Do A Scavenger Hunt While Shopping
While walking through the supermarket, ask your kids which products have the least amount of packaging. This is a fun and interesting way to help them see that a bag of pretzels is a greener choice than a box of pretzels with a bag inside of the box. Let your kids help choose the items they think have the least packaging, purchase them, and then recycle every part of the product when finished.
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Plant A Tree And Watch It Grow
Your kids can have the thrill of planting a tree and watching it grow from a small sapling to a big tree. They can look at the changes in the seasons as leaves turn brown or fall off during autumn and as flowers start blooming in spring.
Having kids take ownership of their own tree will motivate them to care for it and also motivate them to understand the role of trees in our environment.
Activities For Kids To Learn About Sustainability
Posted published byNature’s Path
Talking about sustainability with kids is incredibly important to do. However, it can be really tricky to know where to start. First, we need to help our kids understand what sustainability is. While a broad concept, sustainability basically boils down to understanding the impact that we have on the earth, and what we leave for future generations.
We know that sustainability can encompass a number of things, from recycling to gardening, and in being resourceful with products and items that we use. We can teach these to our children through hands-on activities and by involving them in acting sustainably as well! Below is a list of 20 activities that will teach kids about sustainability:
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Create A Backyard Habitat For Neighborhood Animals
With expansion and construction on the rise, many animals habitats are being threatened or eliminated. Have you child help you create a welcoming environment for local wildlife and enjoy the views of butterflies, birds, and small mammals.
Set up a bird bath to attract a variety of local birds, plant local flowers and trees, and set out a few bird and bat houses and the will find its way! Kids will love watching the joyful wildlife enjoying the gifts theyve provided them!
Recycled Arts & Crafts
From toilet paper tube teddies to broken button bottle banks, just about everything old can be made into something new.
All youll need is some clean recyclable wastesuch as Kleenex boxes, paper towel rolls, empty soda bottles, or plastic cutleryand some craft supplies like glue, string, ribbon, etc. Turn empty baby food jars into memory jars, brown paper bags into puppets, and old tin cans into wind chimes.
Find a list of great recycled crafts. Once your crafts have run their course, snap a digital picture of them and place them back into the recycling bin to keep the use cycle in motion.
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Final Thoughts: Lead By Example And Let Them Follow In Your Footsteps
When it comes to teaching kids about sustainability, no matter what strategies of education you choose, your kids will take direction by example.
The best way to ensure that your kids grow up with appreciation and awareness around sustainability is to lead an environmentally aware lifestyle yourself.
Kids use the actions and words of those around them to model their own behavior. If you want to see a change in the way your kids perceive sustainability, start with yourself.
Green Color Activities & Fun Ideas For Kids
You have come to the right place if you are looking for fun, engaging and exciting Green color activities to do with toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners. Our activities are used by teachers, moms, dads, child care providers and more!
All our activities are available at no cost and are free to print and share. Select below to get started.
Contents
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Saving Energy Can Be A Game
Invent a simple game of giving rewards for every energy saving activity your kids do each day. Give a reward if your kid hits a certain target at the end of each week or month.
Anything that uses less energy can be included. Incentivise them to take shorter showers, turn off lights when they leave the room, or turn off the TV and play outside more.
Organize A Greener Office
These ideas will make your place of business a greener place to work.
Genius Tip: Use SignUpGenius so that each co-worker can sign up for a different green responsibility!
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Kids Learn Through Play
Playing is one of the first forms of communication and expression that kids learn.
From the day they are born, we initiate games like peek-a-boo and copy-cat to teach vital developmental skills and practice bonding.
Both of these things are fundamental to the emotional, mental, and physical development of children. Through play, we contribute to their overall health and wellbeing.
So, what are some of the ways in which play can benefit childrens development? Here are four key aspects of why learning through play is so important:
- Encourages imagination and creativity
- Helps kids make sense of the world around them
- Develops their cognitive abilities
- Teaches sharing and empathy
Using play as a method for educational development is a great way to enhance kids understanding of sustainability and environmental awareness.
