Fun Earth Day Activities for Kids

Earth Day is Friday, April 22nd and we have a bunch of fun ideas on how you can celebrate with your little ones! More than a billion people around the world celebrate Earth Day and you can too! Find Earth Day events in your area on Google maps via earthday.org or enjoy one of the activities below that your kids will love:

Plant a Seed

Planting seeds with your kids is a great way to help them understand why nature is so valuable. You can simply plant a bean or marigold seed in a cup and help your children take care of their growing plant.

Seed Starting Tips:

• - Once your seed germinates, place your plant in full sun by a window or use fluorescent light
• - Keep your seedlings warm (70-75 degrees) and your soil moist
• - Choose easy-to-grow annuals (flowers such as sunflowers, zinnias, or cosmos or vegetables like radishes, lettuce, and dill)
• - Be sure to label your cups if you're planting a mix of seeds (kids can have fun with creating their own labels!)

Create a Bird Feeder

This is a fun recycling art project reusing your toilet paper rolls via The Resourceful Mama. The best part is that you only need 5 supplies to build this simple bird feeder with your little ones. Note: This project is not recommended for children who have peanut allergies.

• - Toilet paper rolls
• - Bird seed
• - Peanut Butter
• - Craft or Popsicle Sticks
• - Twine

Simply spread the peanut butter on the outside of the toilet paper rolls using the craft sticks and roll them around in the bird seed. Once the outside of the roll is covered in seeds, thread a piece of twine through the roll until your desired length and tie a knot. Hang your bird feeder outside on a tree and wait for the little birdies to enjoy!

Sing an Earth Day Song

Sometimes singing a song can help young children learn the importance of Earth Day and conserving the world's natural resources in a fun and meaningful way. The Earth Day Song by Let's Play Kids Music is a great way to get the whole family involved with song and dance. Sing the lyrics to the tune of 'Nick Nack Paddy Wack' and enjoy the playlist they put together to celebrate the Earth all day long!

Visit a Farmer's Market

Take the kids to the farmer's market or a local farm to learn about the fruits and vegetables grown in your local area. Farmers can explain to your kids about what produce is in season and where they were grown. Let your little ones pick fresh fruits and vegetables to take home to prepare an Earth Day picnic. Show them how to wash and prepare fresh produce into fun-sized bites for kids.

Earth Day Reading

Visit your local library to read books about Earth. One of our favorites is "Talking with Mother Earth" by Jorge Argueta, which is a great bilingual/bicultural read as it's beautifully expressed in English and Spanish.

Color a Tree

Do April showers have you and your little ones stuck inside today? No worries, you can print out this coloring page via ABC Teach for the kids to color in an Earth Day tree with leaves in the shape of hearts.

Join the Community

Most local communities host Earth Day events throughout the month of April to celebrate Earth Day. Be sure to visit earthday.org to find events in your area to participate in with your little ones. It's a great opportunity to help raise your global citizens and meet like-minded parents aiming to make a difference- not only on April 22nd, but year-round!

Do you have any fun ideas for Earth Day? Please comment below to share your activities! Happy Earth Day & Stay Green!

#SmartSpring Twitter Party - You're Invited!

Join us at our #SmartSpringTwitter Party to talk with our panel of moms and experts about eco-friendly family fun and creating world-opening experiences for your little ones!

DATE: Tuesday, April 29th TIME: 9pm EST HASHTAG: #SmartSpring PRIZES: A Trio Android tablet and Little Pim products galore!

RSVP to the Twitter Party by filling out this simple form.*

Make sure to follow us @LittlePim, our host Allison McDonald @Noflashcards, and our fantastic panelists @teachmama and @pragmaticmom.

And while you're at it, be sure to follow our #SmartSpring Pinterest board for educational and eco-friendly activities you can share with your kids this Spring.

See you there!

*RSVP on or before 4/28/14 at 11:59pm EST to receive an exclusive discount code to use during and after the party.

Earth Day - ideas for kids

On April 22nd, more than a billion people around the world - and millions of children - celebrated Earth Day. It's a day to think about the pressing questions that affect our planet, such as water quality and conservation, recycling, food safety and availability, and how we can each work to reduce our carbon footprint.

How can you make this day meaningful to your children? Taking on a topic like "the earth" can be pretty intimidating, so we at Little Pim have come up with our favorite ways to bring Earth Day into your home.  Here are the top ten things you can do to teach the values of Earth Day in an easy and fun way, and learning a few new words in one of the earth's many different languages!  Check out or Springtime video to learn important earth-related words in Spanish, French and Chinese.

10 Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day With Your Kids

1. Plant seeds with your kids, and help them take care of their growing plant. The act of watering and caring for something alive - even if it's just a plant growing in an egg carton - is a great way to help children understand why nature is so valuable.  If you have an herb plant, your child can also pick from the plant and help you cook with it, and learn the valuable link between nature and food.

2. Take your child to the local dump! Stay a while (bring wooden pegs for your noses if needed) and talk about what a landfill is.  Few children really understand where garbage goes once it leaves the trash can, or that it takes up SO MUCH ROOM.

3. Do a recycling art project. There are so many fun things you can make from tissue boxes, egg cartons and cereal boxes.  Try this piggy bank from a tissue box, this cardboard house, or these cute little bugs

4. Get your old globe out of the attic, or buy one. Preferably a child-friendly globe like this one, with fun pictures and bright colors.You can point out parts of the planet where resources are scarce, explaining water-shortages in Saharan Africa, or countries where kids farm the land from an early age, like certain places in South America.  Where possible, connect the lesson to the experiences of real kids. I love the United Nations book A Life Like Mine: How Children Live Around the World.  You can also teach your kids how to say words like "tree", "flower" or "water" using Little Pim!

5. Bake something using as many whole and non-processed ingredients as possible, and use the experience as an opportunity to explain that food can still come straight from the land!  Explain the difference between processed and whole food using real examples, such as boxed mac and cheese vs making it from scratch.

6. Visit a farmer's market together and learn about which fruit and vegetables are available in which season, and what is means to grow food locally. You can also explain that buying local food helps the planet, because it doesn't have to be transported very far.

7. Go to an Earth Day event in your city. The Natural Conservancy is hosting Picnic for the Planet events all around the world!

8. Have an Earth Day party! The kids can help you cook and you can decorate the house with Earth Day crafts

9. Go online and read about how kids are celebrating Earth Day around the world, then share some of those stories with your kids.

10. Help your child make an Earth Day drawing or story, and post it on your fridge or elsewhere in the home. You can teach them about endangered animals (pandas like Little Pim are endangered!) and print out coloring pages like this one (click to download).

And finally, happy Earth Day everyone!