Celebrating the 22nd of April through meaningful Earth Day activities for students of all ages is a great way to honor our home and harbor prosocial behavior arising from a positive mindset. Even though Earth Day is celebrated just one day a year, we should aim to promote life-changing habits every single day, and the activities we recommend can certainly help.
Taking care of the planet we live on is our moral responsibility given that it directly impacts our health. Kids need to understand that our lifestyle can be harmful to our environment, which negatively impacts our future. This is the purpose of Earth Day, and it goes beyond simply cleaning the neighborhood and planting trees (although that’s important too).
For teachers and parents to be able to promote environmentally friendly lifestyle habits, they need to teach kids about concepts such as recycling, pollution, composting, single-use plastic, etc. Some might say that’s a challenge, but thanks to our fun Earth Day activities kids will learn kinesthetically – by taking action and experiencing these activities first hand. Learning has never been so fun!
Why Do We Celebrate Earth Day?
Before you fully emerge yourself and your child or students in our Earth Day activities, let us remind you to start the class with a brief historical perspective or a discussion about the significance of this day. It’s useful for kids to know why we celebrate Earth Day, why it’s so important to recycle, plant trees, or avoid single-use plastic.
Our planet Earth is an absolutely fascinating place. The biodiversity of flora and fauna is so mesmerizing that some sights look better than a fantasy. You can start the class by asking kids about their favorite nature sights. Then, you can show some of the best places on Earth such as the Glacier Bay National Park. This approach is a great introduction to the concerns addressed with Earth Day.
The way we live today hurts our planet and threatens to destroy these beautiful sights. If we want to protect the beauty and health of our planet, and with that our health and future, we should take action!
The History of Earth Day
The origins of Earth Day can be traced back to 1970 when Gaylord Nelson, a Senator from Wisconsin, planted the seeds of what came to be known as a nationwide environmental teach-in day!
During that period, a lot of attention was geared toward environmental issues thanks to Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring. Coincidentally, more fuel was added to the fire by the large media coverage of the Santa Barbara oil spill. All these events convinced Nelson that there’s a pressing need for an environmental initiative.
Many speeches later, Nelson was able to convenience the nation of the seriousness of this issue through a New York Times front-page report. Not long after, experts from every field offered their service to Nelson for organizing a serious campaign. But, it was Julien Koenig, a mastermind in advertising, who came up with the term “Earth Day” as a slogan for the campaign! Needless to say, it was a huge success that virally spread throughout the world and persisted ever since as an annual event, celebrating our planet Earth and raising awareness about environmental issues.
Today, around 1 billion people in more than 193 countries honor Earth Day and participate in various events, campaigns, and calls for action! To check out official events, visit the official Earth Day website. This year the slogan is “Restore Our Earth,” aiming to prevent the coming disasters of climate change and environmental destruction.
Fun Fact: The first Earth Day protest back in 1970 is considered the largest single-day protest in human history with more than 20 million people going out on the streets demanding environmental protection.
Earth Day Activities for Kids
While there are a lot of workshops, panel discussions, and similar online events organized by the official Earth Day organization, young kids might feel more comfortable taking action together with their classmates in a familiar environment. For these reasons, we’ve included 10 easy-to-follow Earth Day activities for kids of all ages! Whether you’re a teacher or a homeschooling parent, you’ll have no problems setting up the scene for a day filled with fun and good deeds!
Plant a Tree
Let’s start with a tradition without which we really can’t imagine Earth Day! Since Earth Day has become an annual celebration, people all around the world took on the challenge of who can plant the most trees. This is because the act of planting trees is beneficial for the environment and represents a way of reversing the damage done by urbanization and deforestation.
How? Well, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increase, which produces a so-called greenhouse effect that leads to a rise in global temperatures. Luckily for us, trees absorb carbon dioxide and release fresh oxygen into the air. This process helps in filtering out pollutants that clean the air. Therefore, planting and growing more trees means having cleaner air!
But, over the years, planting trees has become a campaign on its own not strictly related to Earth Day. Just how big this campaign is speaks the fact that Ethiopia holds the world record for most trees planted in a day, which is more than 350 million! That action was part of a project that aimed to counter the effects of deforestation and climate change.
