Earth Day is Friday, April 22, and I am excited to focus my three girls’ homeschool day on this important topic. Over the last few years, my family has become more aware of how our daily lives impact the earth. We’ve made both big and small changes to reduce our impact, like composting and using cloth napkins instead of paper. We also purchase household and personal products that can be reused and/or recycled, such as cloth cotton rounds and recyclable shampoo and conditioner bottles.
I can’t wait to deep dive into different activities that celebrate our planet as we learn more about how we can do our part to conserve our natural resources.
5 Simple Kid-Friendly Earth Day Activities
Plant Something
Back when I was a little girl, one of my favorite Earth Day activities was to plant the little evergreen sapling we received from school. My saplings never amounted to anything, but the process was so exciting and impactful! Finding a spot to plant my tree baby, planting it with my parents, and then caring for it was an experience I look back upon fondly. I want to recreate this excitement for my own children while beautifying our little space on this Earth, so we will buy some flowers and herbs to plant around our house. Wondering what herbs do best around here? Check out these tips on how to plant a kitchen garden in Dallas.
Create Something
A few years ago, my big girls and I made bird feeders while my youngest was napping. We had so much fun, and they were super simple to make. Plus, I loved this activity because it’s a great way to demonstrate how to reuse something we would otherwise throw away. EASY DIY BIRD FEEDER FOR KIDS: All you need is an empty toilet paper roll, peanut butter, birdseed, and string. Depending on your kid(s) age, you can help them spread the peanut butter all around the outside of the toilet paper roll and then roll it in the birdseed. To hang your bird feeder, just tie a string through the roll. We like to hang ours close to a window so we can see all the beautiful birds (and occasional squirrels) that visit!
Related: 50 Simple Earth Day Activities
See Something
Each week, the girls and I go for a hike at a local nature preserve or hiking trail. We love being able to spend time exploring nature. During the week of Earth Day, I’m planning to add an additional hike or two to our days. Here are some of our favorite places to go for nature walks in the Dallas area:
Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano, TX
Spring Creek Nature Area in Richardson, TX
Coppell Nature Park in Coppell, TX
Erwin Park in McKinney, TX
Read Something
Each morning, the girls and I kick off our school day with a read-aloud. Picture books, chapter books, autobiographies, fiction, non-fiction…we read them all! The week leading up to Earth Day, we will visit our local library and check out stacks of books relating to the subject. Here are some book lists I’ll be using to help pick out our Earth Day books:
42 of the Best Books for Celebrating Earth Day
Top 10 Earth Day Books for Kids
35 Earth Day Picture Books for Super Kids Who Want to Save The World
Color Something
My girls love to color, and it’s one of the few things I let them do while we have morning read-aloud time. Coloring helps them to better focus and listen while I’m reading. I found these free Earth Day coloring pages and look forward to having them handy throughout the week of Earth Day!
Super Coloring Earth Day Pages
What’s great about these kid-friendly Earth Day activities is that you can do them anytime and you don’t have to be a homeschool mama to get on board. Take a family hike in Plano over the weekend, print off a coloring sheet for your kiddos to have while you cook dinner, or have your bigs help your littles make a bird feeder after school one day. And if you’re looking for ideas on how to live more sustainably, you can check out these ways to make your life more environmentally friendly at USA Today. Just like Earth Day, there’s something for everyone.
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