Are you looking for fun Earth Day family activities this year to celebrate the holiday? Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22. It is a day to celebrate the Earth and increase environmental awareness.
As an environmental educator, Earth Day is one of my favorite holidays! I love using it as an opportunity to take a step back and give appreciation for the Earth that we live on. It’s also a great time to learn more about how to be a better steward of the environment to help protect the Earth.
If you’re looking to celebrate Earth Day with your family, here you will find some great ideas! These Earth Day family activities are fun, informative, and actually useful.
This post is all about the 9 Best Earth Day family activities your kids will love!
1. At Home Compost
If you don’t compost at home, here is a great Earth Day family activity to teach your family about how to repurpose food waste. Compost Activity At Home Activity Here!
Do you already compost at home? If you already compost at home, use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about composting! Here are some awesome resources to start the conversation about composting.
2. Salsa Garden
Step by Step Instructions for a Sala Garden Here!
Start a salsa garden at home! This is such a fun Earth Day family activity because it is simple and inexpensive to get started. The concept involves planting the items you need to make salsa!
Here’s what you’ll need!
- Tomato Plant
- Jalapeno Pepper Plant
- Cilantro Plant
- Onion Plant
You can gather these supplies from Home Depot, Lowes, or a local nursery in your area! These plants can be planted in a sunny location indoors or in your outdoor garden.
3. Movie marathon
If your family is anything like mine, we look forward to family movie nights. This Earth Day family activity is perfect for families with kids big and small. Here are a few family-friendly environmental movies to watch this Earth Day:
- The Bee Movie
- The Lorax
- Wall-E
- Avatar
- Happy Feet
4. Cook a Meal Together
Everyone’s got to eat! Try out this Earth Day family activity to teach your family about food waste and the impact of meat on the environment. Shop for local fruits, veggies, and meat, if possible. Try to find food with less food packaging. Research what you can do with the food packaging – is it recyclable, can you take it to a special recycling drop-off, can you repurpose it?
Decreasing meat consumption has a significant impact on decreasing CO2 levels contributing to global warming. Give these vegetarian kid-friendly meals a try:
5. The Tragedy of the Commons Game
The tragedy of the Commons is the concept that we often see when it comes to the environment. It is the idea that people often make decisions that best benefit themselves and their families, without considering the impact on society.
The most powerful analogy for this is when people are overfishing. Each person is thinking about the impact the fish will make on their lives and not how overfishing impacts others who also need fish or the ecosystem as a whole. The game is fascinating and helps everyone be more conscious about the impact of our actions on the environment. I would recommend this game be played for students in fourth grade and up.
Check out directions for the game here!
6. Eco-Friendly Home Audit: How eco-friendly is your home?
How eco-friendly is your home? This is a fun Earth Day family activity because it allows you to assess how eco-friendly your home currently is, and then figure out ways to make adjustments to improve!
This activity is perfect for Earth Day because it focuses on how to create a more sustainable home that has a positive impact on the environment.
Download this fun and easy eco-friendly home audit here!
7. Tag the vampires in your home
Have you ever heard of vampire power? Vampire power is the power that goes to items in your home that are plugged in, but not actually in use.
When you leave things plugged in that are not currently in use it is called vampire power. This vampire power can be sucking up 10% of your electricity bill a month!
Here are some items you can consider unplugging when not in use to save energy:
- Chargers
- Coffee maker
- Computers and computer monitors
- DVD players
- Free-standing lights
- Game systems
- Small appliances
- Sound systems
- Vacuum cleaner
As a fun activity, go around the house and put a sticker or sticky note on each of your appliances that are plugged in, but not in use. Then, unplug them. Leave the tag on the cord as a reminder to keep the item unplugged until it is time to use it!
8. Nature Walk
This is perhaps one of my favorite Earth Day family activities. Getting out in nature is an incredible way to celebrate Earth Day with your family! Take a walk around the neighborhood or take a trip to a nearby park. Do you live near a trail, take a nature walk there!
Appreciating the beauty of our environment is a great reminder of why it is so important to protect it!
9. Participate in Earth Hour
Have you ever heard of Earth Hour? Every year on the last Saturday of March, people around the world turn on their lights for one hour (your local time) at 8:30 PM.
For one hour, turn off the lights in your home and unplug. Play games with your kids, read stories with a flashlight, or simply talk and reconnect with one another.
Earth Hour is POWERFUL! It symbolizes the power of individual decisions done collectively and emphasizes how small changes make a large impact.
Find out more about Earth Hour here.
In this blog post learned all about Earth Day family activities to celebrate Earth Day!
Although Earth Day is a great time to celebrate our Earth, be sure to celebrate Earth Day every day! Doing Earth Day family activities gives us an opportunity to teach our children about the environment so they can live their lives with the environment in mind!
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