Earth Day is on April 22nd and we are ready to celebrate! Did you know that Earth Day was started in 1970? It began as an annual worldwide movement to celebrate environmental protection. Each year the goal is to continue to educate about the importance of preserving our environment. Here are a few of our ideas on how to teach your kids about the importance of Earth Day:

Create a Nature Journal

Take a walk around your school, neighborhood or park. Collect items you find along the way; leaves, rocks, twigs, even bugs. Head to your library or online to look up information about the types of plants and animals are in your area and then spend time identifying what you’ve found.

If actually picking up these items isn’t doable, take a photo walk instead! Snap pictures of all your findings and identify them the same way. Learning more about the environment around us will make it more exciting to preserve it.

If placing all the items in a journal isn’t appealing, turn your kiddo loose with their findings, some glue and paper! Let them create a collage of their discoveries and talk about what each item is called and where you found it.

Pick Up Trash

Grab some gloves, shovel and garbage bag and hit the road! Clean up sidewalks, parks and streets (safely!). Teaching our kids to pick up trash instead of throwing it makes for cleaners streets and socially responsible kiddos. Bonus points for recycling your trash findings!

Plant Something

While a whole garden may not be doable, a plant or tree could be. Head to your local nursery to find an indigenous plant to add to your yard or balcony. Planting trees and plants helps to decrease carbon dioxide and increase oxygen. You can even create a window “garden” indoors if you don’t have outdoor space.

Start Recycling

Did you see last week’s post about how to start recycling at home? If not, catch it here to get started!