Young kids especially struggle to grasp concepts that are not introduced to them in a playful context.
Even tweens and teenagers are more likely to understand the importance of sustainability when its presented in a way that is fun and engaging.
Using the character Ecoman, this video by Sustainability Illustrated shows the importance of sustainability:
The video is designed so that kids can easily comprehend and respond to the content. Clear, concise, yet fun, this type of educational tool is hugely beneficial.
Go Green Ideas For Kids Of All Ages
Children love to help out and want to fit in when it comes to going and living green. Every day, you can give your children earth friendly practices and responsibilities to add to their daily routines that in long run will become green lifestyle habits. There are many simple actions kids can take to go green- here are some age specific going green activities for kids from preschoolers to teens. We hope you enjoy these green ideas for kids!
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Change Starts At Home: Teaching Kids About Sustainability
The kids of today will be the adults of tomorrow. Its important for the future of our planet to start helping our young ones cultivate a natural interest and enthusiasm for sustainability.
Some parents might feel overwhelmed by the prospect of imparting such important knowledge. However, sustainability is a concept that most children already understand better than we think.
The idea behind sustainable living is simple: Look after the earth, and it will look after us!
Even the youngest of kids can begin to grasp this message if it is presented to them in the right way.
But what is the right way? Well, theres more than just one!
In this guide, we will go through some simple and easy ways for parents to teach kids about environmental awareness. Well also highlight actionable tips about incorporating them into daily life.
Lets jump right in!
Skip to What You Need
Welcome To Week : Going Green
This week well be sharing lots of environmentally friendly games and activitiesfor your child to play on their own and with a caregiver. Along with arts and crafts projects, book suggestions, and some bonus activities, your child will learn more about how to reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover!
You decide how you want to use these activities: pick one thing to do each day of the week, plan a full day of fun, or just scan through for inspiration and do what sounds fun to you.
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Outdoor Play: The Secret To Teaching Kids About Sustainability
When it comes to teaching kids about sustainability, there is one method that outranks all others: outdoor play.
Outdoor play combines interaction with the earth and the power of playfulness to teach kids an appreciation for nature.
If you want to teach your kids to love and respect the world they live in, outdoor play is the way to go. Here are four reasons to get your kids outside:
- Encourages exploration and curiosity
- Fosters an appreciation for the environment
- Generates self-awareness
If you want to teach your kids how to have a healthy appreciation and investment in the environment, playing outside is the best way to get there.
Awesome Green Activities For Kids
Our children are our future. The world will soon be in their hands. Show them the importance of caring for their environment, recycling, and appreciating the luxuries of everyday life with these green activities.
1. Make a compost pile. A compost pile is a way for kids to watch nature recycle itself in action! Natural waste, such as grass clippings and table scraps, is slowly broken down to make new soil that many farmers and gardeners consider the golden ticket to a thriving crop. Did you know about 30% of the waste in landfills across the country is yard and food waste that could be used for composting? According to the Clean Air Council, the average American generates about 4.5 pounds of trash every single daythats over 1600 pounds per year! If every person turned their natural waste into compost, it would eliminate almost 500 pounds of garbage from going to the landfill! This project will encourage your kids to think twice about wasting their sandwich crusts or uneaten vegetables. Follow these step-by-step instructions on how to turn your trash into treasure.
8. Go for a nature hike. A growing number of kids spend most of their time indoors, and many dont even make it a point to go outside every day. Encourage your kids to explore the wide world around them and appreciate all the beauty that nature has to offer! Visit a nature preserve in your area and take a long walk. What colors, animals, and plants do they see that they dont see at home?
Sarah Antrim
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Make A Milk Carton Bird Feeder
Your kids will enjoy watching the local birds flock to their backyard and enjoy a tasty treat!
