Earth Day Activities (April 22nd)
April 22nd is Earth Day!
This is a great theme for engaging children with our environment and different ways we can protect it. Use the week leading up to it for centre activities. Here are some ideas:
Talk about Minimizing Waste
- Teach children about why we want to minimize the amount of garbage we produce and send to the landfill.
- Talk about the different ways we divert material from the landfill like re-use, recycling and composting.
- Get them involved with helping to brainstorm ways to re-use certain materials from home or the centre, like collecting paper egg cartons for starting a garden (see our post on Gardening with Kids) or re-using newspaper for other craft projects (like Paper Mache).
- Get them involved in sorting the recycling (ensure it’s already clean and free of hazards, like sharp edges on cans).
Start a Compost
If your community doesn’t have green waste pick-up, consider starting a garden or even an indoor compost bin.
- If starting outdoors, buy a pre-made compost bin or make one from pieces of wood (e.g. used pallets). Here are some more tips: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/gardening_with_children/homegrownprojects_compost.shtml
- If only indoors is an option, start a worm composter. Here are all the steps: http://www.rdn.bc.ca/worm-composting
- Instead of tossing into the garbage, save kitchen and plate scraps in a separate bowl or bin to be emptied each day into the compost.
- Once broken down into soil, compost can be added into the garden to add more nutrients to the soil and help plants grow stronger.
Grow Food From Kitchen Scraps
There are many vegetables you can grow from leftover parts of the veggies in your fridge, like lettuce, celery, ginger. It’s so fun for children to see something grow from what they would normally think of as waste, like the bottom of the celery stalk. Check out this resource for tips on how: https://www.diyncrafts.com/4732/repurpose/25-foods-can-re-grow-kitchen-scraps/3