Earth Day makes me think of treating our earth right, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax and what can I do to help? All of those things lead me to planting and growing. Of course that means flowers and vegetables, but it also means helping things grow like birds and animals.
It doesn’t have to be a big task. Recycling and composting are a great start. Although, composting is great, you don’t always have the room for a compost and it’s not something kids are usually eager to take part in. Same goes for big gardens and planting trees. But there are little things you can do that can make a big difference and teach your children about Earth Day and being environmentally responsible. It is also a great STEM activity to teach your children earth sciences.
Check out our other Earth Day idea posts here:
Earth Day Recycling Activities
Homemade Seed Bombs
Once again the genius minds at Little Bins for Little Hands have a great idea! How better to help the environment than creating Seed Bombs and getting to watch flowers grow all summer. All you need are flower seeds, construction paper (we used paper from our schools recycling bin), food processor, scissors, small containers and parchment paper for bombs to dry on overnight. The great thing about these is you can make them in any color and they make great gifts for teachers, family or friends.
Bird Feeders
We have been creating bird feeders for years. We use empty water bottles, pinecones, milk containers and whatever we can find to help our feathered friends. The best thing is creating bird feeders is something kids of all ages can take part in.
My daughters friend recently had a discussion about how peanut butter was not the best option for birds, so we started looking for new options.
This brought up to Little Bins for Little Hands idea for Gelatin based bird feeder ornaments. The great thing about this is that there is little waste left after the seed is gone.
Protip: Do not add more seed when it’s a bit watery. Choose cookie cutters that have few corners and put the hole for the string not to close to the edge. Also, make sure you press the seed down tight so it compresses or else it may fall apart.
Non Toy Gifts has 15 great bird feeder ideas from recycled items.
Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails has one of the first bird feeders our kids ever made and it’s great for very young kids.
Elementary Nest has a great feeder using ice cream cones, peanut butter and seed.
The Crafty Mom, Misilla, has a great quick video to make a Bird Feeder from a tin can.
Window Greenhouse
Last year, my son came home with a Lima bean in a bag. His class had made window greenhouses, similar to the ones in this activity I found at Sommer’s Lion’s Pride. She even includes a free printable. He loved to watch the plant grow! We even took the seed and planted it, grew it and allowed it to reseed and form new plants. A fun and fabulous Earth Day activity to teach kids about the seed cycle, and one that can be use for children of different ages and abilities. If your lucky you might even get some full plants or veggies out of it. My kids love planting beans and peas because they grow quickly and they get to eat them!
Seeds in Egg Shells
Halle from Whole Lifestyle Nutrition made these amazing Egg Shell Growing activity. One of the best things is this also makes it a zero waste activity – great for Earth Day. Once the seedlings are stable you plant the eggshell right into the ground and it provides nutrients for the plant, fertilizes your garden, controls some pests likes snails and slugs who hate eggshells.
If you have extra cleaned eggshells you may want to throw them into your tomato plant to combat blossom end rot due to lack of calcium or crush them up, soak them in water (for a few days) and use that for indoor plant food.
Check out our other Earth Day ideas here:
Earth Day Recycling Activities
