Happy Earth Day

Earth Day 2012 is this
Sunday, April 22.

It's a great opportunity to teach little ones about conservation and protecting the earth's resources.  Even preschoolers and toddlers can participate.  Many local libraries even hold Earth Day Fairs; you can check for schedules on their web pages.

This week in my enrichment science class, I taught the four year olds what biodegradable means.  We discussed how our trash goes into the ground and can either harm or help the soil and earth.  We walked around and collected items in the school that can be recycled.  Then we took a nature treasure hunt outside.  We saw the trees' branches swaying in the wind as if they were waving to us and we waved back saying, "hi trees, we're going to help take care of you."

A great earth day craft is just emptying out the recycle bin and seeing what items can be used to create all sorts of things, even building cardboard box towers or cutting open a cereal box and using the inside of the cardboard to decorate, gluing on lids of cans to other materials, turning tp rolls into binoculars to spot the birds.

For more Earth Day craft ideas and activities check out Family Fun's page.

You can really get into the spirit be singing some of these Earth Day songs.

Pick an area around your community or neighborhood and help clean up any litter.

Have a picnic outside.

Plant some seeds.

Learn about the history of Earth Day and meet the Planet Pals.

It's important that we don't take our precious resources for granted and that we teach our children little ways to respect our planet.   Happy Earth Day!