Earth Day Activities for Kids

I feel like I’ve written about Earth Day a lot, and that’s a good thing because it’s important to take some time to think about how humans are treating the earth and things we can do to help it.

We’ve covered Earth Day printables, some crafts and recycled activities, and shard ideas for celebrating Earth Day with kids.

How about some Earth Day games? My Motherhood Made Easy has a set of printable Earth Day themed games including bingo, a word scramble, maze and puzzles. These would be great to use in a classroom when you’re talking about Earth Day, or you can use at least some of them at home, depending on how many kids you have.

I love a good STEM challenge, and of course there are Earth Day themed STEM challenges out there. The Homeschool Resource Room has a great list of STEM projects you can try for Earth Day, including making a potato battery and building with recyclable materials. Some of these wouldn’t work as well in a classroom but they’re great for home.

Kids can figure out how their choices make an environmental impact with this carbon footprint printable activity from Little Bins for Little Hands. It’s a good way to focus on little things that we all can do that collectively can make a difference for the planet.

The I can help the earth worksheet printable from Crafts By Ria is another way to have these conversations, and you can turn the printed sheet into a little book while you talk about different things kids can do to help the planet such as recycling and walking places when they can.

Speaking of recycling, Adventure in a Box has a printable game for sorting the recycling to help kids learn what is and is not able to be recycled. You can also talk about how some food items can be composted and different ways the recycling might be separated to make it easier to recycle.

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Summer Reading Printables and Tips for Parents

I volunteer at my local library pulling holds for children’s books, and the other day someone was looking for Over and Under the Snow, a lovely picture book about animals that hibernate and those who don’t.

It reminded me that now would be a good time to talk about hibernation in the classroom, and what animals do to survive the winter more generally.

Did you know that technically only warm-blooded animals hibernate? When cold-blooded animals do it, it’s called brumation, and insects experience diapause. Whatever you call it, it’s a slowing down of bodily functions that allows animals to lower their body temperatures and slow their metabolism so much they don’t need to eat.

We Are Teachers has a great page about different animals that hibernate (or brumate, or diapause) and you can enter your email address to get a set of free worksheets perfect for middle grades. Education.com also has a downloadable worksheet about hibernation, and you can find many more (including the migrate or hibernate worksheet above) from Worksheeto.

Little Bins for Little Hands has a great free printable pack about hibernation and hibernating animals. There’s a good list of animals that hibernate in the post, as well as some FAQs about hibernation.

Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds has lots of great ideas for planning a hibernation theme, including making a cave in the classroom, painting on ice, and lots of ideas for dramatic play, writing and other activities (and there are lots of freebies linked there).

Little ones will love these bear hibernation hat printables form Books and Giggles that include facts about hibernation.

STEMHax has collected a bunch of lesson planning resources about animals in winter, based on the book Animals in Winter. You’ll find links to videos about different animals featured in the book that you can use when talking about the book or more broadly in a winter animal unit study.

The Wolfe Pack Den has a free printable unit study and ideas for books to read and other things to do (with a particular emphasis on hedgehogs, if you’re into that).

And to bring in one more book recommendation from when my girl was little, Bear Snores On is another fun one, and you can read that one and bring out all your fun bear activities, like this adorable hibernating bear craft from Krokotak.

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