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Celebrate Earth Day on April 22^nd with these fun and educational Earth Day Activities for Kids! This is a great resource for Earth Day celebrations or homeschooling curriculum.

Scroll down for the list of Earth Day Activities for Kids or PIN IT for later!

For the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing several articles with kid friendly activities and resources to celebrate Earth Day.

It all started when I shared my Homemade Dirt Pudding Cups, which evolved to me sharing our favorite Earth Day Books for Preschoolers. Today, just in time for Earth Day later this week, I’m sharing some of our favorite Earth Day Activities for Kids.

As I previously mentioned, I’ve ALWAYS loved spending time outdoors and will always choose spending time outside, especially on a beautiful spring day, over being inside.

But particularly right now, I am even more grateful for time spent outdoors, celebrating this beautiful planet we call home, sucking in fresh air and feeling the sun kiss my cheek!

Below are some fun facts about Earth Day, as well as some fun, kid friendly Earth Day activities that most of them you can literally do at home, right in your own backyard.  

Now, more than ever, I hope that we can appreciate our beautiful planet as we celebrate Earth Day at home.

When is Earth Day?

Earth Day always falls on April 22^nd.

What is Earth Day and why do we celebrate it?

Earth Day, first celebrated in 1970, is an annual event celebrated all around the world. This holiday is to show support of environmental protection efforts and to help educate the citizens of the world on how we can better protect and celebrate our beautiful planet.

Earth Day Activities For Kids

1. Read Earth Day books for preschoolers – We love to spend time reading and there are so many  great books out there that are great reads about Earth Day. However, this collection of Earth Day books for preschoolers are some of our favorites! 

2. Plant a salsa or pizza garden – Several years ago I wanted to start a garden but was intimidated by the whole process. I settled on starting a small patio herb garden and had a few herbs like basil, rosemary and cilantro.

This year we are planting another small patio garden, but are making it fun and kid friendly by planting a “salsa” garden! The idea is to just plant the ingredients you would need for salsa, for example tomatoes, cilantro, bell peppers, jalapenos, etc. in pots on the patio.

You could also do a “pizza” garden and plant tomatoes, basil, oregano, peppers, etc.

3. Make a bird feeder – The simplest way to do this is to take a paper towel or toilet paper tube, spread it with peanut butter, roll it in bird seed and tie it to a tree.

Or, you could up-cycle an empty milk carton and transform it into a homemade bird feeder.

4. Make Homemade Dirt Pudding Cups, a.k.a edible compost – These Homemade Dirt Pudding Cups are a fun and easy twist on a super popular childhood dessert. Make them and then read Diary of a Worm, Compost Stew or We are the Gardeners. 

5. Make Compost Cookies – Or, instead of dirt pudding cups as mentioned above, you could make Compost Cookies!

6. Start a compost bin – Many cities offer city wide composting and provide compost bins that they then pick up curbside, similar to trash and recycling pick up, for bulk composting.

However, if you are starting your own salsa or pizza garden like I mentioned above, then maybe you want to start your own small compost bin (I’ve had one like this in the past) and teach your children all about compost and how it will help your garden grow.

Earth Day Activities For Kids

7. Go on a spring photo scavenger hunt – My husband and I went on a spring photo scavenger hunt a few years ago for a date day and loved it so much that I want to do it this year with our babe!

Here is the exact spring photo scavenger hunt we did a few years ago, but you could adapt it and make it your own based on what you know you will see in your backyard or on your neighborhood walk.

8. Watch an Earth Day movie – Even though we love reading, we also love watching movies. There are so many great kid friendly movies that have an Earth Day theme to them (protecting the planet, helping animals, etc.), from Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax to Free Willy.

There are so many Earth Day themed movies that we love, that I could (and probably should) share them in a post all by themselves, but below are some of our favorite kid friendly movies that would be perfect for any Earth Day celebration! 

WALL-E – This is such a great Disney movie about WALL-E, the last robot left on Earth who spends his days cleaning the planet after it is destroyed by humans. 

Disney Nature Movies – If you have yet to see any of the Disney Nature Movies you are majorly missing out. These movies cover a variety of animals (from pandas to penguins) and habitats and have absolutely breathtaking cinematography.

They are great for kids and adults to learn about the beautiful creatures that walk this earth and about the places they call home. All of the Disney Nature movies are available on Disney+, but I recommend starting with the first one, Earth. 

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest – Furngully is about fairies who live in the rain forest and an evil monster (aka humans and their machines) coming to cut down all the trees and destroy their home.

I haven’t seen this movie since I was a kid, but I remember it leaving a lasting impact on me and inspired me at a very young age to want to do everything I could to protect the planet. 

Fly Away Home – This is such a sweet movie about a young girl who goes to live with her estranged father on a family farm. The girl conveniences her father to let her adopt a flock of abandoned geese and tries to teach them to fly. As the father and daughter work together to help the geese, they become close and develop a special bond. 

9. Learn about bees and why they are an important part of our eco-system – Since honey bees are endangered and a vital part of our eco-system, particularly for farming and the production of all the produce we eat, for years I’ve been passionate about protecting our honey bees. So, of course, I think learning about bees for Earth Day would not only be fascinating, but important too.

Out of all the children’s books about bees, The Bee Book is the absolute best book; as it is the most detailed covering different types of bees, how they help the eco-system, why they are endangered, how we can help bees, etc. The book includes graphics, charts and illustrations to educate young readers. 

I also recently discovered Nature Nate’s Honey and they have an entire section on their website dedicated to educating kids about the importance of honey bees. They offer free coloring pages, lesson plans, games and more! 

Earth Day Activities For Kids

10. Make art using recyclable materials – There are so many fun and creative ways to “up-cycle” everyday items like cereal boxes, toilet paper and paper towel tubes, milk cartons, etc. Jamie over at C.R.A.F.T. shares a ton of kid friendly crafts that uses everyday household recyclable materials and her site is a great resource for “trash art” inspiration! 

11. Decorate reusable bags – I decorated some canvas bags to use as trick or treat bags for Halloween several years ago, but you could totally do something similar for reusable grocery bags.

12. Plant a (fruit) tree – When I think of things to do to celebrate Earth Day, I always think about planting a tree. If you have a young foodie and aspiring chef, I highly recommend planting a fruit bearing tree and reading the adorable book, When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree.

13. Check out the Recycling Simplified Education Program – This is a great, free resource that provides age appropriate lessons, activities and videos about recycling. Perfect for learning about Earth Day at home as part of home school curriculum. 

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