50 Earth Day Activities

Earth Day is our annual reminder to slow down and appreciate the bounty of the earth and all of the blessings it gives to our lives. As an avid recycler and upcycler, I’ve always loved Earth Day (April 22 this year), and I wanted to mark it with a round up of activities from some of my favorite sites, categorized in three themes: Natural Materials, Recycled Materials, and Outdoor Art.

This post originally published in 2012, and it’s been getting so many hits this week that I thought we could all benefit from seeing it again.

I grew up in a beautiful concrete jungle known as Los Angeles, we were surrounded by hills and mountains, lived just a few miles from the beach, and nature walks were not entirely impossible. I was lucky to grow up with a backyard full of fruit trees and overgrown bushes that created shady hideouts.

My own children have a small garden that’s all theirs and we try to extend our understanding and familiarity with the land to surrounding nature preserves, redwood forests, beaches, and marshes.

I hope you’ll find some inspiration here, and if you have more ideas to share, please add them to a comment so that others can enjoy them too.

Natural Materials

• Build a Container Fairy Garden (above)
• Make a Play Garden, a carved out space just for the kids to dig and plant in.
• Pinecone and Peanut Butter Bird Feeder
• Get out the acrylic paint and make some Painted Sticks, from Paint Cut Paste
• These Gum Leaf (or almost any other leaf) Necklaces are so sweet, from Let the Children Play
• On your next beach trip, collect some Shells and Paint them, from Paint Cut Paste
• Grow Wheat Grass Indoors {the fastest growing plant}
• I can’t get over these beautiful Nature Prints made with Sculpey, from The Artful Parent
• These Fabric Sunprints are a science experiment and art project wrapped up in one.
• 18 Tips on How to Garden with Kids will guide you in the right direction, from Kids Activities Blog
• Nature Collage with Leaves and Markers
• For Water Painting with Toddlers, all you need is a bucket of water and a brush
• Painted Stones. Gasp. So pretty! from Garden Mama
• Earth Day Garden Flags to spruce up the garden, from Paint Cut Paste
• Take your sketch book outdoors for Leaf Printing in a Nature Journal, from The Artful Parent
• Nature Box Dioramas made from leaves, moss, and other natural finds, from Art Club Blog
• Corn Husk Doll. The classic recipe, from Garden Mama

Recycled Materials

• Tin Can Drums (above)
• Upcycled Box Bugs that are so beautiful you’ll want to make one yourself, from Mother Baby Earth
• Recycled Garden Collage, from Laugh Paint Create
• Upcycle Baby Food Jars into Summer Candle Votives
• Milk Carton Plug Ring – this makes me laugh, from No Time for Flash Cards
• 34 Recyclables to Upcycle for the Kids, from Hands on: As we Grow
• How to Make Paper. With or without kids. It’s so easy.
• Recycled Trash Sculpture
• New computer or furniture? Make a Recycled Styrofoam Sculpture, from The Chocolate Muffin Tree
• Abstract Recycled Print with styrofoam trays
• Build a Garden Water Wall from Recycled Materials, from Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning
• DIY Wind Chimes with Tin Cans, from Hands on: As we Grow
• 15 Recycled Paper Roll Crafts, from No Time for Flash Cards
• Simple Styrofoam Prints
• Make a Trashy Collage for Earth Day, from Teach Preschool
• Quick and Easy Water Bottle Flowers with Markers, from The Chocolate Muffin Tree
• 75 Egg Carton Projects from some of brightest kids’ activity blogerrs around

Outdoor Art

• Build a Mud Pie Kitchen (above)
• Nature in Art: Nature Study and Georgia O’Keefe, from Simple Kids
• Six Ways to Take Art Outdoors
• All you need are some leaves and construction paper to make Construction Paper Sun Prints, from A Mom with a Lesson Plan
• Brilliant idea for teaching colors, outdoors with a Flower Color Wheel, from A Golden Gleam
• Got paint chips? Make an Outdoor Color Match Game, from Inner Child Fun
• Walk around and document the neighborhood with a Photo Documentary
• Hello Andy Goldsworthy! Make some Land Art, from Mommy Labs
• Take photos of colors in a Rainbow Scavenger Hunt
• Make your own Nature Journal, from a Mom with a Lesson Plan
• 6 Backyard Playscapes for Fun and Learning, from Let the Children Play
• Giant Painted Mural on paper taped to a fence
• Slide Drawing – tape paper to a slide, add some crayons, and go!
• Drawing Shadows to track the passage of time. Great for long summer days.
• Four Messy Outdoor Crafts, from She Knows