Cut a hole in the side of the carton big enough for birds to come and go about 2 to 4 inches from the bottom of the carton. Cut a small hole below to add a dowel rod below the hole for birds to perch. Cut 2 holes in the top of the carton and thread twine through to hang from a tree.
Finally, using a pin, poke several holes in the bottom of the carton to promote moisture drainage as soggy bird feeders can cause illnesses in birds. Fill with a wild bird feed and watch the birds flock to your snack station.
Walk Or Cycle Instead Of Driving
Kids have an amazing amount of energy, and most times it’s much better for them to walk or cycle places instead of you driving them. This will benefit their health as well as cut down on air pollution, as well as reducing your carbon footprint.
You may encounter some resistance at first, but once you teach them why this is so important they’ll soon warm to the idea, and what kid doesn’t enjoy riding their bike on a sunny day?
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Cycling And The Environment
Teaching children early on about the benefits of sustainable transport options can be made a lot more interesting when this is connected with activities such as cycling. A fun going green kid project is to incorporate learning more about transport while also learning about cycling and cycling safety. This covers some important issues while also making learning fun.
Lulu Junior Sustainability Activities
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Hikes Walks Outdoor Exploration
Walking is one of the best ways to explore a new destination, and also one of the most eco-friendly vacation activities there is! Wherever you are in the world, taking your kids walking will be a rewarding experience. It might mean getting lost in meandering, cobbled streets in an historic old town or taking on challenging trails through forests and up hills. Either way, youll end the day with happy kids, without much in the way of a carbon footprint!
Cute Paper Bag Frog Puppet
This bag frog is a fun hand puppet thatll set your green-lovers heart all a-flutter! This craft by I Heart Crafty Things is made out of paper bags, by the way! This works really well as part of a frog lesson plan as additional project ideas inspiring the future environmental scientist in your home or classroom.
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Use Cloth Instead Of Paper Goods
Photo source: Flickr/eraphernalia_vintage
Another easy way to teach your kids to go green is to encourage the use of cloth instead of paper whenever possible. For example, make sure your bathroom is stocked with clean hand towels instead of paper towels. Same for wiping up messes having a cloth handy instead of paper goods gives kids the signal that they are preventing another item from entering a landfill. Our family uses cloth napkins at every meal and we just toss them in with our regular laundry.
Earth Day Activities For Preschoolers
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What do your preschoolers know about the environment? Often teachers will talk about animals or plants or other parts of the natural world. In these themes or learning times, they may talk about how to take care of the world. April 22 is Earth Day, a natural time to talk about caring for the world. During this time teachers can also talk about recycling, reducing, and reusing. The Earth day activities range from art projects to hands on activities provide some ways to explore caring for the earth and recycling.
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Collect Food For Composting
That apple core from lunch? Grape stem after snack? Egg shells after breakfast? Don’t throw them away! Teach your kids how composting adds to soil for a future veggie or flower garden that they can help plan. Keep a sealed container under your sink and instruct your kids what is/isn’t OK to compost. A great resource for composting guidelines is the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Activity: Going Green Rube Goldberg Machine
What youll need:
- Any reusable materials from around your house
How to play:
Did you know?
A Rube Goldberg machine is named after an American cartoonist who originally drew cartoons illustrating elaborate machines that performed simple tasks.
Rube Goldberg machines typically use items that are not related to each other. When an action is triggered, like someone tipping over a block, it triggers the next item until the goal is completed .
How to make it easier:
- Were learning more about chain reactions in this activity, so start small! Have your child stand up three blocks in a row, touch the first block, and watch them fall down in sequence.
- Give them an example of a simple Rube Goldberg and then allow them to get creative. Youll be surprised with what they come up with!
How to increase the challenge:
- Require a minimum of five, 10, or 15 different items as part of their machine.
- Increase the size of the Rube Goldberg by having it start in one part of the house and end in another.
Keep the fun going:
- Try building a Rube Goldberg in your backyard or playground using only natural materials.
- Get the whole family involved by building a machine that can complete a household task like feeding a pet or locking the door.
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