9 Popsicle Stick Activities to Try in Your Classroom

 As a teacher, one of my favorite things was finding cheap, easy activity ideas that would provide children with hands-on materials to help with their development in different areas of learning.

Here are nine ways you could use humble popsicle sticks to engage your students in the classroom.

Popsicle Stick Activities

Handwriting Helper

Draw a cat on a popsicle stick to help children during handwriting lessons. The cat provides a visual reminder of where the letters sit on the lines (head, body, and tail letters).

Hands Up!

This activity is a cute way to encourage children to put their hands up during small group or whole classwork. Cut out a hand template on colored foam, and stick on the end of a popsicle stick. Children love this!

Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives

Write different nouns, verbs, and adjectives on craft sticks, and then name foam cups with nouns, verbs, and adjectives. A great hands-on writing activity where children pick one popsicle stick from each cup and then create silly sentences. Alternatively, children can sort the words into nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The options are endless!

Googly Reading Eye

Is there anything that can’t be made better with a googly eye? Stick a googly eye on the end of a popsicle stick for children to use as a tracker during reading. A great visual tool for children who struggle to track words while they read.

Popsicle Stick Number Sentences

Put the plus symbol and equal sign on one side of a larger popsicle stick, and a minus sign and equal sign on the other side. With varying numbers on wooden clothespins, children create simple number sentences. This is also a great fine motor activity!

Number Patterns

Write numbers on popsicle sticks using different number patterns. Children need to work out the rule for each pattern, put the numbers in order, then find the number that comes next. A great math activity to use during math centers.

Spaceman Popsicle Sticks

Use our helpful handwriting ‘Spaceman’ template, and stick it on a popsicle stick. Use it during writing sessions to remind children to put a space between their words.

Sight Words Vocabulary Builder

Write sight words or word family words on popsicle sticks. Write each letter for each word on wooden clothespins and mix them all up. Children need to find the correct letters to create each word. This is great for word building, recognizing rhyming words, learning sight words, letter/sound recognition, fine motor development, and so much more.

Word Families

Create word family houses using a piece of cardstock. Write the last two letters of the word family on a cardstock ‘roof’. Then, write words that are part of the word family on popsicle sticks. Mix the words up and have children build each of the word family houses.

If you have any other ideas, we would love to hear about them! Leave a comment below…