Of course, you and the kids or students don’t have to actually compete or achieve a world record, a humble garden work, or planting a few trees in your neighborhood (be careful where) or local park will do the job. Kids will get an opportunity to learn why that action is important and your environment will become a greener place!
Become a Waste Warrior
Cleaning our environment is the second most popular, and maybe the most important activity for Earth Day! Just like kids know that we don’t throw trash in the house, and we regularly clean it to maintain it a safe place to live, we also have to clean our bigger home – planet Earth!
There’s a great initiative originating from India, called Waste Warriors, that’s a wonderful project for Earth Day. Best of all, the name sounds like an awesome superhero that’s on a mission to clean the planet and conserve biodiversity. Kids will love to take part in such a mission and themselves become Waste Warriors! How?
Well, they have to spend the day cleaning in their assigned parameter, spread awareness about the initiative, and think about ways in which they can better manage their own waste! The last part can turn into a great brainstorming session at the end of the day, which will leave kids motivated to go home and make at least one change!
Waste Warriors have a slogan that says “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle!” This is a great guide on how to think about waste management. Check out their official website for more information.
Turn off the Lights
Another way kids can pay tribute to Earth Day is by taking part in an initiative that challenges them to spend a day or at least a couple of hours without using electricity. While to some of us, this might seem not that big of a deal, kids these days have a harder time imagining an activity where no electrical device is being used. That’s why it’s such an amazingly reflective activity and eye-opening to the notion of just how dependent we’re on electricity.
Yet, electricity generation has a big environmental impact on our air, water, and land – with the exception of renewable resources such as solar, geothermal, and wind energy, that typically do not contribute to global warming and climate change.
Maybe in the future, we’ll live in a world that’s fully powered by electricity from renewable resources, but for now, it’s good to show kids how important electricity is and that we can’t take it for granted. Conserving electricity is crucial!
To organize the challenge, simply ask kids to turn off their mobile phones and other electronic gadgets and try to go on with their day as much as they can without using electricity. This means no turning on lights, no using the laptops, electronic books, TV, internet, stove, microwave, or other cooking appliances. It also means going to bed when the sun sets and getting up without digital alarm clocks!
The next day, let kids share their experiences! We’re sure they’ll be excited to share their stories and their struggles. Of course, you can reward the students who spend the most time without using electricity.
Clean The Neighborhood
We’ve already talked about becoming a Waste Warrior, which is a broader project that focuses on waste management as a skill that needs to be learned! However, Earth Day can be also celebrated with a cleaning initiative.
Kids can organize in groups and clean the environment in and around the school. They can also document their individual journey in cleaning their neighborhood, a local park, or joining a local organization and cleaning parts of the city that are most in need!
Learn How to Reduce the Use of Plastic and Waste
Maybe the best way to help the global movement around Earth Day is by teaching new generations how to reduce waste and compost from a very young age.
To be honest, many people around the world don’t even know what composting is, let alone practice it or even teach their kids. If this changes, we might see a greener and cleaner future. So, what can we tell kids?
There are two ways to reduce waste!
First, tell them how to manage inorganic waste! For instance, they can buy eco-friendly packaged products and limit, or if possible, completely abandon single-use plastic. Plastic containers for storing food are ok, but plastic forks and plates that end up in our bin once we’re done eating are disastrous. Show kids examples and alternatives of practical everyday actions that reduce the use of plastic.
Second, teach them how to manage organic waste i.e. composting! Here’s an educational video on composting to kids. Explain the concept and then, try a composting experiment in the school backyard! If you’re a homeschooling parent, you can try composting for real!
Subscribe to KidsKonnect on YouTube →Learn How to Recycle
Another useful concept for kids to master this Earth Day is recycling.
Recycling is the process of converting waste into a reusable material. By now, kids are probably familiar with the big bins that require us to separate our waste according to the material of the product – glass, paper, or plastic. But have they ever wondered why we do this? Explain the process of recycling materials and how companies use them to produce a new product once again before you get into the activity.
Then, there are two things you can do! First, you can challenge kids to try and recycle the waste in the school for a month. You can then make arrangements with a recycling company to come and take the waste that the kids gathered. It will mostly be paper, but it’s interesting to see kids trying to figure out what can and can’t be recycled, and what goes with what. This also teaches them a valuable lesson and makes them comfortable with recycling later in life.
