April 22nd is Earth Day. Earth Day is a good day to introduce young children to reduce, reuse, and recycle!
- Set up a Recycling Sorting Area. Set up different bins labeled: Paper, Plastic, Metal, and Glass. Allow children to sort and put recyclable items in the appropriate bins. Ahead of time, you can ask parents to send in various recyclable items, so you have a wide variety for children to use.
- Make a Coffee Filter Earth. Have children use eyedroppers to drop blue and green colored water on a coffee filter. It is fun for them to watch the filter absorb the water. When it is done, the filters look just like the earth. An alternative is to have children color with blue and green markers on a coffee filter then spray with a water bottle to watch the colors spread.
- Take a Trash Pick-Up Walk. Give children a pair latex gloves and garbage bag, then take a “trash walk” around your building. Have children pick up any garbage they see, such as paper cups, candy wrappers etc.
Photo Source: norfolkpublicschools.org - Nature Hunt Collage. Have children collect nature items from outside: leaves, pine needles, grass, etc. Come back inside and let children make their own nature collage by gluing items they collected onto a piece of construction paper or stick the items to the sticky side of contact paper.
Photo Source: diypreschool.blogspot.com - Make Seed Bombs. Provide a mixture of clay, compost, and wildflower seeds. Help the children roll small balls from the mixture. Take the children outside to find areas that could benefit from wildflowers, such as bare patches of soil. Have them toss their seed bombs onto these areas. Discuss how the wildflowers will grow and provide food for bees and butterflies, helping the environment.
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