Earth Day Art and Craft Activities Ideas for Kids 2025

Easter Activities for Kids

Earth Day activities have been held on April 22 since 1970 to raise awareness for environmental causes around the world. Since young people are especially invested in the future of the planet, it makes sense to celebrate with Earth Day activities for students: many schools organize class projects like litter picking or tree planting for older kids. But Earth Day activities for preschoolers can teach stewardship in fun ways: learning to separate recyclables as a sorting game. In a similar vein, Earth Day activities for kindergarten kids might include building and decorating a GOOS Box for paper that’s Good On One Side to promote reuse in the classroom.

 

Many teacher resource sites have terrific Earth Day activity sheets available to download: age-appropriate nature scavenger hunts or even digital photography checklists to inspire kids to explore local ecosystems. Other activities for Earth Day might focus on the beauty and fragility of the planet, art or craft projects are a natural fit for expressing young peoples’ feelings, hopes, and goals for the future of the planet. Or try Earth Day activities for kids that are pretty and practical, like making seed balls or seed paper using native-only species of wildflower seeds. And of course, taking a walk together to plant them is a perfect Earth Day activity, too!

 

Earth Day Art Activities for Preschoolers

Kids this age are always enthusiastic about colour and texture: it makes them perfect candidates to create Earth Day art projects​ with tactile materials like modelling dough, or finger paint. Preschoolers can sculpt some of their favourite animals from around the world to celebrate the diversity of life on Earth and species that need protection. Littles also LOVE the idea of celebrating, so adults can sketch the outlines of the planet on paper for kids to colour using washable markers. Kids can use washable paint to make “handprint hugs for the planet” on paper plates or upcycled paper as Earth Day art activities. Or go BIG and make “Happy Earth Day” art outdoors on the playground using colourful washable sidewalk chalk, like this Crayola Set with 36 different colours.

 

Here's an Earth Day art project for preschoolers that combines painting and outdoor adventuring: the lets kids decorate pebbles to hide around the neighbourhood for a fun scavenger hunt or to decorate your garden. Once they’ve got the pebble painting bug, they’ll be looking for rocks to decorate on every walk– a lovely way to encourage mindful outdoor experiences at a young age.

 

Earth Day Crafts for Preschoolers

Parents and caregivers in search of Earth Day craft ideas for toddlers​ can always start at home by looking in their paper recycling bin for materials! Cardboard toilet and paper towel rolls are excellent items to incorporate into Earth Day craft projects. We love the idea of gluing two toilet rolls together to make a pair of kid-size binoculars to decorate and take on nature walks for bird-spotting fun – don’t forget to add a length of yarn as a strap. Or use longer paper towel rolls as sturdy stems for blooms made of boxboard or coffee filters!

 

Other Earth Day crafts preschool kids can make from recyclables include plastic lid insects: just add googly eyes and paper or pipe-cleaner pegs and antennae. Grown-ups can even glue magnets or clothespins onto the backs to make an Earth Day craft keepsake! You can also start by taking a nature walk to collect found items to incorporate into an Earth Day garland: glue leaves, flowers, or feathers or a length of kitchen twine. Or transform an empty milk carton into an outdoor hanging box: kids can decorate it and add dryer lint or yarn scraps for birds to use as nesting materials. These are Earth Day crafts for kids​ the whole family can enjoy!

Some supplies you might find helpful:

  1. School Glue Sticks 3pk
  2. Crayola Washable Dot Markers 

 

Earth Day Activities for Kindergarteners

Kids four years old and up are able to understand a little more about the significance of Earth Day: ideas for kindergarten age activities include on-theme story time with books like:

  1. Would You, Could You, Plant a Tree book? – Featuring the beloved Lorax, who speaks for the trees!
  2. The Crayons Love Our Planet – A sweet appreciation of all the colours of nature.
  3. We Are Water Protectors – A beautifully illustrated story highlighting Indigenous-led efforts to secure safe, clean water for all.

