8 Ways For Children To Celebrate Earth Day

Sharing is caring!

Earth day is celebrated worldwide on April 22nd each year. The whole point is to show support for environmental protection, which is a great excuse to introduce environmental awareness to kids of all ages. If you’re looking for ways to celebrate Earth Day with your kids these easy activities are a fun way to engage children. 

8 ways to celebrate Earth Day with your kids

Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links.  If you use them, I might be rewarded credit or a commission of the sale.  Please note that I only recommend tools that I personally use and love and I always have my readers’ best interests at heart.

Whether they’re toddlers, preschoolers, or school aged kids, there’s a way to get kids engaged in Earth Day activities. If you already have a strong focus on the environment as part of your family’s values then Earth Day is a great way to show kids that people are involved all over the world. If you’re not environmentally aware at your house, though, what better reason to start than Earth Day? 

Kids learn everything best through engagement and play. That goes for protecting the environment, too. These Earth Day themed activities are a perfect way to celebrate Earth Day with your kids. 

Pick up trash

With younger kids this is best done at a safe place like a local park, school playground, or even your own backyard. Grab some garbage bags, put on sturdy gloves, and work with the kids to pick up all the trash you can find. Even better, arrange a community clean up on Earth Day to have a bigger impact. 

Picking up garbage not only gives children an opportunity to make a real impact in their community, it also helps bring awareness for trash in general. Hopefully they’ll think twice before discarding a snack wrapper on the ground now that they’ve seen what happens to it. 

Plant a tree (or garden)

Planting is a great hands on activity that gets kids outside all summer long. Use Earth Day as an excuse to plant a new tree in your backyard so that your kids can watch it grow up alongside them. If you’d rather plant a garden, choose either vegetables that your family can grow and eat or perennial flowers that will come back next year. 

Kids, especially preschoolers, will love going out to tend to their tree or garden all summer long. Between watering, weeding, and just checking to see if anything’s grown children will get hours of entertainment out their plants. 

Change Your Lifestyle to celebrate Earth Day with your kids 

Have the kids work with you to think of all the ways your family impacts the environment negatively. It could mean driving a lot, using plastic bags at the grocery store, or using a lot of electricity at home. Make a pledge to change! 

Some lifestyle changes you can make with your kids: 

● Walk instead of drive whenever possible 

● Bring reusable bags to the store 

● Switch to reusable lunch and snack containers 

● Buy and use a reusable water bottle instead of disposables 

● Turn off electronics when not in use 

● Keep the house a bit cooler in winter and warmer in summer 

● Avoiding products with excess packaging 

Make some recycled crafts

This is even more fun if you choose crafts that further impact the environment. Homemade birdhouses and bird feeders, DIY reusable bags, and flower pots are great examples of bringing nature and crafting together. While you do Earth Day crafts together talk about the impact your kids can have on the environment with their creations. 

Earth Day crafts should be made primarily from recycled materials. A super easy (and toddler friendly) craft idea is a pine cone bird feeder. Just find a pine cone, cover it in peanut butter, roll that in bird seed, and hang outside! 

Read some Earth Day books 

Kids of all ages enjoy being read to. Books are also a fantastic way to convey messages to kids including ones about the environment. Head to your local library and read all the Earth Day themed books you can get your hands on. 

Not only are you learning something together, you also benefit the environment by borrowing the books instead of buying new. Public libraries are great places to visit year-round if you want to have a smaller carbon footprint. 

Host a toy, clothing, or book swap 

Shopping second hand is a great way to lessen your environmental impact while getting new things for your family. Rather than hitting up a thrift store, though, opt for an Earth Day swap for kids. It’s a fun way to introduce little ones to the concept of shopping used and sharing. 

Get some neighbourhood families on board then have everyone bring a toy, book, or clothing item to swap. It should be in good shape and still usable, but outgrown or not being enjoyed anymore. Everyone gets to leave with something new without more items in the landfill or goods being manufactured! 

Go on a nature walk to celebrate Earth Day with your kids

What better day to get out and explore nature than Earth Day! Put on your walking shoes (or favourite rubber boots) and trek around your yard, neighbourhood, or along local hiking trails. Spend time pointing out interesting parts of nature to kids while you enjoy some spring weather and exercise. 

Another fun idea is to put together a nature themed scavenger hunt. For little kids, keep clues simple like ‘something green’. Older kids can find more complicated things. For example, specific birds or bugs. It’s important to teach kids early to leave no trace when out in nature, which means no finding things to bring back. Instead record it on a checklist or snap a photo of their findings. 

Unplug 

Not only is it good for the environment, it’s also good for your family. Take away the screens, turn off the lights, and live (as much as you can) without electricity. Spend the time outside, doing fun Earth Day activities, or just talking about the impact your family has on the environment together. 

This is also a great time to identify any electronics that might use ‘phantom power’. Simply put, phantom power is when a device continues to draw (and use) electricity even when it’s turned 

off. TVs, video game consoles, and computers that have a ‘standby’ mode are common culprits. To stop this, unplug electronics when you’re not using them. 

So when April 22nd rolls around this year, do one (or all) of these ways to celebrate Earth Day with your kids. Not only are they fun for families, they’re also great activities to help give even young children greater environmental awareness.