Second, you can actually try to recycle some materials by turning them into something useful, or even art! We’ll discuss this in the next paragraph.
Make DIY Jewelry and Decorations From Used Plastic
The smart way to teach kids to recycle is by engaging them in art or science crafts made from materials that would otherwise end up in the trash. The materials can be used water or soda bottles, cardboard rolls from used toilet paper, some plastic wraps, etc.
Here are several videos that show some amazing ideas on how to create art and STEM challenges from everyday recycled materials!
10 Recycle DIY Crafts
5 Creative Plastic Bottles Ideas
3 Tissue Rolls Craft Ideas for Kids
Art for Kids: How to create Art from Trash
Build a Wind Turbine | #EarthMonth STEM Challenge Series
How To Make a Wind Turbine Generator Using Plastic Bottle
Grow Flowers
While the optimal planting season for trees usually falls in autumn, (when the roots grow the most), Earth Day is in spring! This is why it might be a smarter idea to interest kids in gardening and plant many different spring flowers and plants – especially if you have a big backyard!
There are many benefits to this activity. First, kids will spend time in nature and learn about plants, flowers, soil, plant cycles, and so on. Second, they’ll honor Earth Day by planting flowers and food which they can see grow and even eat later – such as tomatoes, strawberries, etc. Finally, learning about gardening opens a whole new world for kids, teaches them valuable skills, and plants the seeds for a future environmentalist.
Read Books!
We can’t really finish our list without going through some of the teaching resources that tell an inspiring story about Mother Nature and drive kids to become better citizens! Books have that power, especially stimulating picture books. Here’s our pick at some of the best resources out there about Earth Day for kids.
But, before we continue, let us remind you to first check out facts and worksheets bundle on this topic (Earth Day, Environment). They’re filled with interesting and educational information, and are more fun than reading and analyzing books.
Best Earth Day Books for Kids:
- This Is the Nest That Robin Built by Denise Fleming
- The Earth Book by Todd Parr
- One Tree by Green Start
- We are the Gardeners, by Joanna Gaines and Julianna Swaney
- Love the Earth (Julian Lennon White Feather Flier Adventure Series #3), by Julian Lennon
- Seeds Move! by Robin Page
- A Mammal Is an Animal by Lizzy Rockwell
- Chase the Moon, Tiny Turtle: A Hatchling’s Daring Race to the Sea by Kelly Jordan
- I Can Save the Earth!, by Alison Inches
- Follow Those Zebras: Solving a Migration Mystery by Sandra Markle
- The Things That I LOVE about TREES by Chris Butterworth
Become an Earth Ambassador!
We’re finalizing our list with one of the best Earth Day activities that a child can do – become an ambassador for the environment. Following the example of Greta Thunberg who challenged world leaders and demanded action against climate change, we now know that kids have the power to become an unstoppable force in this fight, we just need to stand behind them and help guide them toward a better future.
Talk with kids about organizations, support groups, networks of people in this cause, inspirational leaders, and most importantly, show them how they can use their voice to change harmful practices that slowly but surely destroy our planet.
“We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable.” – Greta Thunberg, UN Youth Climate Summit, New York City, 21 September 2019.
Before You Leave
Taking any kind of action, whether it is through a big campaign or a simple Earth Day activity, is a step in the right direction for preventing further destruction and saving our planet! We have a moral responsibility to teach our kids to be environmentally conscious because their future and health is at stake!
Hopefully, our article provided a good start for this year’s Earth Day, but it will only be worth it if the actions we preach today turn into long-lasting habits. For that goal, as parents and teachers, we need to be good role models and keep raising awareness.
On our website, you can find many different worksheet bundles, curriculums, and lesson plans in the Earth Sciences section. If you follow the link, you’ll not only find an Earth Day collection, but also packs on related topics that will help you explain the issue better and make sure kids grasp the true meaning behind this movement!
Finally, don’t forget to check out our blog and subscribe to our newsletter! This way, you’ll stay on top of current trends and be the first one to get our new updates and insightful headlines for the upcoming month!
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