Going Green for the Day

 
It's Earth Day.

It's a day to be outside if the weather cooperates and the toxic cloud around our house dissipates (more about that tomorrow).

Here are some ideas for things to do with your family today or this weekend to celebrate Earth Day:

Go for a bike ride
Plant flowers or vegetables in pots or in a family garden
Visit a farm, greenhouse, or the beach
Visit a farmer's market this weekend and buy local
Visit a recycling center
Have a nature scavenger hunt
Host a swap meet (meet with friends or other people in the community to swap home decor, books, or anything else of interest)
Pick up garbage along a road or in your town
Go to the park to play on the playground
Observe little critters in their habitat
Go for a walk in your neighborhood or in a state park
Have a yard sale (afterall, one man's junk is another man's treasure) and donate the proceeds
Plant a tree (purchase a $10 membership to the Arbor Day Foundation  and get 10 free trees to plant or send as a gift to someone else to plant)


Make art out of household items such as using newspapers, magazines, scraps of paper, etc. to create collages
Play online games (check out the Earth Day themed games at Kaboose)
Read books about saving our earth (from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth)

Here are some cool Earth Day craft sites (I listed some of the crafts so you could pick a craft based on what kind of materials you have laying around the house) for young ones:

At Kaboose kids can learn how to make seeded book marks, egg cup insects, a terrarium with soda bottles, coffee ground fossils, tin can herb pots, toothbrush bracelets, and recycled newspaper pictures.  This site is aimed at preschool and up.

DLTK has lots of activities such as songs, information on Earth Day, coloring pages, posters, worksheets, and crafts (including a 3D Earth, cloud wind puppet, coffee filter Earth,  coffee filter fairy, an Earth Day handprint wreath, an Earth Day paper plate wreath, a habitat shoe box craft, pinwheels, recycled vests) and games such as Bingo and Memory. This site is geared mainly towards preschool.

The EPA has a  Happy Earth Day Activities Book (printable).

First School has a list of activities such as games, crafts, and printables for preschoolers and kindergartners.

Enchanted Learning has activities such as pendants, bird feeders, rain sticks, and origami for Earth Day and lots of Earth Day printables such as Match the Syllables, Finish the Drawing, an Earth Day Activity Book, and an Acrostic Poem.

Even toddlers can be taught to help save our environment by helping plant vegetation, turning off the tv, keeping the fridge closed, turning off lights (our two year old turns off her nightlight in the morning), not letting the water run when brushing their teeth or using less water for baths, using dish cloths instead of paper towels to clean up, helping mom and dad recycle, and going for walks to the store with mom and dad instead of driving.

Happy Earth Day!