More Earth Day Activities & Crafts

1-2-3 Come Lend A Hand With Some Earth Day "Craftivities"

After studying the importance of taking care of our earth and discussing the fact that even little children can make a difference, I’d give a few directions, and tell my Y5’s that they were going to be part of Mrs. Henderson’s Kids Care Cleanup Crew.

earth day activities, cleaning up the school ideas, ideas for earth day, earth day crafts, earth day writing prompts, common core earth day earth day lessons, Each child got a pair of non latex gloves (You can buy a pack of 50 at The Dollar Store.) and armed with their own plastic grocery sack to put litter in, we’d hit the playground when no one was using it.

Because their hands are so little, I also bought a pack of elastic ponytail holders and slipped those around their wrists to hold the gloves on.

It’s amazing how much garbage gets caught up against the fence! My kiddos absolutely LOVED running around picking up all sorts of debris. We’d then head to the dumpster and toss our sacks and gloves in.

They were always very proud of themselves. I made sure that the principal knew what we were doing and he always thanked our class over the P.A. during the announcements the next day.

Afterwards, we’d wash our hands really well and then settled down to watch a short and educational Earth Day video. One of my favorites is an awesome 6-minute clip of the paper recycling process at the Staten Island Paper Mill.

For more interesting Earth Day YouTube videos, click on the link to this Pinterest board: "Favorite Earth Day Videos on YouTube" .

earth day activities, cleaning up the school ideas, ideas for earth day, earth day crafts, earth day writing prompts, earth day poster, common core earth day earth day lessons, The “craftivity" that day was “I can lend a hand.” Children chose a partner and took turns tracing each other's hand.

They then cut out their print and glued it to a variety of colors of construction paper. For young children, you could have a room helper do this for you the day before.

Even the boys enjoyed decorating their hand posters with "tatoos" and jewelry. To add a bit more pizzazz, have students paste on some flat-backed jewels using glue dots.

earth day activities, cleaning up the school ideas, ideas for earth day, earth day crafts, earth day writing prompts, common core earth day earth day lessons, Older students can complete the "Pitch in" writing prompt and glue that to the back of their poster. Punch a hole in the top and suspend from the ceiling.

earth day activities, cleaning up the school ideas, ideas for earth day, earth day crafts, earth day writing prompts, common core earth day earth day lessons, My students enjoyed discussing the many different ways little kids can 'pitch in" to make a big difference.

At the end of the day have students color their certificate. These always prompted parents to ask their child about the cleanup activity.

Click on the link to view/download the Lend A Hand Earth Day activity.

earth day activities, cleaning up the school ideas, ideas for earth day, earth day crafts, earth day writing prompts, common core earth day earth day lessons, While working on the above, I also designed another Earth Day craftivity that I call the "Helping Hands Dangler". Like the above poster, students can choose a partner to help them trace their hand, or they can do it themselves.

earth day activities, cleaning up the school ideas, ideas for earth day, earth day crafts, earth day writing prompts, common core earth day earth day lessons, There are several options for "dangling" these mobiles from the ceiling.

I've taken a photo of both samples to help explain this.

Students can glue all 4 circles together in such a way that they make a 3D sphere (like the earth) or they can glue the circles vertically to a length of yarn.

Both writing prompt options, dangle from the child's hand.

For the latter option, give students 3 of the "I can help" writing prompt circles. They write 3 ways they can lend a helping hand and then glue them back-to-back on to the other circles. Punch a hole at the top and suspend from the ceiling.

Click on the link to view/download the Helping Hands Dangler.