10 Earth Day Activities for Students 

Every year, Earth Day unites people worldwide to celebrate planet Earth. Earth Day is an excellent opportunity to educate students about the benefits of recycling and our responsibility to protect the environment.

Earth Day activities are fun and educational, ranging from outdoor adventures to creative crafts. Let’s discover some exciting Earth Day activities for students to help them participate and learn why Earth Day is so important.

What Is Earth Day?

Earth Day was first celebrated in America on April 22, 1970, and marks the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Today, people worldwide celebrate every April 22 with demonstrations, school programs, presentations, and other activities to spread awareness for the planet.

The observance has had a significant impact on environmental activism, especially on these notable dates:

• Earth Day 1990: Twenty years after it began, Earth Day went global across 141 countries.
• Earth Day 2000: This Earth Day included 5,000 environmental groups in a record 182 countries worldwide, using the Internet to spark global conversations.
• Earth Day 2010: Earth Day Network launched The Canopy Project and worked with over 75,000 global partners.

With more than 1 billion individuals in over 190 countries mobilized each Earth Day, the holiday is the largest secular celebration in the world. Activists continue to spread awareness of the importance of protecting the Earth to ensure the safety of our planet and its people.

Benefits of Using Recycled Materials

Finding ways to reuse everyday items in Earth Day activities shows students that every action matters. However, using recycled materials in your everyday life also benefits your community and the world by:

• Reducing the waste sent to landfills: The 2020 Recycling Economic Information (REI) Report found that U.S. recycling processes generated 526 million metric tons of recycled goods that otherwise may have ended up in landfills and incinerators.
• Conserving natural resources: Recycling reduces your use of natural resources like timber, water, and minerals.
• Increasing economic security: By utilizing a domestic source of materials, you increase financial security for American workers.
• Preventing pollution: Reducing new raw materials reduces pollution, making the environment a safer place.
• Saving energy: By limiting demand for new products, you reduce energy usage in manufacturing.
• Supporting American manufacturing: Using recycled materials to make new products saves costs for manufacturing companies.
• Helping to create jobs in the recycling industry: The EPA’s 2020 REI Report showed that recycling created 681,000 American jobs.

Recycling makes a positive impact on individuals and the whole Earth. Encouraging your student to recycle helps them learn how to take positive action to support the Earth.

10 Earth Day Crafts and Activities for Students

Blended learning allows students to learn both online and face-to-face and enriches their learning experience with hands-on activities that supplement their virtual lessons. Plan a craft or art project for your student’s Earth Day learning with this list of 10 recycled material crafts and activities for students on Earth Day.

1. Earth Day Scavenger Hunt

Holding outdoor Earth Day group activities is one of the best ways to celebrate the beauty of planet Earth. Try one of these fun ideas in your backyard or local park:

• Color scavenger hunt: Send students to find items that match each color of the rainbow.
• Sensory scavenger hunt: Glue sensory items like bird feathers, pine cones, and wild onions to a sheet of cardboard and have your student find matches.
• Photo scavenger hunt: Older students might enjoy this Earth Day photography activity. Send students out with cameras to collect photos of things in nature, like a snail, bird’s nest, or local flower.

2. Magazine Scraps Earth Collage

Use old magazines to create recycled art celebrating planet Earth. Follow these steps for a fun Earth Day collage:

1. Draw a large circle onto a piece of cardboard.
2. Sketch the continents inside the circle to make Earth.
3. Cut out small blue and green shapes from magazines.
4. Glue the scraps onto the Earth.

3. Plantable Paper Earth

This environmentally friendly craft allows students to grow a miniature garden. Follow these steps to create your plantable paper Earth:

1. Tear blue, green, and white scrap paper into small pieces.
2. Separate the pieces by color and soak them in warm water for two hours.
3. Staple window screening to a wooden frame.
4. Add more warm water to the wet paper and blend it into a pulp.
5. Press the pulp onto the screening in colored sections for land and water.
6. Sprinkle wildflower seeds onto the paper.
7. Press into the screening again.
8. Place the paper seed-side up in a container with potting mix.
9. Water and cover with plastic wrap until the seeds sprout.

Your student will love checking on their seedlings each day as they grow new life.

4. Stained Glass Earth Craft

This stained glass Earth craft looks great hanging in the window. Follow these steps:

1. Trace circles onto wax paper.
2. Cut string the length of each circle.
3. Saturate the string in PVA glue.
4. Lay the string on the circles, connecting the ends.
5. Slip a piece of floss under the string, which you’ll use to hang your Earths.
6. Dry overnight.
7. Fill the circles with glue and green and blue food coloring.
8. Swirl with a toothpick.
9. Dry before peeling circles from the paper.

5. Virtual Tour of the Planet

Online learning has opened up more Earth awareness activities for students than ever before. Now you can take a virtual field trip with your student to beautiful locations all over the globe from the comfort of your living room:

• Visit Yellowstone National Park.
• Meet Kenya’s salt-mining elephants.
• Tour a coral reef.
• Explore ancient ruins.

6. Marbled Earth Craft

Students create a marbled paper Earth with this fun and messy craft.

1. Fill an aluminum pan with shaving cream.
2. Swirl in blue and green food coloring.
3. Lay a white cardstock circle into the pan.
4. Remove excess shaving cream.
5. Let dry.
6. Glue to a sheet of black construction paper and fleck with white paint for stars.

7. Insect Hotel Craft

Show the littlest creatures on Earth some love with this insect hotel craft:

1. Cut off the tops and bottoms of several plastic bottles and cut a large opening in the side of a milk jug.
2. Tightly pack the plastic bottles with twigs, tree bark, pine cones, and moss.
3. Insert the bottles into the jug so insects can crawl into the opening.

It may take a while, but eventually, you’ll attract some fascinating insects to your hotel.

8. Recycled Materials Tree Craft

You’ll need some simple household materials for this Earth Day recycled art:

1. Cut a paper towel roll in half and glue it to a poster board.
2. Cut paper lunch sacks into strips.
3. Twist and wrinkle the paper strips.
4. Glue the strips to the roll and board to make branches.
5. Cut leaf shapes out of green pages in magazines and newspapers.
6. Glue the leaves to the tree.

9. Earth Day Paper Garland

Create a decoration for your home or classroom with this Earth Day paper garland.

1. Find templates of a circle, a person, and the continents.
2. Trace the templates onto colorful paper from the recycling bin and cut them out.
3. Glue the continent shapes onto the circles to make the Earth.
4. Glue the cutouts to a piece of yarn, alternating Earth and people cutouts.
5. Hang your garland from the ceiling or a desk.

10. Cardboard Tube Bird Feeders

These simple bird feeders promote the wildlife in your student’s backyard. Follow these steps for this quick activity:

1. Punch a hole through each end of a cardboard tube.
2. Spread peanut butter on the tube.
3. Roll the tube in birdseed.
4. Push a bamboo skewer through the bottom holes to make a perch.
5. Thread twine through the top holes.

Your students can make several bird feeders and hang them from branches at different heights.

Contact CCA to Learn About Our Programs

Learning about the Earth encourages students of all ages to admire, respect, and protect the planet. These Earth awareness activities may ignite a passion for science, the environment, and conservation in your student.

At CCA, we strive to provide students with personalized learning that appeals to their interests and prepares them to be the leaders of tomorrow. Our student-centered approach allows students to create personalized curricula from standards-aligned courses that appeal to them. Whether your student wants to learn about environmental science, marine biology, or aquaponics, our engaging learning courses provide something for everyone.

Contact us today to request more information about our programs and how they can benefit your student.