The Earth is an incredibly precious enigma. Teaching kids to care for it is the easy part! However, teaching them how they can be active participants in keeping our environment clean and why is a different beast. Creating healthy habits can be difficult and environmentalism is no different. Once kids learn the easy steps they can take to better care for the Earth, there will be no turning back! So, let’s explore 23 energizing environmental activities together!
1. Start a Garden Club
Garden clubs are a wonderful way to get kids involved in caring for Earth. Through a club, they’ll learn about sustainability, life cycles, and more. Gardening allows students to reap the fruits of their labor in a fairly quick and simple manner.
Learn More: Florida Federation of Garden Clubs
2. Teach Kids How to Recycle
This informative video breaks down recycling and why it’s important. Kids will enjoy it as the narrator demystifies recycling and describes what happens when we take part in this simple act of environmentalism.
Learn More: YouTube
3. Start a Green Team
A school-wide green team is a perfect way to get kids involved in helping them foster a love for environmentalism. This team will champion the conservation of energy, recycling efforts, and education on those topics to the rest of the student body.
Learn More: Hillsborough County Public Schools
4. Rainwater Collection
During a water cycle or plant life cycle unit, students can learn to utilize one of Earth’s natural resources: rainwater. Have students collect rainwater by placing a barrel or other container under the gutters at school and then brainstorm ways to use this recycled water.
Learn More: Classroom
5. Paper Recycling
Students will cut old paper into as many small pieces as possible- a blender or shredder might work well for this. After soaking the paper in water, they’ll use netting to collect the shredded pieces and then let it air dry to make recycled paper.
Learn More: The Craftaholic Witch
6. Mini Greenhouse Craft
Teach kids about the benefits and sustainability of a greenhouse with this activity. Using a variety of recycled materials, kids will plant seeds and utilize plastic cups, containers, or bottles to create a greenhouse.
Learn More: PBS Learning Media
7. Worm Farm
Worms are essential to the environment. Help students understand their importance using a worm farm that shows how worms help fortify soil and create rich growth substrates for plants.
Learn More: Amazon
8. Sticky Tape Air Quality Test
If you’re teaching a unit or lesson on pollution, this simple and easy test helps kids understand air quality. A piece of tape placed in the same location for the same time period, over a span of days, will yield a variety of particles that students can look at under a microscope.
Learn More: Air Gradient
9. Plastic Pledge
Have young students take the plastic pledge. Help kids make a promise to stop and think about how they utilize items on a daily basis. These simple changes will help reduce waste in the environment.
Learn More: Science Sparks
10. Pretend Oil Spill
Sharing how detrimental an oil spill can be is sometimes hard to describe. In this exercise, kids will use cooking oil, water, and plastic sea critters to investigate what happens when an oil spill occurs. Using special tools to clean it up, they’ll discover that it is near impossible to completely clean an oil spill.
Learn More: Science Sparks
11. Join Kids Against Plastic (KAP)
Kids can work towards earning rewards, badges, and certificates by learning about plastics. They’ll learn the art of writing letters to educate leaders as well as all the sneaky uses of plastic among many other topics related to conservation and environmental education.
Learn More: Kids Against Plastic
12. Surfers Against Sewage
This awesome virtual experience is designed to create more ocean activists. This experience begins with a video tour. From there, learners work through an interactive virtual lesson; learning facts related to how they can take part in saving our oceans.
Learn More: Surfers Against Sewage
13. Package Design Challenges
Ask students to brainstorm different ways to help design eco-friendly packaging and containers. They can research information on the web to gain inspiration and then present their final designs to the class.
Learn More: Sustainable Packaging Coalition
14. Greenhouse Gas Edible Models
This fun activity is a great addition when teaching kids about greenhouse gasses. They’ll use gumdrops and toothpicks to create models of gas molecules. The best part is that they can eat them when they’re finished!
Learn More: NASA Space Place
15. Carbon Footprint
Your carbon footprint is your direct effect on the environment. This fun quiz will help teach your students about their carbon footprint by answering a few questions. While it’s next to impossible to have absolutely no carbon footprint, they’ll learn tips and tricks to help reduce it here and there.
Learn More: World Wildlife Federation
16. Wind Energy
Help kids learn about wind energy with this fun craftivity. They’ll use a few simple supplies to make their own “turbine”. This would be a great investigation to pair with an energy unit.
Learn More: Science Buddies
17. Melting Ice Caps Experiment
In this exploration, students will use ice, cups of water, and a few temperature-controlled locations to see how ice reacts. This directly translates to what our Earth is currently experiencing. Use this low-prep activity to create a relevant experience for kids.
Learn More: NASA California Institute of Technology
18. Bug Hotels
Bugs have a wide variety of benefits for our ecosystem; from helping with the life cycle to providing food for other animals. Many kids don’t realize the importance of these tiny inhabitants so why not teach them by creating a bug hotel? They’ll use sticks and plastic bottles to make a place for bugs to call home. They can then study and investigate these hotels over time.
Learn More: Red Ted Art
19. Research Project
Older students can create research papers on the environment to teach one another about ways to create change with websites similar to the one linked below.
Learn More: Friends of the Earth
20. Read Aloud
Don’t Let Them Disappear is a great read-aloud to introduce young students to the idea that some animals are threatened or endangered. The author shares what makes each animal unique and why we should work to help them around.
Learn More: Amazon
21. Plastic Bag Jellyfish
Another great plastic investigation shows how easily a bag can be mistaken by a sea turtle for a jellyfish. Using a large clear container and water, float a white or clear plastic bag inside. Students will be able to instantly see the distinct similarities between the jellyfish and the bag.
Learn More: World Wildlife Federation
22. Escape Room
Kids will work through a variety of puzzles in this escape room. Each unique puzzle will reveal an environmental impact and, in turn, teach kids how to nurture our Earth to keep it clean and safe.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
23. Ocean Surface Currents
In this activity, students will analyze ocean currents and how these affect regional and global pollution. This is a great way to explain how some areas are more affected than others.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
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