What is Earth Day at your school could last longer than a display on a bulletin board? It’s not just any day on a calendar. Since it was founded it’s become one of the biggest events on the planet with hundreds of millions, if not over a billion people, participating across most countries. To us, that seems to be more than a calendar day. It’s a broad movement. That’s why we created this list of earth day activities for kids for parents, families, and schools to support the next generation.
1. Plant a Tree Together for Earth Day (And Raise Funds!)
There’s no better way to do Earth Day than celebrating it with a double win. Here’s the reality: a tree can absorb about 48 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. For Earth Day activities for kids in a classroom or at home, imagine raising funds for a good cause by planting those trees. Moreover, with TreeRaise fundraiser, your school, kids group, or club can organize a tree planting event that also raises funds for a good cause. All you do is share a tree planting link!
2. Zero-Waste Lunch Challenge
A great activity for parents and school families looking to promote Earth Day is to create a zero-waste lunch challenge. What does that mean? It means you challenge yourself and others to ensure that school and parent lunches have no plastic wraps, disposable utensils, or single-use bags. Further, as a parent or educator, it’s a great opportunity to speak about food packaging waste, sustainable choices, and why environmental sustainability is essential.
3. Schoolyard Earth Day Nature Walk and Scavenger Hunt
If you want to have fun with one of your Earth Day activities for kids, make the school yard or a local part a natural scavenger hunt area. It’s a chance to get kids outside to play and also pay attention. When you do a structured nature walk and scavenger hunt, you create a checklist of nature. For instance, you ask participants to look for birds or specific plants. It’s a great activity for kids because it teaches them to observe and connects them to nature.
4. Community Cleanup for Earth Day
Another excellent activity for Earth Day is to host a community cleanup event. You can do it on a schoolyard, park, beach, or in an area in your neighborhood. When you organize a cleanup event for your community, get volunteers to bring gloves and waste bags. A community cleanup event is a way to develop community pride and provide kids an experience where they’ll see their efforts for taking the time to cleanup.
5. Recycled Earth Day Art Projects
Parents and schools are looking for ways to “disconnect” children and youth from mobile devices. Another excellent choice on our list of Earth Day activities for kids is to have children create art projects. Invite students to repurpose items such as milk jugs to create bird feeders, make cardboard sculptures, and to design posters from various materials. Doing art projects is a tangible and creative way to keep the sustainability conversation going beyond Earth Day.
6. Pollution Experiments for Earth Day
If science is your thing, or that of your children or students, create science experiments with them. For example, you can build with them a solar updraft tower, which shows them how to make a propeller spin with the sun’s heat. You can also do the classic potato battery experiment so they can see how a potato can generate energy. With a search on the internet, you can find hundreds of experiments to do for Earth Day and beyond!
7. Earth Day Environmental Pledge Wall
Parents and students can commit and pledge to do one thing differently. In other words, to make a choice in support of the environment. Ask children and students to personally pledge to do something for the environment. For instance, they could turn off the lights when leaving a room or take a shorter shower. Post the pledges on a board, and revisit the pledges regularly, and ask children how they feel about committing to the pledge.
8. Earth Day Green Habits Tracker
Another one of the activities on our list of Earth Day activities for kids is to challenge them to keep track of their habits. They have to do it for one week and simply check off every time they turn off lights, save water, or make a sustainable choice. A tracker makes the abstract concrete, and it helps to develop good environmental habits. Want to do more than one week? Do it weekly. All it takes is 21 to form a short term habit and 66 days to form a long term habit.
9. Student Presentations on Environmental Issues
Educators can assign students in the classroom age-appropriate project presentations to make regarding different environmental topics for Earth Day and beyond. For example, teachers can ask students to present on deforestation, plastics in the oceans, or endangered species. If you want the impact to go beyond the classroom, ask parents to attend the presentations and use Earth Day as a jumping off point for the projects and presentations.
10. Name a Tree Fundraising Campaign
While similar to the plant a tree fundraiser for Earth Day, this idea allows your PTA, PTO, booster club, school or club to spin planting trees. For example, you can partner with TreeRaise to fundraise for your cause. But, you can also add a naming opportunity. You see, TreeRaise allows you to track your impact. Consider it a chance to get young minds to research the tree species, track growth, and even name their tree(s) to report on it throughout the year.
Why This Year’s Earth Day Matters More Than Usual
When children and students learn through creative Earth Day activities for kids, it turns the abstract to tangible opportunities for learning. In addition, these activities allow for sustainability to become part of a young person’s life and they develop environmental habits they can carry for a lifetime. All of these activities are investments parents and educators can make for a future where, someday, these young people will lead the planet.
So, if you’re ready to turn Earth Day into something that lasts beyond just the April 22nd, make this one special. Align your environmental values with the day itself, and beyond. One of the easiest, no risk, no selling fundraisers is fundraiser with TreeRaise. This is your opportunity to become a TreeRaiser and help the children and students in your life to connect sustainability, trees, and Earth Day with lifelong habits and learning.
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