More hands-on Earth Day activities ideas for kindergarteners might​ involve a nature safari in the schoolyard or local park: kids can capture, observe – and, of course, release – insects using nets and jars, or even a kit like the Playgo Bug Explorer Activity Set:

Educational Earth Day ideas for kindergarten​ include sorting activities: use different coloured tokens or blocks to represent plastic, glass, and paper items and have kids arrange them in the correct piles for collection. For a little added fun activity on Earth Day for kindergarten​ friends, incorporate some pick-up role-play with a toy truck, like the Fisher-Price Little People Recycling Truck:

Earth Day activities in kindergarten​ classes can be so colourful! Decorating the windows with washable-paint flowers, or crafting egg carton caterpillars are wonderful ways to create Earth Day art in kindergarten​ classrooms.

 

Earth Day Coloring Sheets & Activities

Educator sites are a great source for age-appropriate Earth Day coloring pages​ – choose from planet Earth templates, animals, trees, flowers, insects and more! Earth Day coloring pages for preschoolers​ should be simple, encouraging creative use of colour as well as giving kids practice with their fine-motor skills as they learn to stay inside the lines.

For older kids, consider more elaborate Earth Day coloring pictures, like the gorgeous designs in collections like Joyous Blooms to Color: 

You can even think outside of Earth Day pictures, to color​ other eco-themed objects, like:

  1. Scribble Scrubbie Arctic Pets Igloo – Kids can decorate a seal and arctic fox pair and pop them in the freezer, where they change colour! Then wash them and start again.
  2. Butterfly Garden Suncatcher Creator – Kids ages 6+ can custom-colour 25 beautiful butterfly and flower decorations.

 

Earth Day Projects for Students

Encourage STEM-curious kids with hands-on Earth Day projects​ for preschool and elementary school kids that they can return to year-round, like:

  1. Backyard Safari Butterfly Habitat – Kids ages 5–8 can capture, observe, and then release butterflies in season, as a solo or class science project.
  2. Dino Science Paleontology – Channel kids’ enthusiasm for dinosaurs to explore Earth’s prehistoric residents through five fun activities for kids ages 8–12.
  3. Crayola Critter Creator: Glow Bugs – It’s part Earth Day art project and part science project: kids use modelling clay to create detailed scorpions, spiders and other insects (or mix and match elements to create a fantastical super-bug) and then paint them with cool glow-in-the-dark paint!
  4. Explore Earth Day projects for tweens, too: let kids try out real excavation techniques as they learn about gemstones and geodes and more earth science with the Discovery Extreme Earth Exploration Kit

 

Earth Day Games for Kids

It makes perfect sense to get outside for Earth Day active games​ like freeze tag, follow-the-leader, and animal statues! But if the weather outside is less than cooperative, or if you’re looking for evergreen indoor activities on an eco-theme, try:

  1. Giant Seek & Find Animals from Around the World – This super-sized book is bursting with hidden details in nine scenes of ecosystems all around the world – a fun Earth Day game for preschoolers!
  2. Turtle Twins Mini Card Game – A vibrant matching and memory Earth Day game​ for kindergarteners.
  3. Flip & Play Topsy Turtles – In this travel-ready Earth Day game for elementary students, kids exercise their problem-solving skills while rescuing reptiles!

