Activities inspired by Dr. Seuss's The Lorax

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Earth Day will be celebrated in the United States on April 22. With Earth Day approaching, I thought it was finally time for me to share Dr. Seuss’s book The Lorax with my kids. It is such a classic piece of literature and I wanted my children to be familiar with it. Plus, its messages of environmental stewardship and the perils of valuing profit over nature are great for sparking Earth Day discussions about how we can all protect our planet.

For those who aren’t familiar with the book – and if you aren’t, you really ought to check it out! – the story revolves around a man who discovers a forest of Truffula Trees. (In typical Dr. Seuss style, the book uses lots of funny words like Truffula and thneed.) Despite warnings and pleadings from the Lorax, the man chops down the Truffula Trees in order to manufacture thneeds that he can sell for profit. Despite his factory’s impact on the environment, he continues chopping and manufacturing until there are no Truffula Trees left. In fact, all that is left is a barren forest devoid of animals who have long since left due to the polluted water and sky.

The book ends with a message to readers that things will only get better if we each care enough to take action by treating our environment with the love and care it deserves.

My kids and I were inspired by our reading of this book to create our own truffula forest. Below I share how we made our own truffula forests. I also reached out to other bloggers who have done some creative and wonderful activities inspired by their reading of The Lorax, and I’m sharing some of their ideas below as well.

Activities inspired by The Lorax || Gift of Curiosity

We started, of course, by reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

As we read, I realized that I had a few supplies on hand that would be perfect for creating our own truffula forests. So I gathered the following materials:

Styrofoam blocks (purchased at the dollar store)
Wooden sticks from our Spielgaben set
Our multicolored pom poms

The kids got a great fine motor workout as they stuck the wooden sticks into the styrofoam blocks to begin forming their truffula trees.

Their fine motor skills continued to get a workout as they taped pom poms to the top of their sticks to make the truffula tufts for the truffula trees.

In the end, they had some very colorful truffula forests!

And QBoy decided to act out the story by using his hammer to knock down the truffula trees. 🙂

Other bloggers have also had some very creative ways of making truffula trees.

3Dinosaurs made these cute torn paper truffula trees (that would also provide great fine motor exercise for kids).

Torn paper truffula trees from 3Dinosaurs

3Dinosaurs also shared these gorgeous yarn Truffula trees as well.

And who wouldn’t want to eat these Truffula tree cupcakes (link broken and removed) and other Lorax-inspired foods from Coffee Cups and Crayons?

Truffula tree cupcakes and other foods inspired by The Lorax from Coffee Cups and Crayons

If your kids enjoy sensory play, definitely check out this Lorax-inspired sensory bin from Lemon Lime Adventures. This would be a wonderful way for young children to act out their understanding of the story after reading the book.

If you and your children enjoy book-inspired treats, you’ll want to check out these Lorax mustache and truffula tree sugary treats from Mama Miss.

Sassy Dealz also has a very cute Lorax craft using a toilet paper roll.

Lorax toilet roll craft from Sassy Dealz

Finally, see this comprehensive post at Lemon Lime Adventures for all sorts of ideas for a book study based on The Lorax. Here you will find ideas for math, literacy, science, and more!