The children are the future, and the best time to instill the importance of environmental conservation in them is as soon as possible. This can be done as early as pre-school, and if you are wondering how preschools care for Earth Day, here are some fun and interactive ideas that you can do with the little ones to create awareness of the importance of mother earth. Everything is still new and exciting to little minds, so anything you choose to do will be sure to put a smile on their little faces and get them humming with excitement. Remember, children do not understand the dilemmas of global warming, draughts and the dire consequences thereof. Instead of making the activities scary and serious, be sure rather to put an element of fun and creativity in them – this will be fun for everyone!
ACTIVITIES
There are of course many other activities you can try, but these are some ideas as to what to do for Earth Day in preschool care:
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For the budding, little chefs, cookies with green and blue coloring will be a great activity, and a great snack for afterwards too! Some white icing will sure do the trick for some clouds to make the cookies look like the Earth
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How about trying some exercise?
Nature yoga will get their bodies moving and is healthy for their overall relaxation – pssst: will come in handy for when nap time comes and teacher or mom needs a break! You can do a tree pose, rock pose, or even make poses up – water flow dances and dancing with the wind are also fun ideas.
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Get some classroom visitors
Anyone who deals with plants or nature, such as your local garden shop assistant, a farmer, or someone who works at a nature reserve. Have them come talk to the kids about nature conservation.
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Take a Cleanup Stroll
There is also of course taking walks outside and picking up all the unnecessary waste that damages our earth. Have them bring bags along and help them identify what is “good” and “bad” waste. Help them distinguish between leaves, rocks and stray bird feathers for example, and normal waste that belongs in the bins. Let them pick up the “bad” waste and throw this in the bags.
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Alternatively, stay indoors and get arty!
Kids love getting creative and dirty and this is good for them too, so let them experiment and play around with dough. Help them to shape and form anything about the earth that they themselves can think of. This can be anything from rocks, to a leaf, the sun and flowers or plants
Of course, you can also choose to have a talk in the classroom about the earth and earth day. Explain to them what earth day means. Go a step further by creating a recycled bin in the classroom for the whole year. Plant a tree or a plant on school grounds or in the classroom, give it a name and then let each child have the responsibility of taking care of it each week or day, with your assistance. This creates awareness about the importance of earth day the whole year round because it’s an interactive activity where they can participate, ask questions, give answers and draw a picture about what they learnt afterwards.