 

Earth Day Books for Kids

It can be challenging to find dedicated books about Earth Day for preschoolers, but there are many that zoom out to look at the creatures who share our planet, like:

  1. Bug – The sweet book for babies shows a die-cut caterpillar as it moves through its life cycle, hatching, eating, and transforming into a beautiful butterfly!
  2. Let’s Learn About Bugs – Little ones LOVE bath books and this one is extra-special: it changes colour in water, showing smiley insects in different habitats and life stages.
  3. Peek A Flap Ocean – Toddlers can lift the flaps and peek through holes to discover the animals that live deep underwater, learning fun facts and new words!
  4. Junior Encyclopedia of Animals – This Earth Day book for kindergarten​ kids is a treasure trove of critter facts for young animal lovers.
  5. Can We Really Help the Bees? – A colourful call to action for young children that explains the basics of biodiversity and empowers them to take firm action.
  6. All About Trees – A beautiful, full-colour reference book for Earth Day that includes hands-on activities and helpful vocabulary.
  7. The Ultimate Book of Planet Earth – It’s an irresistible, interactive science book loaded with flaps, tabs, wheels, and facts about geography, geology, weather, and more.

 

For slightly older kids, share books on Earth Day​ that speak to how precious and fragile our planet really is:

  1. Only One – Elementary-age kids follow a girl as she explains the uniqueness of Earth in the galaxy, ending in a tree-planting ceremony that celebrates the small acts of kindness and protection we can do for our home planet.
  2. Our Planet – This companion book to the Netflix documentary is a gem among Earth Day books: a love letter to “The One Place We All Call Home.”
  3. Can You Hear the Trees Talking? – A fascinating, interactive science book for kids ages 8–10 based on the bestseller The Hidden Life of Trees.
  4. LEGO Amazing Earth – Kids will enjoy this mashup of construction play and science, with more than 100 build ideas inspired by places, features and creatures all around the globe!
  5. Meet David Suzuki – This inspiring biography of the Canadian scientist, journalist, educator and activist is a terrific Earth Day book for kids.

 

Earth Day Puzzles

For language-based fun, check out teacher resource websites to find Earth Day word search puzzle​s and similar activities. These and Earth Day crossword puzzle​s are great ways to build kids’ science vocabularies.

For Earth Day puzzle​s that are more tactile, try eco-themed challenges like:

  1. Woodlets Lift & Look Rainforest Puzzle – Preschoolers will adore finding the perfect spot for each animal in this puzzle made from sustainably sourced wood.
  2. Fisher-Price Wooden Flower Blocks Puzzle – These nature-themed blocks are perfect for stacking and free-play, as well as for arranging in the tray to match the flower design.
  3. My First Puzzles: Where Do We Live? – A colourful collection of four Earth Day puzzles for kindergarteners featuring animals from different biomes!
  4. Ravensburger 3D Puzzle The Earth – Kids ages 12+ can challenge themselves to assemble this detailed 540-piece globe, complete with display stand.

 

 

Earth Day FAQs for Parents and Teachers of Young Children 

 

1. What are some simple Earth Day crafts I can do with preschool and kindergarten kids? 

You can create nature collages, paint with leaves, make bird feeders from recycled materials, or build paper plate Earth models. Look for crafts that use household items or things found in nature to keep it hands-on and eco-friendly. 

 

2. Are there any fun Earth Day songs or rhymes for young children? 

Yes! Many catchy songs and rhymes teach kids about recycling, loving nature, and protecting the planet. Try searching for "Earth Day songs for preschoolers" on YouTube or download lyrics and movements from teacher blogs. 

 

3. What are some easy science experiments to do with kids on Earth Day? 

Simple experiments like making a mini water cycle, planting seeds, or showing how pollution affects clean water (with food coloring and oil) are great. These activities help kids understand how nature works and why it needs protection. 

 

4. What are the best books or stories to teach young kids about Earth Day? 

Books like "The Earth Book" by Todd Parr, "I Can Save the Earth!" by Alison Inches, and "10 Things I Can Do to Help My World" by Melanie Walsh are perfect. They use colorful illustrations and simple messages to teach eco-awareness. 

 

5. How can I teach preschool and kindergarten kids about recycling and taking care of the Earth? 

Use visuals and real-life actions. Set up a pretend recycling station, go on a nature walk to collect litter, or sort trash vs. recycling items. Keep it fun and interactive, and tie the lessons into everyday life.