Celebrating Earth Day with kindergarten and 1st grade students can be both educational and joyful. Here are some age-appropriate and engaging ideas to help them connect with nature and learn about taking care of the Earth:🌍 Check out a few fun earth day activities for kindergarten and comment to let me know which ones you could or might use!
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Fun Earth Day Activities and Celebration Ideas for Kindergarten and 1st Students
Begin by watching “I Am Earth” and discussing this cool book. It will help set the tone for your day or week celebration.
You can also watch Betsy’s Kindergarten Adventures “Happy Earth Day” for a fun read aloud time.
Plant Something Together
Watch this short video then plant!
Plant seeds in cups or start a small garden outside. Try fast-sprouting seeds like beans, sunflowers or grass. If you plant flowers now, you can watch them grow and have a Mother’s Day gift for May.
Nature Walk & Trash Pickup
Go on a nature walk around the school or neighborhood with gloves and small bags. Talk about littering and how cleaning up helps animals and nature.
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Earth Day Activities with Music
Teach them a simple Earth Day song or chant. Perform it for another class or record a video for families! You can use these each day for brain breaks.
Earth Day Activities Craft
Help students come up with one way they’ll help the Earth (e.g., turn off lights, recycle, pick up trash). Make a craft then display everyone’s crafts. If you are interested, you can grab it HERE.
Earth Day Sorting Game Activity
Use pictures or real items to sort into “Recycle,” “Trash,” and “Compost” bins so kiddos understand what items go where and why recycling matters. Having students cut out pictures from magazines then gluing onto a poster is an activity that can happen all week at a center. In case you are interested, grab the FREE cutting reminder or check out a few fine motor ideas to use all year long!
Read Earth Day Books
Here are a few links you can use or to help you find a few book. Then ask kids to draw their favorite part or something they learned from the stories. Grab a FREE pdf of comprehension questions to help you talk about the stories. Just Click HERE.
“The Earth Book” by Todd Parr
“Miss Rumphius” by Barbara Cooney
Reuse and Recycle Curious George
The Lorax read by Danny DiVito
Earth Day Books
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Learn all about the history and significance of Earth Day with this book of facts and activities that encourage you to join in on the fun. Of course you can check it out HERE. (Thanks to @sourcebookskids for this nonfiction book)
✅So many ways to get festive—Discover how Earth Day is celebrated by different communities, and ways to practice conservation and recycling wherever you live.
✅Celebrate at home—Kids will explore Earth Day activities like making their own upcycled bird feeders and leftover fruit smoothies.
✅Fascinating facts and pictures—Vibrant illustrations and kid-friendly language help bring Earth Day to life.
When Pinkalicious and Peter finally arrive at the park it’s covered in stinky trash! Pinkalicious creates a magical wand to turn the trash into an Emeraldalicious paradise. Great rhyming book of course!
Learn about the water cycle, discovering how rain and snow flow into our lakes, rivers, and oceans, and later evaporate into the sky again. I love to read a different page each day to practice nonfiction comprehension.
In conclusion, I hope you can use a few of these ideas to talk about Earth Day activities!
Hugs,
Debora
