Millions of galaxies and thousands of unrevealed elements of space; the cosmos is indeed a miraculous and astonishing concept, isn’t it? Can you guess something that is even more fascinating? Our own planet, Earth! In the honor of our planet, the world celebrates Earth Day on the 22nd of April every year. So what if...
Home LearningParenting5 Earth Day Activities for Students
Millions of galaxies and thousands of unrevealed elements of space; the cosmos is indeed a miraculous and astonishing concept, isn’t it? Can you guess something that is even more fascinating? Our own planet, Earth! In the honor of our planet, the world celebrates Earth Day on the 22nd of April every year. So what if your child is new to these terminologies? Here we are with a few Earth Day activities for students as it’s never too late to learn! And with us at your service, you won’t really need to beat about the bush much to make your little one realize the importance of the Earth and learn ways to preserve and protect it! Are you ready? Here are 5 Earth day activities for students to learn about the importance of preserving our nature.
Strike it Heart-to-Heart
Before heading up to anything, the foremost thing to do with your child is to have a straightforward and informative talk. Kids are always curious and they are always on a quest to solve the ‘Whys’ and the ‘Whats’. So let them have the answer to it! Talk to them about space and how there are 8 planets. Let them speak out aloud the term “Earth”. Let’s venture out in the open, maybe in your neighbourhood or a park, and let’s get into some brainstorming. Casually look around the greenery and ask your child “What do plants do for us?”. Let them think and come up with their imaginative reply. Be ready for how surprising and thoughtful they can get. There are a bunch of other questions that you may ask your child:
1) What does earth give us?
2) What can you do around the house to conserve energy?
3) What is littering? & Why shouldn’t we litter?
4) What all are harmful to earth?
Listen to their perspectives and guide them thoroughly through facts and ways to preserve the earth! This conversation will involve a lot of new vocabulary as well as critical thinking.
Acid Rain Effect
First of all, what is acid rain? Second of all, how does it affect the earth?
We all know that Acid rain is caused due to the release of harmful gases, especially sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. But our little ones are least interested in this jargon. Therefore, let’s explain to them how harmful certain chemicals are for our mother nature through a simple Earth Day activity. Let’s put on those science glasses and follow the steps below.
- Take three containers and add water to them with measurements as full, half, and quarter respectively.
- Add vinegar to the second and third so as the container is full.
- Now take three identical flowers and put them in each of these containers and wait. The one with maximum water is not acidic, the one with half water and half vinegar is slightly acidic while the last is the most acidic.
After some time, you will notice that the flower in the third container is almost decayed. This is due to the harmful impact of acid on the flower. If it’s too much for your pumpkin, introduce vinegar as a villain that is to destroy the earth. Narrate it like a story as to how a blooming flower was looking out for a thrilling life but the vinegar with its acidity became the bad guy and stole the flower’s happiness. See any storyline will wonder the kid.
Blue-Green-Brown Paper Bits
Does your child know how the standardized version of earth looks? Well, it’s the perfect time to be artistic and wise! Let your child know how the earth is round in shape with 71 percent water and the rest is all land. Now let’s demonstrate this in a creative and imaginative way.
- Take a printable earth template and cut it out or draw a round shape. The next step is to draw some wavy figures to distinguish between the land and water.
- Take blue, green, and brown colour paper and tear it into numerous chits. start sticking these chits on the earth template.
- Remember, blue represents water, green represents land, and brown is the mountain or hilly area. You may also use a little green with blue for a shady effect.
- Make sure to have blue-ish ones more as the earth has more water and less land. This activity is quite fuelling for fine and gross motor skills. In the end, you get your own little creative earth. Feel free to take a string and hang it somewhere around the house on this earth day.
Seed Jar
Plants and trees add not only the beauty of greenery to our planet, but survival without them is just impossible! Do you know what would boost up your champ’s cognitive thinking? If they could progressively witness the growth of the plants from the seeds! Yes, it is possible through our seed germination experiment. Take a mason jar and add some flowers or leaves for the aesthetic. Let your little one roll or fold some tissues and push them into the jar (works pretty fine for the finger muscles). Gently fill it with water so the paper towels are wet (don’t be too harsh). Now take some pea or green beans as they grow the fastest and add them into the jar so that they are visible. Yes, that’s it. Keep it in the sunlight and take care of it. In a few days, you will see tiny roots popping out, tiny hairs clung to the roots and the whole process of how a seed turns into a plant, an excellent excellent earth day activities for students.
Implement and Learn Recycling
The best way to learn or educate anything is through tempting craftwork. What if the foundation of the craft is the lesson itself? Collect a bunch of waste or useless paper around the house together and tear them into bits. This is an amazing subset for gross motor enhancement as it gets the finger muscles moving. Now take a palette and pour different coloured paint into it. Dip these torn bits into different paint. Take a white chart paper and write a hollow outline of “RECYCLE”. Speak out the letters one by one while explaining the concept to your child as well - boom! Thinking and vocabulary skills through a single snap! Fill the voids of the alphabets using the paint-dipped bits. Let it dry. Did you see how you made a beautiful poster out of trash? That’s all recycling is about!
During these Earth day activities for students, we surfed across a spectrum of phenomena that affect the quality of life on this planet in direct or indirect ways. Hopefully, your child gained a better understanding of what needs to be done to restore the lost essence of the planet. You can also extend the activity haul by including concepts of recycling, reusing, reducing, pollution control, energy conservation, etc. Remember, humans have the power to protect our world. Since our mother earth has been kind and humble to us, it is our duty to return the favour! So no matter what you do, learn more, educate more, implement more and let’s make our earth happy!
Bonus: Join the Totto Learning Seeds of change contest and win Hopscotch mats from BerryBee
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