5 Earth Day Activities to Do with Children of All Ages
Earth Day is a worldwide celebration of our beautiful planet. It is also a reminder that we need to promote awareness of Earth’s need for protection through conservation and recycling. It is important to teach our children at an early age to take care of their environment so that it will be healthy and vibrant for generations to come.
Here are 5 simple Earth Day activities you can do with children to teach them a love for nature and their environment:
1. Earth Day Activities #1: Go on a Nature Walk
Pick a park with a nice trail and just go explore the great outdoors. Let your children discover objects that catch their eye or direct them to touch bark, feel rocks in their hands, study and compare different leaves, or hunt for bugs. Your children may even want to bring along a notebook to journal or draw pictures about what they see. There is so much to do when you explore nature. But don’t forget to bring sunscreen, insect repellent, and plenty of drinking water.
2. Earth Day Activities #2: Visit a Recycling Plant or Landfill
Take your children to a local landfill so they can see where all the trash goes and ask them what the landfill might look like in 5 years.
It is important to teach our children the importance of the Three R’s – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Show them the recycle symbol on the packaging in your home and teach them where to put the packages that can be recycled. Tour a recycling plant in your area.
Go through some clean packaging material in your recycle bin and ask your children to think of ways to use this material for an art project. What can you do with cardboard cereal boxes? What about plastic water bottles? Your children just might surprise you with how creative they can be!
We even recycled newspaper into a paper pulp and recreated animal figures with it by pressing the into cookie cutters. Learn how at Aunt Annie’s website.
4. Earth Day Activities #4: Learn about Birds, Bugs, and Animals
Visit your local library and check out lots of books on wildlife that your child sees on a regular basis like birds and bugs in your area.
Help your children learn to identify them. What colors are these creatures? What sounds do they make? Help them learn to identify the creature’s tracks or slime trails. What kind of texture is on the creature – fur, feathers, or a hard shell? Read to your children about endangered species. Take them to the zoo to see animals up close.
Do something at your home to help nourish the Earth like plant a seed. Planting is so easy. Pick up some seeds at a local nursery or even Wal-Mart. Pay attention to the particular seed’s recommended planting time, depth in soil, etc. Let children dig in the soil and plant the seed. Teach them about the plant’s need for soil, water, and sunlight. Help remind them to water their plant when the soil starts to get dry. You can also put out bird seed to encourage birds to your yard. This is so much fun for children to watch. Help them learn to identify the different types of birds that visit your yard. Try setting up feeders around your yard with different types of seeds, bread, and fruit. Which kinds of birds prefer each kind of food?
There are lots of great posts from other Quirky Mommas that help teach children to appreciate nature and our planet Earth. Here are just a few: