It’s pretty impossible for us adults not to be aware of climate change and the crisis we face, but our children might be less aware of it.
And so celebrating Earth Day offers us the perfect opportunity to teach kids about the natural world in a fun way.
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What is Earth Day?
Earth Day takes place on 22nd April, aiming to bring together over one billion people to “advance sustainability and climate action”. Earth Day itself is the focal point of Earth Month, which takes place throughout April with hundreds of events taking place around the world.
This year, Earth Day’s official theme is “Invest in our Planet”, focusing efforts on highlighting the “importance of dedicating our time, resources, and energy to solving climate change and other environmental issues”.
Earth Day history
Before we share some amazing Earth Day activities for kids of all ages, let’s wind back the clock and take a look at some Earth Day history.
The first Earth Day
The first Earth Day took place on 22 April 1970 in the US after a junior senator from Wisconsin named Gaylord Nelson became increasingly concerned about the treatment of the environment in the US.
He wanted to harness the strength of the anti-war protests among students across the nation and direct it towards environmental matters. Senator Nelson recruited fellow politicians and a young activist named Denis Hayes to lead the effort to engage campuses across America.
They chose 22 April to maximise student participation because it was a weekday sitting between Spring Break and final exams.
The first Earth Day in 1970 actually achieved widespread political support from Democrats and Republicans, and from large swathes of the public whether they were rich or poor, living in cities or living in rural areas. An estimated 20 million Americans engaged in marches, demonstrations and rallies.
By the end of 1970, Earth Day had prompted the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency. It also inspired a whole host of other legislation in the following years including the National Environmental Education Act, the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act.
Global Earth Day
For the first 20 years, Earth Day only operated in the United States. But in 1990, environmental groups approached Denis Hayes calling on him to take Earth Day global. The campaign went on to engage around 200 million people across more than 140 countries around the world. It is credited with paving the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit and sparking the first real, global push on recycling.
To mark his role as founder of Earth Day, President BIll Clinton awarded Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest honour given to US civilians.
Earth Day today
Now more than 50 years since its conception, the Earth Day network is believed to be the largest non-religious movement in the world with over one billion people taking action to help the environment every year.
Why Earth Day matters
While organisers want to engage governments, businesses and other organisations, it’s also a great opportunity to get our kids interested in planet Earth and the environment.
Global warming and climate change are very real issues that we face as a global society, and ones that future generations will bear the brunt of as they grow older. There is an overwhelming body of evidence to show that we are in a climate crisis that is only going to worsen in the decades to come. Rising global temperatures, extreme weather events, melting ice caps and rising sea levels are all problems we are seeing increasingly around the world.
Earth Day exists to engage and mobilise the masses, bringing environmental issues to the forefront of the most people possible.
Did you know?
- The first Earth Day took place on 22 April 1970
- Earth Day was inspired by the energy of student anti-war protests in the 1960s. So, they held the first Earth Day on college campuses to get the greatest student participation
- Earth Day is the largest non-religious movement in the world
- Earth Day has inspired the creation of government agencies and laws such as the US Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act
- Earth Day went global in 1990 and is now also known as 'International Mother Earth Day'
- More than one million people from 193 countries celebrate Earth Day each year!
- There is even an official song for Earth Day called 'Earth Anthem', which has been translated into each of the UN's official languages
- 95% of primary and secondary schools in the US mark Earth Day every year
This is the message from organisers to people around the world ahead of this year’s Earth Day:
“Our world needs transformation. It’s time for the people of the world to hold governments and the private sector accountable for their role in our environmental crisis while also calling for bold, creative, and innovative solutions. This will require action at all levels, from business and investment to city and national government.
“That’s where you come in: as an individual, you yield real power for change through your influence as a consumer, a voter, and a community member. Don’t underestimate your power. When your voice and actions are united with millions of others around the world, we can create an inclusive and impactful movement that is impossible to ignore.”
And as Greta Thunberg put it: “People are underestimating the force of angry kids.”
Fun Earth Day activities for kids
We’ve pulled together a list of 25 amazing Earth Day activities for kids of all ages to help you teach them about planet Earth, and inspire them to care about the environment all year round.
Of course, the best way to celebrate Earth Day is to get outside and interact with nature. But sometimes the weather doesn’t play ball and so we’ve got plenty of Earth Day crafts activities for you too.
Earth Day activities for preschoolers
Earth Day activities for preschool children are all about two things: Interacting with nature and fun, whether it's getting out in the natural world or an Earth Day craft.
1 - Visit the local park
Visiting the local park is probably the easiest and most accessible of Earth Day activities for everyone to enjoy, whether it’s getting out in the fresh air or visiting the playground.
2 - Go on a nature walk
Nature walks are a step up from just a simple walk to the park. Make a list of different elements of nature for them to spot like birds, flowers and plants, trees, wildlife and so on.
Local authorities and tourism websites are great for telling you what sort of nature you can expect to find in your area, and might already have dedicated trails or handouts for you to use on your nature walk.
3 - Plan a nature scavenger hunt
Another step up on the nature walk, a scavenger hunt challenges the children to not only find but collect different things from nature - it might be different types of leaves, twigs and sticks, rocks and other items.
Again, local tourism websites might already have resources for this.
4 - Go for a picnic
If you want something a little less active, you can always take a picnic to the park or a local picnic spot. To make it a special Earth Day picnic, you could ask your child to help you pick out things to take, focusing on natural fruits and vegetables instead of processed snacks.
5 - Earth Day colouring
After your visit to the park, you can continue the celebrations with some Earth Day colouring. There are hundreds of free, printable resources available online for people of all ages, but we particularly like these options for younger children from Crayola.
6 - Make salt dough ornaments
Salt dough ornaments are a really fun Earth Day craft; they’re really easy to do, and they last for ages, too. You could make them look like the Earth or something else associated with Earth Day.
They do take 1-2 days to dry, so you could either start them on Earth Day to finish a day or two later, or make a start a couple of days before so that you can finish them off on Earth Day.
What you need
1 cup of salt
1 cup of warm water
2 cups of all purpose flour
Paints
Cookie/shape cutter
How to do it
- In a larger bowl, mix the flour and salt together before making a well in the middle
- Add the warm water and mix together to make a dough (if it looks a bit runny, give it a minute to allow the salt to absorb the water. If it still looks runny, add a little flour)
- Roll the dough out to roughly 0.5cm thickness
- Use your cookie cutters or shape cutters to carve out the shapes
- Depending on what you want your ornaments to look like, (Dads!) use a knife or toothpick to carve our your image. This is your chance to get creative!
- If you want it to be a necklace or hanging ornament, use a straw to cut out a small hole near the top
- Leave your ornaments on a tray to dry for 1-2 days
- Paint your ornaments - and if you're doing a necklace or hanging ornament, tie some ribbon or string through the hole
7 - Mason jar planters
Another brilliant Earth Day craft, making planters out of mason jars are a great way to reuse and recycle the jars you would otherwise throw away.
You can use them for herbs to be used in cooking, or flowers and plants for decoration. I’d also recommend doing a combination of ready-to-pot plants and seeds so that your little one will have something finished on Earth Day, but also get to watch their plants grow in the days and weeks to come.
What you need
Mason jars (or old jam jars, pasta jars etc)
Glass beads
Soil
Seed packets
Ready-to-pot plants
How to do it
- Clean your old jars and remove any labels
- Place a handful of glass beads at the bottom of the jar (this helps to stop the roots sitting in the water)
- For your ready-to-pot plants, put a bit of soil into the jar before placing the plant itself in. You want the top of the soil to be sitting just below the rim of the jar
- For your seeds, you'll need to add more soil before sowing the seeds
- Sit back and admire your work, and watch those seeds grow!
Earth Day activities for school children
When it comes to Earth Day activities for school children, you can obviously step it up a notch in terms of difficulty but also what you’re teaching them. It's a chance to start teaching kids about the world's natural resources, get the kids involved in activities by using recycled materials.
1 - Make a bird feeder
Making a bird feeder is one of my favourite Earth Day activities - even if you don’t get many birds in your garden, making it's is a great way to encourage more into the garden.
There are tonnes of different ways to make a feeder, but we’ve gone with an option that helps you to recycle, suggested by the RSPB. Their method is brilliant for making use of those pesky plastic bottles you have lying around.
2 - Make a bug hotel
We’ve done something for the birds, now it’s time to do something for the bugs! Bug hotels can vary in size, but can be made entirely from things you might have lying around the garden, shed or garage already.
Photo © Garry Knight
There are loads of different ways to make a bug hotel, but the Wildlife Trust has a brilliant guide on how to make a bug hotel. It's another chance to make use of recycled materials. Don’t worry if you don’t have everything - like bricks, for example - there are plenty of ways to adapt and get around the gap.
3 - Coffee filter Earth painting
If you’ve got coffee filters sitting in a cupboard, they’re a great way of making an Earth Day art project.
What you need
Coffee filters
Pencil
Paints or felt pens
Water (plus spray bottle or pipette)
How to do it
- Flatten your coffee filter to a circle shape
- Draw the outline of your picture with a pencil - Dad, you might need to help with the shape of the continents!
- Paint or colour in the picture (probably a good idea to put some newspaper or similar down at this point)
- Using either the spray bottle or the pipette, get your picture wet and watch the colours start to blend
Here’s a step-by-step guide so you can see what it looks like along the way.
4 - Watch a nature documentary
If the weather isn’t your friend or you just want to spend a bit of the day indoors, you can always watch a nature documentary to celebrate Earth Day.
There are loads of great choices out there, especially on the streaming services. On Disney+, you have National Geographic which has entire sections dedicated to animals and nature, climate change, and kids. But my personal favourite is David Attenborough’s Our Planet on Netflix.
If you have younger children, just be careful to check the age ratings as some might contain graphic images. Speaking of younger audiences, Cbeebies has some brilliant shows for those with short attention spans including Down on the Farm, Let’s Go for a Walk and Ranger Hamza’s Eco Quest.
5 - Make a vegetable garden
Making your own vegetable garden is not only great fun, it’s incredible rewarding and helps to teach kids about where food comes from - remember this story from 2013 that claimed children in the UK really don’t know where food comes from!? A quarter though FISH fingers come from chicken or pigs!!!
What you need
Somewhere to plant - it might be a raised planter, a recycled pallet, or some plastic containers you have lying around at home
Peat-free compost or soil - peat stores loads of carbon dioxide, which is released into the atmosphere when it's harvested
Small seed pots
Vegetable seeds
How to do it
- Decide what to grow. Things like carrots, radishes, beets, tomatoes and peas are quite easy to grow, so are great for kids.
- Pick your patch. Make sure to pick a spot that gets plenty of sunlight and is easy for your child to access
- Most vegetables need to be started inside using individual seed pots. Just follow the instructions on your seed packets
- Prepare your patch. Whether you're using a wooden planter or plastic containers, make sure it has plenty of drainage. If recycling plastic buckets or containers, you might need to drill some holes
- Add plenty of soil to your planter or container
- When your seedlings are ready to be transferred to your planter, make small wells in the compost and move the seedlings over. Be sure to check the best approach for each vegetable
- Water as instructed and watch them grow!
6 - Make your own compost heap
Making your own compost heap is not only a great way to make use of your garden and food waste, it also provides a wonderful ecosystem for animals and insects like worms and woodlice.
And what’s more, this time next year, you could use your own compost instead of buying it from a store!
The RSPB has another great guide on this here.
7 - Plant wildflowers
Planting wildflowers is a great way to not only make your garden look wonderful, but also help local bees and insects.
The WWF has an excellent guide on planting wildflowers, whether it’s your whole garden, in a window box, a hanging basket, or you live in a flat.
8 - Teach them how to recycle
If you haven’t already, Earth Day is a great time to teach your kids how to recycle everyday items around the house. You can show them what can and can’t be recycled and turn it into a game, challenging them to put different items into the corresponding recycling bin.
9 - Polluted celery experiment
The chances are your child already knows what pollution it, but this science experiment is a fascinating way to help them understand and visualise water pollution specifically.
What you need
Leafy celery sticks
Two mason jars (or similar)
Water
Food colouring (we recommend red)
How to do it
- Fill both jars halfway with water
- Add enough drops of food colouring to one of the jars until the water turns a strong colour
- This is a great chance to explain that a lot of the world's water is polluted with sewage and plastic - you could even put some small plastic waste in there too. Maybe ask your child which glass of water they would want to drink
- Place a couple of sticks of celery in each jar
- Go off and do something else for a little while (maybe another Earth Day activity!)
- A while later, come back to check on the celery - you should notice that the ones sat in the clean water look the same. But the ones in the polluted water will have started to turn a shade of the colour and the leaves may have started to wilt
- Take the chance to explain the impact pollution has on humans, animals and plants
- You could also take one of the polluted celery sticks and add it to the clean water to see what happens
10 - Oil spill experiment
One way that our waters become polluted is through oil spills, and there’s another great science experiment to help children understand how devastating oil spills can be.
What you need
Tin trays
Vegetable oil
Spoon
Kitchen roll
Cotton pads
How to do it
- Half fill the tin trays with water
- Pour some oil into the water, and ask your child if they would want to drink oily water
- Challenge them to remove the oil using the spoon, kitchen roll and cotton pads. It should be pretty hard to do, and they certainly won't be able to remove much of it
- Explain that's how difficult it is to clean up a real-life oil spill
You could even combine this experiment with the celery one!
Earth Day activities for tweens and teens
As your child gets older, you can be a bit more honest about the gravity of climate change and the importance of Earth Day. Activities might be a little less "fun" and a bit more impactful. But these activities could also be important steps in changing not only your child's behaviours and attitudes towards the planet, but yours too.
1 - Make an Earth Day pledge
By this age, your child is probably already aware they have a responsibility around the house but also to help the environment. So, making an Earth Day pledge is a great way to get them to commit to action all year round. It’s something you can do as an entire family, and make individual pledges. Some pledges you could take might be:
- Reducing or even eliminating single use plastic at home
- Switching electrical appliances off at the plug, rather than leaving them on standby
- Shop at local grocery stores that source their produce from local suppliers
- Use public transport more often
- Spend more time outside as a family
There are plenty of things you could pledge, just make sure that it’s personal and achievable to you and your family
2 - Go on a beach clean
One of Earth Day’s most loved and common activities are organised beach cleans. Plastic and garbage are a huge plight for beaches around the world, so beach cleans are a great way to help improve the environment and quality of your local beach but also a brilliant way to spend time outdoors in nature.
It doesn’t have to be an organised event, though. You can do it on your own too, you’ll just need some litter picker and rubbish bags.
3 - Go on a hike
Earth Day isn’t just about taking action to improve the environment, it’s also about connecting (or reconnecting) with nature. Going on a hike is one of the best ways to do that with tweens and teens. Whether it’s a canal, a forest or hills and mountains in national parks, hiking with kids is a cracking Earth Day activity.
If you have to travel to your destination, try to use public transport to reduce your environmental impact.
4 - Go camping
You could combine your hike with some camping! It’s the ideal way to extend your Earth Day activities and make the most of your time in nature. There are plenty of ways to camp, from pods and cabins to campervans, but we definitely recommend camping in tents to get the best experience for Earth Day.
5 - Watch the sunrise or sunset
Another activity you could combine with a hike or camping trip is watching the sunrise or sunset! There’s nothing quite like watching a sunrise or sunset with your family, especially when you’re doing it out in nature.
6 - Visit a local farmers’ market
Farmers’ markets are brilliant for so many reasons - they encourage people to shop local which reduces the environmental impact of our food shopping, the quality of the food is usually incredible, and they can also help children to understand where food comes from and how its made - the farmers are usually the ones on the stands, selling their produce so can tell you first-hand how they make it.
7 - Visit a zero waste store
Zero waste stores are becoming increasingly popular and common in towns and cities around the world. They encourage people to shop - you guessed it - without waste, whether it’s for food and household items like cleaning products or clothing and grooming products.
8 - Go shopping for vintage clothes
The rise of online shopping means that fast fashion has become a huge contributor to global emissions. And so many people around the world have been able to balance wanting to look good with their environmental concerns by shopping in vintage and second hand stores. Rather than buying brand new, buying vintage or second hand clothes reduces the environmental impact and can also be very fashionable, too.
And finally, whatever age your child is… Join a local Earth Day event!
There are hundreds and hundreds of registered Earth Day events taking place around the world in the run-up and on the day itself. Take a look at the Earth Day Events map to see what’s going on near you.
FAQs
Is Earth Day the same as World Environment Day?
No, World Environment Day takes place on 5 June every year. While Earth Day is recognised by the United Nations, World Environment Day is organised by the UN. Earth Day and World Environment Day have very similar messages and goals
Who created Earth Day?
Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin created Earth Day, with the support of young activist Denis Hayes.
Is Earth Day always on 22 April?
Yes, we always celebrate Earth Day on 22 April, regardless of what day it falls on, ever since the first one in 1970.
What are good Earth Day activities for kids?
Earth Day is all about connecting with nature and taking action to protect our planet, and so anything that helps children to get outside and interact with nature make for great Earth Day activities. The weather sometimes means we can’t get outside, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t do some great Earth Day activities indoors - anything that teaches kids about our planet and why it needs protecting is a good one.
How do you explain Earth Day to children?
The answer to this largely depends on how old your child is. The older they are, the more you can refer to the dangers of climate change and point out things like statistics. But younger children will naturally be more engaged by language relating to ‘looking after our planet’. Even younger children will already be aware of days of significance, and so explaining Earth Day itself should be pretty straightforward.
How many people take part in Earth Day?
Organisers earthday.org estimate more than one billion people take some sort of action as part of Earth Day every year.
The post Earth Day 2023: Why it matters and activities to do with kids of all ages appeared first on DaddiLife.
