Now that school has started again, I’ve been doing a lot more crafts for teachers (ohhh, the posts that are on the way!!!). I have a few projects I need to dig up from when I used to work in day care, but this one I developed just yesterday to accompany my Lorax Activities post on Classroom Jr.

You might also love this Cat in the Hat craft as much as I do!

Lorax Activity - Truffula Trees Craft

What You Need to Make this Truffula Trees Craft

Truffula Trees Lorax Craft Materials

1 yellow and black striped pipe cleaner (found mine at Hobby Lobby – or buy animal striped pipe cleaners from Discount School Supply)

4 multi colored pom poms (to be true to The Lorax book, use yellow, red/pink, purple and orange)

Green Play Dough (here’s a gluten-free play dough alternative or make your own play dough)

A square of tissue paper for the base (really, anything can work here, including not using anything at all)

Glue

How to Make Truffula Trees

Have an adult clip the pipe cleaner into 4 segments, any length will do, and they don’t have to be even.

Pour out some glue and let the kids dip one end of the pipe cleaner into the glue, getting a good sized drop on top:

Gluing the Truffula Trees Craft

Stuff the glued end of the pipe cleaner into a pom pom – I use a hot glue gun because it’s a little easier, but even just regular Elmer’s Glue sticks remarkably well.

Repeat for the next three pom poms and pipe cleaner segments, making four Truffula Trees.

Slap the green play dough onto the tissue paper and push the sides down a little to make it look like a hill. Again, there’s no right way to do this, pretty much any slap of the dough onto a surface will look good.

Stick the four Truffula Trees into your green play dough ‘hill’.

Done!

Here are more recycled crafts for Earth Day and conservation minded peeps, plus check out these How Do Plants Grow printable activities or these Earth Day printables, too!

Craft Materials List

Colorations Wheat & Gluten-Free Dough – 5 1/2 lbs.

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Jumbo Assorted Wild Animal Pipe Cleaners

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Pom Pom Classroom Pack – 700 Pieces

10 Plant Life Cycle Lesson Plan Activity Ideas

1 – Print out the color or b/w sequencing squares below twice to make a matching game.

2 – Plant seeds in newspaper seedling pots.

3 – Have children collect seeds from everyday foods to bring into the classroom for identification.

4 – Grow a Chia Pet. For added fun use seeds like alfalfa or onion so that the resulting sprouts are edible!

5 – Sprout an avocado seed.

6 – Craft Jr has several pages dedicated to nature crafts, including beach crafts, stick crafts and leaf crafts.

7 – Plant a tree in the school yard, local park, or other organization.

8 – Our school does their planting activities early in the year, and then lets the children take their full grown plants home as a Mother’s Day gift in May.

9 – Take a field trip to a local greenhouse, or ask your local greenhouse if they would be willing to send in a person to do a presentation for the school. Stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s already have classroom/scouting activities in place, too.

10 – Download and print this plant cell diagram over on Classroom Jr.!

Plant Life Worksheets

How Do Plants Grow Color Sequence

How Do Plants Grow Sequence Coloring Page

How Do Plants Grow Color Sequence Worksheet

How Do Plants Grow Word Search

Plant Life Quizzes on Classroom Jr.

How Do Plants Grow Printable Mini Book – For Young Children

Use this mini book for younger children who are able to color the pictures, cut apart the pages, and assemble them into a book. Staple the pages together, or punch holes and tie string as a book binding.

How Do Plants Grow Mini Book pg 1-2

How Do Plants Grow Mini Book pg 3-4

How Do Plants Grow Mini Book pg 5-6

How Do Plants Grow Mini Book pg 7-8

Blank How Do Plants Grow Printable Mini Book – For Older Kids

Use this mini book for older children who have the skills to construct their own sentences. They can describe what is in the pictures and use the vocabulary words from the word search above.

How Do Plants Grow Blank Book pg 1-2

How Do Plants Grow Blank Book pg 3-4

How Do Plants Grow Blank Book pg 5-6

How Do Plants Grow Blank Book pg 7-8

Check out all of our spring activities, Earth Day activities and other garden crafts while you are here!