10 Earth Day Crafts for Preschoolers
Earth Day comes around every April 22, but in your classroom, you can turn every day into a celebration of Mother Nature and planet Earth! Get ready to inspire your students with these ten Earth Day crafts that are designed to spark environmental awareness, conservation, and plenty of creativity.
These Earth Day crafts for preschoolers will have your little ones buzzing with excitement as they explore recycling, nature, and the importance of caring for our planet. Dig into these fun and simple activities that promise to cultivate a love for our planet in every student.
Recycled Microscope
Instead of tossing water bottles and plastic wrap in the trash, turn these items into Earth Day art that doubles as a science tool. This recycled microscope is a fantastic way for tiny scientists to examine the world around them. It’s perfect for exploring items your preschoolers find after a nature walk and showing them how you can turn trash into a scientific treasure.
Green Gobbler
Earth Day is a wonderful time to talk to your students about the importance of keeping our planet free from trash. Encourage your preschoolers to help clean up the classroom or playground by making a Green Gobbler that can gobble up small pieces of garbage. After a few minutes of the Green Gobblers working hard to spruce up your classroom, you might want to keep them around all year!
Send your preschoolers on a hunt for recyclable items in this fun Hidden Pictures puzzle from Preschool With a Purpose. Download this activity for free!
Pool Noodle Village
A great way to teach preschoolers about sustainability is to show them you can make something new and awesome out of something that was going to end up in the trash. If you’ve got a pool noodle that has seen better days, use it to make a pool noodle village with your students. Then use other recyclable items in the classroom to add to the village like cars, trucks, trains, animal figures, and building blocks.
Nature Paint
On Earth Day, show your preschoolers that some of the most beautiful colors are right outside their classroom window, and they can use nature to make a beautiful art project. Nature painting encourages students to look at the colors outside–green leaves, pink flowers, and brown mud, and then to use these items to make a colorful creation that requires items from nature.
Raindrop Toss Game
If you’re reading a book to your students about water conservation or keeping our oceans clean, this craft doubles as a game and is the perfect way to tie in the Earth Day theme. The raindrop toss game starts with making adorable raindrops that will be used in a simple toss game. We love a craft that pulls double duty in the classroom!
Earth Day Seed Bombs
If you are working on a seed or flower unit with your preschoolers, tie this craft into your lessons. By mixing scraps of construction paper, water, and flower seeds, your students can create Earth Day seed bombs that they can take home and plant. Keep a few of the seed bombs and plant them near your classroom so you and your student can observe the flower’s growth and any insects or animals that it attracts.
Paint the Planet
No need for paint brushes for this painting project. Give students a coloring sheet of the planet and let them use their fingers to paint. They can create dots of blue, green, and brown, or use their hands and fingers to make big swirls and swishes with the paint. Need an easy and inexpensive finger paint recipe? Use this one.
Tissue Paper Planet
Not in the mood to wrangle a class full of finger-painting preschoolers? Make a tissue paper planet instead. Start with a template of a planet; pieces of green, blue, and brown tissue paper; and a glue stick. Kids can rip, tear, and squish the tissue paper before using the glue to attach the tissue paper. Not only will they end up with a personalized planet Earth, but all that creating helps strengthen their fingers and hands.
Nature Walk Wreath
Give each of your students a small paper bag before heading outside on a nature walk (a few laps around the playground works, too!) Have your class collect items from nature: leaves, small sticks, pinecones, small rocks, and flowers. When everyone is back from their walk, use the items they found outside to make a nature walk wreath. You can make one large wreath for your classroom, or kids can make small individual wreaths by gluing the items to cardstock.
Forest Putty Creations
How about another reason to get kids outside to explore Mother Nature? Give them forest putty —also known as play dough—that kids can take outside. Let your students collect small items to place inside the putty to make creatures. Encourage kids to name their forest putty creatures and tell stories about how their creatures are helping to protect the planet.
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About the Author:
Amanda Mushro is a writer and content creator whose creative tips, tricks, and life hacks have reached millions of people through TV segments, videos, and her writing. However, her favorite job is being a mom of three.