Earth Day Activities

Earth Day takes place Monday, April 22 this year and it’s quickly approaching. Take this opportunity to explore our unique planet and discover ways to protect and keep it special for all of us. Make Earth Day one to remember with these fun Earth Day activities for the classroom.

Check out these related posts:

• Earth Day Videos for Kids
• Earth Jokes for Kids
• Paper Plate Earth Day Craft

GRAB THIS ACTIVITY AND EVERYTHING ELSE FROM SIMPLY KINDER INSIDE THE UNLIMITED PRINTABLE MEMBERSHIP HERE!

Earth Day Books

We love books in elementary classrooms so grab some of these Earth Day titles for your classroom library. Read them aloud as a group and display them for students to explore independently.

• Thank You, Earth by April Pulley Sayre – Check out beautiful photos of Earth.
• One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul – Read about Isatou Ceesay and the difference she made in her community.
• What a Waste: Trash, Recycling, and Protecting Our Planet by Jess French – Discover how our actions affect planet Earth.
• Outside In by Deborah Underwood – Rediscover everything that being outside offers and provides for.
• Earth Day Every Day by Lisa Bullard – Look at ways that humans harm Earth and ways to fix those problems.
• Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green by Eileen Spinelli – A fictional story about a class that goes on mission to protect Earth.

Don’t forget to snag Simply Kinder’s Earth Day Easy Reader as a reading resource. Grab your copy HERE. Use the easy reader as a whole group to learn more about Earth Day and strengthen comprehension in small groups through reading response.

Earth Day Planters

Connect Earth Day to a unit on plants with this adorable planter idea. Students will need a plastic bottle, googly eyes, bottlecap, soil and grass seeds.

Cut the top half off the plastic bottle. Students will glue the googly eyes and a bottlecap to their plastic bottle to create a “face.” Fill the bottle with soil and add grass seeds. Their Earth Day planter will begin sprouting hair in no time.

This activity is a great opportunity to discuss reusing (bottle and bottlecap). You are also contributing to Earth by growing new plants.

Earth Day Interactive Book

Step up your Earth Day activities and learning with an interactive book. Simply Kinder’s Earth Day interactive book combines reading, writing, and crafting into one engaging activity.

Complete this activity after learning about Earth Day through read alouds and educational videos like the ones found HERE.

Choose the cover, story page, and activities you want to include in the Earth Day interactive book. Students can put these together or you can assemble them prior to completing. Students will show what they have learned about Earth, the Three R’s, and protecting our planet.

Grab your Earth Day Interactive Book HERE!

Earth Day Snacks

Enjoy an Earth Day themed snack that will be both educational and yummy!

• Earth Day Dirt Cups – Use chocolate pudding snack cups, crushed Oreos, and gummy worms to make this treat.
• Earth Bagels – Spread cream cheese on a bagel. Give students green grapes (land) and blueberries (water) to create Earth on their bagel.
• Pretzel Trees – Students arrange pretzel sticks on a paper plate to create a tree and add halved green grapes for leaves.

Other Earth Day Activities:

Show support for protecting our beautiful planet with these other engaging Earth Day Activities.

• Earth Day Seed Bombs – You will need colored paper (blue, white, green), wildflower seeds, water, a bowl and a blender for this activity. Tear the paper into strips and place into bowls of water. Leave the paper in the bowl for 30 minutes. Add each color to a blender and pulse until the paper is pulpy. Add the wildflower seeds into the bowl of blue paper pulp and mix well. Create small balls of the blue paper and seed mix. Use small pinches of the green and white to add to the Earth seed bomb and create continents and clouds. These can be planted immediately or left to dry for later. Be sure to add water before planting them if you let them dry out. This is a great hands-on activity to incorporate the life cycle of a flower and giving back to Earth.
• Earth Day Bracelets – Make small beads of Play-Doh to resemble Earth and poke a hole through the center using a toothpick. Allow the bead to dry before sliding it to the center of a pipe cleaner or string. Add green and blue pony beads on each side of the Earth bead to complete the bracelet.
• Earth Pledge – Use chart paper to create an Earth Pledge. Students will share ideas of ways to take care of Earth and add them to the chart. Students can trace their hand to place around the chart.

Looking for more Earth Day activities? Grab Simply Kinder’s Earth Day No Prep Bundle HERE for easy-to-incorporate activities.

FREE PRINTABLE EARTH DAY HAT:

Grab your free printable Earth Day hat here on Simply Kinder + Printable Membership. Find out more about Simply Kinder + and join for FREE here!