Earth Day is April 22nd each year and there are many fun things the whole family can do to celebrate their planet together as well as focus on being more environmentally conscious and friendly. To kick it off this year, I’ve decided to create a list of 10 fun family earth day activities and projects you can do with your kids and friends.
A lot of people might believe that the whole concept of Earth Day is pretty silly, others may think every day should be earth day. However, realistically in a world of convenience foods and wrappers and electronics sometimes it can be difficult to practice being environmentally responsible 100% of the time. This is why Earth Day is such a great day to celebrate with your family – just one day of learning about better ways to take care of the earth or practicing different ways to be more eco-friendly can make a huge difference when millions of people are involved.
The ideas I’ve come up with here are completely simple and easy to do and only things I would actually do with my own family. You don’t have to have any special skills or knowledge. Most are also budget friendly and free to do. One of the big perks about being more environmentally conscious is that it can also save you money – since you are much more careful about buying things you don’t really need or throwing things away.
1. Plant Something
Kids are natural gardeners. I was amazed the first time my son and I tried planting tomatoes. He was three years old and I thought for sure he was going to crush or kill the plant. Instead, he gently lifted them out, “tickled the roots” as he likes to say, and helped me place the starters in larger pots.
You can plant just about anything. Seed packets are available in stores for less than $2 a package and you can get a small bag of potting soil for less than $5 if you don’t already have dirt to use at home. Anything can be a planter – old dishes, old shoes, even egg shells, so it can also be a lesson in reusing old items too. You can try your hand at flowers, herbs, vegetables, even grass seed. Teaching kids how plants grow will give them excitement to watch it as it sprouts and blooms. You can also talk to them about how plants help keep our air clean so we can breathe.
2. Eat Dirt
No, I don’t really suggest you and your kids go out to the backyard or a nearby park with a spoon and a fork. But dirt is another name for a fun treat that kids can eat either at school, as a snack, or after dinner treat can be a good old classic recipe of dirt. It’s made out of mostly crushed up Oreo cookies, pudding, whipped cream, and some gummy worms. To make it healthier, use skim milk, sugar free pudding, and the reduced fat cookies. You can find the official Nabisco Recipe Here.
3. Go Unplugged
We constantly have televisions, video games, computers, and lights on in our homes. For one day and one day only (and maybe even for just an hour or two) take some time and go unplugged with everything that requires electricity in your house. Not only will it will teach the kids that turning off lights and unplugging tvs will help the environment – but it could give you and the kids a chance to go play outside, read a book, and spend some other high quality time together with one another.
4. What Can I Do With This? Game
Most of us somewhere in our closets, basements, garages, and maybe all three have “junk”. There’s plenty of things we have that we don’t really need anymore or use and probably should just be tossed in the trash. While cleaning out junk doesn’t sound like any fun, it can be if you make a game out of it. Take whatever objects you’ve found that you think you should throw away and then have the whole family brainstorm for different things they can do with it. Maybe an ugly old sugar bowl can become a basketball hoop. Maybe that broken action figure can decorate the window blind handle. Be creative and see what you can come up with!
5. Decorate Your Own Reusable Grocery Bags
Getting into the habit of reusing cloth grocery bags isn’t difficult to do at all – and can make a big difference in landfills since those plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to biodegrade. You can make your own if you are crafty, but if not blank canvas totes are often sold in craft stores or can even be ordered online
for less than $2 a bag! Decorate with permanent markers, iron on transfers, fabric paints and more. You’ll also be amazed at how much better they are for carrying things – you’ll never worry about one of those plastic bags breaking again!
6. Go For a Nature Walk
Walking outside in a park, the woods, or maybe even in the backyard can all be a fun way to spend time together and really marvel in how wonderful our planet really is. Look at the clouds, the trees, the flowers, the animals. You may even want to consider making a scavenger checklist of things for the kids to look for. (For example, a leaf, a pine cone, a bird, etc. etc.)
7. Make Your Own Paper
Each year tons of paper is thrown out or wasted. Chances are if your kids go to school they come home with countless worksheets and flyers. (Unless you’re lucky and they have a teacher who goes paperless!) The good news is you can turn this paper into fresh new sheets for your kids to use for craft projects and artwork. Instructables.com has a lot of videos and how-to’s. This project is a little more advanced and probably better for older kids, but can still be a great fun messy project to dig into together that is also good for the environment!
8. Take a Trip to the Museum:
Museums are a great place for kids to learn about the world and the environment. Learn about animals, stars, rocks, plants, and more. You can find a museum near you by visiting museum spot. Many will have activities for kids just for Earth Day and admission is usually very affordable. This one is perfect if your Earth Day is rainy or cold!
9. Watch Earth Day Movies:
After you’re hour of no power (or however long you decide to go unplugged in our suggestion above) you can always watch some movies together with your kids about the environment. One of my favorites is Over the Hedge
, which is about animals who are at risk for losing their homes. (Don’t worry – it has a happy ending!)
10. Visit the Library
There are many books available about our environment at your local library. You can read stories, learn about anything from erosion to recycling, and get books about even more fun projects you can do together. Best of all? The library is free. Be sure to see if they have a copy of The Lorax
, which is a great book by Dr. Seuss to read to kids about protecting our earth.
Now that you have all of these great ideas on some fun things you can do as a family together for Earth Day, you can help make a small little difference in keeping our world a safe, clean, and happy place to live! And hopefully you’ll agree with me that most of these ideas were pretty easy. (Okay, so maybe the paper making one will be tricky – but should be okay for older kids!) You can choose to do some of these all on April 22nd, or spread it out throughout the week and weekend as well.
If you have any ideas for family fun earth day activities and projects, I’d love to hear them in the comments below!