10 Earth Day Activities for Kids

Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd! Here are 10 simple ways you can celebrate with your children!

• Read books about the Earth such as the cute book Round Like a Ball by Lisa Campbell Ernst--This book is a guessing game so don't tell your kids at the beginning that is about the Earth! 

• Raid your recycling bin and make a new treasure (or if you don't have a recycling bin/box--it's time to start one and teach your kids how to sort things into the right bin!) You can see my Earth Day Pinterest Board for some recycled crafts I loved, or just let your kids have some open-ended fun.
• Paint with homemade paintbrushes. We made these paintbrushes from things we found on a nature walk when we did our F is for Fall unit.

• Go on a hike and make a nature journal with pictures of what you see. Below are some examples of pages from older son's nature journal he made last year. He was four at the time, so we kept it very simple. We just stapled together plain white paper for our nature journal and then I gave my kids pencils to draw what they saw. But you could make a more elaborate nature journal such as this one.

• Start a garden or work in your garden with your kids! You could also begin with something as simple as decorating a tin can and planting some herbs in it.
• Make a nature collage using contact paper. The great thing about using contact paper is that you can attach items to the collage that normally would be too heavy to glue on (such as small rocks--which my three year old loves to collect!). Below is my three-year-old's nature collage:

• Make some delicious treats to fit the theme of Earth Day such as these adorable treats in the shape of the world, or these crushed Oreo and worm treats that we shared previously on April Fool's Day.
•  Get out and do something to make the world a better place. You can do something as a simple as walking down your street and picking up trash. Every we time we go on a walk (or even just walking through the parking lot from the car to the grocery store), my kids and I try to pick up a couple of pieces of trash we see on our way and throw them in the garbage can. It's not much--but the little things can add up :)
• Check your community calendar for Earth Day events in your area. We went to a very fun Earth Day expo at our local library last year. The kids were able to do crafts and play games with recycled items, learn about earth-friendly community programs, see a compost bin in action and more...
•  Teach your kids all about the Earth and the different people and places in the world--For a preschool age unit that includes more ideas for activities to do and books to read, see the W is for World unit I did with my kids around Earth Day last year.

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