry. Pattern blocks also help kids develop spatial awareness and visual discrimination as the blocks are rotated and flipped over to vary each shape. Arranging each block carefully to complete the picture also gives fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination a work out.
These Earth day pattern block mats are great way to combine learning across multiple areas of development and are a fun way to include Earth Day themes and ideas into a fun learning activity.
Earth Day Pattern Blocks
Earth Day is celebrated April 22nd each year and encourages awareness and appreciation for the environment. These free printable Earth Day pattern block mats are a a fun way for kids to learn about Earth Day and what it stands for.
To use these Earth Day pattern block printables simply print out the pattern block mats (scroll down for the printable links below) and grab a set of pattern blocks – this set from Melissa and Doug are great for at home, or this big container of pattern blocks is perfect for the classroom.
How to Use the Earth Day Pattern Block Mats with Preschoolers
For preschoolers and young children who are just beginning with pattern blocks choose the coloured pattern block mats. Encourage the children to place the correct shape and colour of pattern block onto the mat to make the picture.
Support your young child and extend their learning by naming the colours and shapes and encouraging them to ‘flip’ and ‘rotate’ shapes when needed.
You could also count together how many pattern blocks were used to make the image, and count how many of each colour/shape were used.
You can also use the pattern block images to encourage a discussion about Earth Day.
How to Use the Earth Day Pattern Block Mats with Older Kids
Kindergarten and older aged children can use either the coloured pattern block mats, or for an extra challenge use the outline pattern block mats.
The outline pattern block mats require a little extra thinking to decide which block fits the shape without the colours to help you, which is great for building spatial awareness. You may still need to support children by prompting them to ‘flip’ or ‘rotate’ shapes when needed.
Older children can name the shapes they are using and count the number of each shape used to make the image.
You could also challenge older children to come up with their own pattern block designs related to Earth Day. How would they make an earth from pattern blocks? What other pattern block images would they make for Earth Day?
Free Printable Earth Day Pattern Block Mats
There are three different Earth Day pattern block templates, and each one comes in a full colour version and a version that is just the outlines.
These Earth Day pattern block mats are ready to print and go! Simply click on the blue heading link below each pattern block mat image to download it.
Instructions for Printing
These printable pattern block mats are all A4 sized pdf files, you will need a pdf reader such as adobe acrobat to open them. They will fit to print on US ‘letter sized’ paper.
Please choose ‘Actual Size’ from your printer settings. Do not select ‘fit’ or ‘shrink to fit’ from your printer settings regardless of what size paper you are using. If you get a message saying ‘image is larger than the paper’s printable area’ you can safely ignore this so that the pattern block mats print at the correct size.
Please remember that the printables at picklebums.com are for personal use only, you may not sell, share, or link directly to these files.
More Earth Day Activities for Kids
Try one of these fun Earth Day activities for kids!