Innovative Earth Day Activities For Kids
Earth Day is held on April 22 every year and is a day to celebrate our Earth and promote responsible Earth stewardship. With the significant impact of Climate Change on our world, it is becoming increasingly important that we embrace Earth Day, celebrate it, educate ourselves and make positive change for the whole year. Here are a few activities you can do with the kids for Earth Day.
Educational Earth Day Activities
What you will discover in this article!
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Earth Day is such an important day to mark with kids. As our planet faces the effects of climate change, it is more important than ever that we raise kids who understand how to be strong stewards of our planet.
With one memorable activity for Earth Day you could effect change that will last a lifetime.
In 2021 Earth Day will be celebrating its 51st anniversary. It is going to be a massive, global event that I hope children, and adults, will be celebrating together and making permanent, positive changes for our planet.
Here are some ideas to help your kids, whether they are in Elementary or High School, celebrate Earth Day.
Greenhouse Effect Science Experiment
This experiment is a brilliant way to demonstrate the heat capturing effects of carbon dioxide gas. Kids will see for themselves how simply changing the balance of gases in the area leads to great heat capture, and a warmer Earth. Use this experiment as a fantastic jumping off point for more discussions around climate change.
Make Milk Plastic
Making milk plastic is such an easy and fun activity. We have done it many times and the kids are always thrilled with the results. Milk plastic is also known as Casein Plastic.
Clear Gelatin Bioplastic Experiment
We were so excited by how well this project turned out. As much as we love our milk plastic experiments, we really enjoyed making a clear gelatin bio-plastic.
Water Lab
What a better way to celebrate Earth Day than to do some water testing in a Water Lab. Select a few sources both inside and outside and test the water using easily accessible materials to see how the quality of the water varies. This is a fantastic classroom project.
Layers of the Earth Soap
Learn the layers of the Earth making this gorgeous soap and learn how to be a little more environmentally friendly by making your own soaps at home. Not only will you save money, but you will also be doing something good for the planet.
Want more Layers of the Earth activities? Check out this article for ideas.
Build a Windmill
Exploring sustainable energy sources so we can decrease our reliance on fossil fuels is important. This activity is tied into a fantastic book, and kids get to build a mechanical windmill.
Solar Heat Experiment
Next to wind power, another important energy source to explore is solar power. In this activity we explore solar heat. This is another great project for the classroom! Have all the kids bring in cans from home, and see how big you can build your Solar Chimney.
Build A Natural Battery
Harness the natural energy around us by building a battery from potatoes. Research is currently on going to try and make this a sustainable energy source in places where electrical power is hard to access.
Potatoes aren’t the only thing you can build batteries from, you can also build batteries with Lemons and even Pumpkins! We built our Harvest Fruit battery with pumpkins and squash we grew in our own garden.
Explore How Pollution Spreads
Recently we were doing our Magic Milk experiment. One of the things we tried was to create a Magic Milk Earth. Then just to see what happened, about 2 minutes after the reaction started, we added one drop of pink to our blue-green Earth. The results were fascinating and showed how that one drop moved and spread all over. Check out this video to see how it all happened.
Earth Day Printable
If you are looking for some printable worksheets to do with the kids for Earth Day, check out our Earth Day Fun with Words Challenge.
More Earth Day Activities
Community Clean up
Around here this time of year is always so gross. We haven’t seen the ground under all the snow since last October. Over 6 months the build up of garbage is crazy. And now all that snow has melted, we see all that filth. Get the kids out helping to clean up! All you need is some garbage bags and some gloves. Then get cleaning! The school yard or a community park is a great place to start.
Recycle or Composting Plant Tours
Do you know what happens to all that stuff you drop off a eco-stations or place in blue bags/bins? Often you can arrange tours of local recycling plants. Learning how items are recycled, what they are recycled into, and how the whole system works, will help arm kids with the right information to recycle effectively.
Plant Trees or Flowers or a Vegetable Garden
We know the power of trees to help clean our air, so plant a few trees for Earth Day and make it an annual tradition. Another great idea is to start a little flower garden or even better, a vegetable garden. Growing your own vegetables helps kids understand where their food comes from and how to be sustainable by growing their own or buying locally grown goods.
Consume Less Energy
Challenge kids to use less energy. Can they walk or bike or bus to school? What about all those lights in the classroom or their bedrooms, can you turn some off? Maybe by simply opening the curtains you can let in enough light you don’t need artificial lighting. How can you reduce the amount of energy you are consuming on a daily basis? Challenge kids to come up with some solutions.
Happy Earth Day! Now Go celebrate, educate and make our planet healthier!
MORE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS FOR KIDS
