At Wonder Bunch, we are always on the lookout for ways to educate and excite kids about the wonderful world all around them! As Earth Day approaches, we wanted to share a few fun ideas for creating opportunities for conversations about conservation. Your little ones are blossoming with ideas, and coaxing out cures for climate change and pollution starts with getting them excited about being the change! Today, we’re sharing 10 fun activities you can share with your little ones to make the world a little more beautiful this Earth Day!
Choose from more than a dozen pledges, from vowing to ditch single-use plastics to becoming a citizen scientist, and find simple, manageable changes your children can incorporate into their everyday lives. The pledge page isn’t just a promise, but an action-focused community supporting its members to create impactful changes for good.
CREATE AN EARTH DAY MENU
This one can range from simple to a little more research and labor-intensive. Plan your Earth Day menu with sustainably sourced foods, local produce and eggs, and even edible flowers. Not sure which petals are palatable? We’ve got you covered! First, if you’re plucking these posies yourself, be sure they’re sourced from an area clean of pesticides and herbicides. Weed killer doesn’t just harm weeds, but bees, bunnies, and any humans who happen to ingest it. Edible flowers, many of which provide a host of health benefits, include:
Dandelions
Hibiscus
Lavender
Honeysuckle
Squash Blossoms
Pansies and
Chamomile
Many people opt to brew their blossoms into teas, serve them in a salad, or coat them in honey or maple syrup and bake them for a sweet treat that’s almost too pretty to eat! We found this cool post from MommyPotomous with step by step instructions for making your own Dandelion Tea!https://mommypotamus.com/dandelion-tea/
A NATURE SCAVENGER HUNT
Spend the day outdoors, and take the opportunity to show your children nature from a new perspective! Challenge your children to find things they’ve maybe never noticed about nature, and let them challenge you back. For very young children, keep the hunt simple. Find five green things, four things that smell nice, three yellow things, twoanimals, and one thing you can climb. For older kids, ramp up the challenge! Find leaves from three different trees, spot two different breeds of bird, find tenthings animals eat. Being aware of the beautiful world around us the first step in wanting to protect it, and raising nature lovers ensures a whole generation of conservation artists!
RECYCLE, DONATE & GREEN YOUR SHOPPING
Last month, Wonder Bunch shared ideas for upcycling, recycling, and repurposing your children’s retired wardrobe. Revisit our ideas here, and take a peek at some earth-friendly kids’ clothing stores where you can sustainably source your summer styles!
ATTEND THE SUMMIT
This year, the Earth Day Summit will take place virtually, connecting even more members across the country. Hear from insightful and inspiring speakers like Jane Goodall, Alexandra Cousteau, and Dolores Huerta about the threats facing the environment, and why this decade is our opportunity to turn climate change around. The summit takes place on April 21 at 10am Pacific time.
BUILD YOUR OWN BIRD FEEDER
Such a simple, nature-friendly craft that you probably already have all of the supplies for. You’ll need:
Nut butter of any kind
Sunflower seeds, crushed almonds, or bird seed. **Important note: If your children have nut allergies, use caution exposing them to bird feed, as many contain tree nuts.
A pinecone
Strong string
Tie about an inch of your string near the top row of your pinecone. You should leave enough string to tie your bird feeder to a low-hanging branch or from your porch or deck. Warm your nut butter just enough to make it spreadable without becoming hot enough to burn little fingers. Once the butter has loosened up just a bit, let your little one finger paint it onto the pinecone. Roll the bird feed or crushed nuts onto the nut butter, and hang your zero-waste bird feeder where your children will be able to see the birds enjoy their handiwork!
LIGHTS OUT!
Plan an electricity-free day in your home. This will look different for every family, of course, many of whom have electricity-reliant lives. But every item you can unplug is a little sigh of relief for Mother Nature. Vow to keep the lights off (this will be easier as the sun sets later and your littles will likely be in bed before it’s truly dark) and go screen-free for the day. Plan a no-cook dinner, like sandwiches, wraps, or salads and have a picnic. Cut your family’s water waste for the day using leftover bath water to flush the toilet and the water you washed dishes in to water the garden. See how much you can cut from just one day and then consider ways your family might make a weekly habit of small conservation efforts!
FREE STEM PROJECT
We LOVE Little Bins for Little Hands, and they’re offering free printable STEM activities for your family this Earth Day! Be sure to swing over to their page and browse their extensive list of STEM projects and experiments, which are all educational, beautiful, and loads of fun for kids of all ages! You can create your own bee habitat, upcycle artwork, and have fun with cool earth-friendly sensory play. Start an Indoor Garden Start your seedling, build an edible garden, and kick off your family’s compost adventure with help from Wonder Bunch. We love our little sproutlings, and there’s still time to start your sugar snap, sweet pepper, and herb gardens as an Earth Day celebration!
CLEANUP CREW
Grab some gloves, garbage bags, and the kids you love and head out into your neighborhood, local park, or even a nearby school yard. Take before and after pictures of your cleanup and show your children just how much powerful change they’re capable of. The world was a more beautiful place the moment your child entered it. Teach them to spread that beauty wherever they go by keeping the world a cleaner, greener, healthier place not just on Earth Day, but every day!
Wonder Bunch is proud of the work we do to create safe online spaces for your little ones, and is working hard to create a safer world for them as well! If you have ideas for us and the families we serve to green our routine or want to share your Earth Day activities with us, leave us a comment, tag us on Instagram @Wonder_Bunch_Media, or email us at Hello@WonderBunch.Com
We know we say this often, but we are not app experts by any stretch of the imagination! We are just parents who wanted better, and who are learning more every day. We rely heavily...
We started seeing last minute shopping notices two weeks ago, and we brushed them off without thinking twice! Now that we're just ten days away from Christmas, that "last minute" moniker is starting to feel...
