Earth Day is next Sunday, April 22nd. What are you doing to celebrate our planet this month? If you need ideas, you've come to the right place! I've collected ten simple and fun ideas to help your kids celebrate the Earth, while also learning to care for and appreciate her.
10 Ways to Celebrate the Earth and Raise Environmentally Conscious Kids!
Erin Sorkin
Grown Your Own- Nothing makes you appreciate nature like growing your own flowers or fruits and vegetables. You can even start small with an indoor herb garden. You can buy seeds for only 25 cents at the Dollar Tree.
Be a Trash Collector-You can make picking up litter a lot of fun. All you need is a grabber toy like this one. Take a walk around your neighborhood and use the grabber to pick up any litter you see. Talk about what would happen if everyone just threw their trash outside instead of in a trash can.
Feed the Birds- Try making one of these homemade bird feeders and then spend some time outside observing the birds. Talk to your kids about what they're seeing and how you are helping the birds. Ask them where the birds would be getting their food if they didn't have the bird feeder.
Cheerio Bird Feeder- This is a great one because kids are able to eat the materials and it doubles as a fine motor activity.
Gelatin Natural Feeder-This feeder is nut-free and seems very quick and easy to make.
Any of these other 12 ideas from The Realistic Mama
Try These Upcycled Crafts-Talk to your kids about how reusing materials gives them a second life!
Decorate Your World-Continue the tradition of RVA Rocks in an even more local way by painting rocks and scattering them around your neighborhood. While you're out walking around, come up with a list of the other things that make your neighborhood beautiful.
Go Exploring with a Nature Scavenger Hunt- Help your kids discover the wonders of nature that they may not always notice. Use one of these scavenger hunts or create your own.
Visit a Local Farmer's Market to Eat the Rainbow- Check out this comprehensive list of local farmer's markets and plan your visit soon! My favorite are Lakeside, St. Stephen's and South of the James. Purchase some new colorful fruits and vegetables. Chop them and put them all on a plate and encourage your child to try something new. Explain that all of the new healthy food came from the earth and see if they can come up with other wonderful things that they know come from the earth. This episode of Daniel Tiger always helped my veggie hating daughter to give new food a try.
Heal the Earth- Read the book, Heal the Earth by Julian Lennon,and then draw a large Earth on a piece of paper. Talk to your children about ways they can heal the Earth and write down what they say on the paper. Buy a cheap box of bandaids at the Dollar Tree. Let your kids put a bandaid onto the Earth drawing every time they come up with a way to heal.
Make a Nature Collage- Use contact paper to make this simple and beautiful nature collage. Go out on a nature hunt and have your kids collect flowers, leaves, sticks, pebbles, etc. Then follow the directions here to turn their treasures into a keepsake.
Celebrate with Snack Time-Try one of these delicious and adorable snack ideas.
- Earth Day Popcorn
- Classic Ants on a Log
- Tree Snack-Make a tree out using small pretzel sticks for the trunk and branches and sliced grapes for the leaves.
- Earth Day Smoothies
Don't forget to check out the local events happening this month:
Earth Day at Maymont- Saturday, April 21st 10 am-12 pm-Registration required.
Sheep to Shawl- Saturday, April 21st 12-4 at Crump Park, FREE- Watch them sheer the sheep, and enjoy live music and food outside in nature.
RVA Earth Day Festival- Saturday, April 21st 12-7 pm-This street festival features local artisans, musicians, food and drink and is located in Richmond's Manchester neighborhood.
Earth Day of Service- Saturday, April 21st 9 am-12 pm. This service day was organized by the Enrichmond Foundation. You can volunteer to clean up local green spaces. Choose which location in Richmond you'd like to volunteer and sign up here.
Hardywood's Spring Bada Bing-Saturday, April 21st 11 am-6 pm- Celebrate Earth Day by visiting all of the amazing local artisans that this awesome event has to offer! The event is at their old location on Ownby Lane.
Happy Earth Day, Mamas!
♥ Erin
