by Talina Norris

Created on: March 29, 2007   Last Updated: April 02, 2007

It is important to make earth day meaningful for your children because the future of the earth will eventually end up in their hands. Getting them involved in activities that teach the meaning of earth day will be the most beneficial and memorable. Here are some ideas I have come up to get the children involved:

Plant something- If your neighborhood has a community garden you can take the children to plant some of their own chosen seeds. You can even designate a special day of the week to go tend to the garden so the children can witness their plants grow. Planting a garden is a great way to enjoy and honor the earth.

Clean up- Take the children to your favorite park, community area or section of the forest and clean up trash that others have left behind. Explain how long it takes for trash to break down and the effects being a litterbug can have on our environment.

Recycle- You can begin collecting reusable items over the course of a week or two and then use all the things you collected to make the earth day crafts listed below.

Litterbug Craft
Make a litterbug for Earth Day. This easy craft is made from an egg carton section and junk. This project is not only inexpensive, but is also excellent for encouraging creativity. Children have to find or change items to resemble eyes, ears, a mouth, hair, legs, etc.
Supplies needed: A segment of a paper egg carton, glue, junk, recycling material, twigs, and other found objects, like plastic lids, bottle caps, packing material, etc.

Pine cone birdfeeder
For each Pine Cone Bird Feeder you will need: A large/ open pine cone, vegetable shortening, lard or suet, oats or corn meal, bird seed, a few feet of string.

Tie a few feet of string to a pine cone. Cover the pine cone with the mixture below. Roll the pinecone in birdseed and then suspend it from a tree branch outside.

Food mixture: Mix 1/2 cup Vegetable shortening, lard or suet with 2 1/2 cups cornmeal or uncooked oats until well blended. Optional: add dried fruit (chopped up), chopped nuts, seeds (especially sunflower and millet), and/or suet, which are high-energy bird foods.

You can print out other fun earth day activities such as word searches, activity books, print outs for coloring and poem activities at: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/wordsearch/earthday /index.shtml
http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/earthd ay/

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