Developing an atmosphere of learning through fun and craft is what we're all about! That's why we've gathered together a collection of 24 amazing activities to help you teach your preschoolers about the desert. Learning about different environments and climates encourages students to get involved in the world outside of the classroom and helps develop critical thinking and creative solutions to environmental issues. Take a look at the activities below and get inspired for your next desert-themed lesson plan!
1. Desert In A Box
This box craft depicts the desert habitat perfectly! All your learners will need to create one of their very own is a clear plastic container, a piece of yellow cardstock to represent the sky, two paper palm trees as well as three paper camels, sand, contact, sticky tack, and glue.
Learn More: Life Over CS
2. Desert Animal Board Game
Board games are great for teaching little ones the art of taking turns and following instructions. This desert-themed game requires learners to identify the animal on their select card and then proceed to move their counter to the closest block with the same animal on it.
Learn More: Life Over CS
3. Cucumber Cactus
This craft helps preschoolers develop their motor skills as it requires them to stick plenty of toothpicks into half a cucumber. Once the toothpicks have been arranged your little ones can get to work painting their creation to resemble a cactus.
Learn More: Everything Preschool
4. Sand Painting
This textural activity is perfectly paired with a preschool desert learning unit. Learners can draw whatever desert scene their heart desires, but once drawn they'll need to cover the elements in a layer of glue and sprinkle on their sand. Once the glue has dried, they can add dimension to the scene by painting it using an array of colors.
Learn More: Everything Preschool
5. Camel Silhouette
These shadow silhouettes make wonderful desert crafts as the sun in the desert is very bright and when looking at objects far away, we can often only make out the overall figures, not the details. In order to craft these silhouettes all, you'll need is a printer, black and white construction paper as well as scissors, and glue.
Learn More: DLTK Kids
6. Paper Camel Craft
You can print these adorable paper camels for your learners and instruct them to cut them out. They can then proceed to cut the legs off at the knees and reattach them using split pins to make them move.
Learn More: Paper Magic
7. Paper Chain Snake
This desert animal activity focuses on crafting a paper snake. It's a quick and easy activity to organize and the final product can be used as a puppet in a play. Simply glue together a paper chain by using yellow and green strips of cardstock. To finish the little guy off, add two eyes and a tongue onto one end.
Learn More: Dickinson County Conservation Board
8. Porcupine Paper Plate Craft
All your students need to recreate this cute desert porcupine is half a paper plate, a black marker, brown cardstock, and glue! Once they've cut spikes off the cardstock, they can proceed to glue them onto their paper plate in assorted directions before giving their porcupine a personality and adding facial features.
Learn More: Arty Crafty Kids
9. Paper Bag Crow
These paper bag crows make for wonderful puppets and couldn't be easier to make. Have your learners paint a piece of paper black before gluing on decorative elements such as orange claws and a beak, two paper wings and crowing feathers as well as two googly eyes.
Learn More: I Heart Crafty Things
10. Toilet Roll Vulture
Looking for a craft to make use of old toilet rolls? This vulture is a perfect idea! The toilet roll creates a great base for the vulture's body and when painted black, imitates its hunched posture in the best way possible! Once the toilet roll has dried, paper wings, claws, and a face can be glued on.
Learn More: Easy Kids Craft
11. Sonoran Desert Wolf Puppet
Another great puppet craft is this Sonoran Desert wolf. Your students can either draw their own facial features and arms or simplify things by printing them out to glue on and bring their character to life.
Learn More: Flickr
12. Desert Card Matching Game
Prepare to print and laminate a pair of desert pictures. These can either be of animals, scenes, or plants. Mix up the pictures for your preschoolers to practice finding the matching set.
Learn More: Child Fun
13. Sand Writing
Sand writing brings all the fun of the outdoors, indoors! Simply place sand in a rectangular tray, hand out desert-themed word cards and let your little ones get to work on writing the words out in the sand.
Learn More: Learn With Play At Home
14. Mosaic Lizard
This activity is an awesome introduction to mosaic and collage-type crafts. After having cut a green lizard from cardstock, simply glue on a pair of googly eyes and colorful shreds of paper to resemble scales.
Learn More: Broogly
15. Alice The Camel Song
Alice The Camel is a great song to play to have your learners guess what theme they'll be covering next. The song not only gets everyone involved and excited but also introduces simple number concepts by counting backward from 5.
Learn More: DLTK Kids
16. Wet Chalk Sunrise Scene
By using wet chalk to draw on a piece of purple cardstock, your learners can create beautiful sunrise and sunset artwork. To really bring their desert to life, have them glue on a cactus and shreds of brown cardstock for sand.
Learn More: Ppppizzazz Blogspot
17. Cactus Comb Painting
To recreate this painting your students will need either a comb or a plastic fork. Instruct the learners to decorate their background by drawing in the sun, sky, sand, and any desert creature they wish. After this, simply dip a comb or fork into green paint and adorn the cactus with spikes.
Learn More: Tippy Toe Crafts
18. Decorating Letter D
Letter crafts are great for expanding a learner's knowledge about a specific animal or place as well as developing an understanding of the alphabet. In this case, they're tasked with decorating the letter "D" to resemble the desert. All you'll need is cardstock, scissors, glue, and a black marker.
Learn More: Must Have Mom
19. Origami Scorpions
Origami is great for young learners as it develops fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as well as encourages concentration. This specific craft is wonderful as it ties perfectly into a desert theme and requires that learners make paper scorpions.
Learn More: Craft Paper Folding
20. Clay Cactus Garden
This sweet activity encourages creative play with clay- the result being a stunning clay cactus garden. Your students will need some guided direction from you, their teacher, as well as various colored clay from which to mold their pot, soil, and assorted cacti.
Learn More: Fun Family Crafts
21. Rattling Paper Plate Snake
This paper plate rattlesnake could not be easier to make! By using painted paper plates, popcorn kernels or rice, a cardstock snake, and glue, your little learners can recreate this awesome rattlesnake!
Learn More: In The Bag Kids Crafts
22. Count And Clip
Tying math activities to a fun craft is a fantastic way to make learning fun for your learners! This count and clip activity requires a cactus cutout, stickers on which to write numbers, paper to create flowers, and finally, a few clothes pegs.
Learn More: No Time For Flashcards
23. Crunchy Cactus Treat
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By combining peanut butter, chow mien noodles, and butterscotch candies, your little ones can spend time in the kitchen and then reap the rewards of the labor by enjoying this crunchy treat!
Learn More: Child Fun
24. Sandpaper Cactus
Recreate this sensory craft by cutting a cactus shape from a piece of sandpaper before having your learners paint them green. For added fun, glue the cactus onto a piece of paper and decorate the background to resemble a desert.
Learn More: No Time For Flashcards
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