Happy Earth Day!
Earth Day is a day that we can say “Thank You!” to our Mother Earth while teaching our kiddos what it means to be a good steward of the Earth. Check out the activities below to help teach our families true respect and love of the Earth!
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce
Lead by example. When able, always bring your own grocery bags. Choose food items with the least packaging. Avoid single service items like water bottles and zip lock bags. We have even chosen a re-usable fleece bedding for our Guinea Pigs and do not use disposable paper bedding.
Re-use
What can we find in our house to repurpose? One of the most abundant things in my house are Amazon Prime boxes (#sorrynotsorry) What can you build from them? Can you use them for creative time instead of buying a new coloring book? We went to a fun workshop at Deuxiemme Vie Creative where we used shapes cut from cardboard boxes to make abstract faces! What can you make from items bound for the dumpster?
Recycle
Do you recycle? If you don’t have curbside pickup, do you know where you can drop off your recycling? Check out Earth911 for your drop off location.
On top of that, do you know how long it takes for things that we throw away to decompose? Check out down2earth materials for an interesting list. A great learning exercise is to place multiple items next to each other in order of how long it takes for them to decompose. Then, have your kiddo try to guess how long that decomposition can take! When we know better we do better!
Use Nature to Learn
Now that we’re all in the role of home-school teacher, what better way to honor the Earth that to use her as a teacher! Several websites have awesome nature-based learning activities! Check out two of my favorites below!
Mother Natured
This site uses nature in art and other experiential learning activities. It is appropriate for a variety of age groups and is sure to pique your little one’s interest. Check out our skeleton that my 5 year old made from rocks and sticks found on our morning walk! We used this project to learn about the human bone structure!
The Exploratorium
This website has projects and learning modules that are more computer-based and very appropriate for a more advanced audience. Check this one out to help your middle schoolers and high schoolers celebrate the Earth with projects based in the advanced sciences!
Earth Day Art Projects!
Recycled Garden
We made a beautiful garden out of materials headed for the garbage! I am a Lacroix superfan, so their colorful boxes made a wonderful medium. Also, Amazon has begun sending pre-printed flowers to cut out and assemble on their boxes! Put that “add to cart” coping skill to good use!
Paper Mache from old newspaper
Oh, paper mache…..the things that I can make with you! And every last one of us has way too many of the sales papers that they send to us in the mail that we never use (or is that just me?) An easy peasy recipe for paper mache can be found on The Spruce Crafts. Especially as Mother’s Day and Father’s day comes closer, think of the fun containers that you could make with paper mache! Ring holders, a cute dish for the dinner table, covering for the plain pot holding a pretty plant ……..I am super excited to make a paper mache globe to use for our home-school social studies!
Earth Day Collage
We are very excited to make a collage of the earth using old cardboard and magazines- Find the instructions here. An awesome piece of this project is the educate our little ones about their place in the world and the importance that they serve in preserving it!
Make an Earth Day Pledge
Much like New Year’s or the beginning of Lent, Earth Day can signify the beginning of a life change. Perhaps Earth Day 2020 can be the year that you truly stop using all plastic bags. Maybe you will join the re-usable straw train- Gosili is an awesome option and is offering an Earth Day discount! Or, perhaps you begin a tradition of planting a tree every Earth Day. Or, maybe you will join me in our strong Earth Day Pledge from years ago to never buy another paper towel again (and much to my husband’s chagrin, I have steadfastly held to that pledge).
Another option is to monetarily support a local agency that is doing good work for the Earth. Excellent options in the Acadiana area are LASOAR Outdoor Adventure Kids Club, Deuxiéme Vie Creative, or Atelier de la Nature.
However big or small your Earth Day pledge is, make one. The Earth will thank you for it!
There are so many ways that we can celebrate the Earth for Earth Day!
What will your celebration look like?
Share them in the comments and use the hashtag #EarthDayMomma
