5 Earth Day Projects for Kindergarten

Inside: Looking for some engaging Earth Day projects for kindergarten kids? Try these 5 ideas to encourage a sense of responsibility and love for our planet.

Let’s Celebrate Earth Day!

Young children are naturally drawn to nature and can be taught at an early age how to care for and appreciate the natural resources around them. Use these 5 Earth Day projects with kindergarten kids to launch an environmentally conscious attitude that will last all year long.

And be sure to check out the bonus Every Day, Earth Day projects at the bottom for some earth friendly habits you might incorporate into your kindergarten classroom routines.

5 Earth Day Projects for Kindergarten

Earth Day Museum

Invite kids to bring in a “piece of the Earth,” to share with the class. This might be a rock, flower, stick, or seashell that they treasure. Ask children to share why they chose that artifact and to tell why it is important to our Earth and to us.

Create a “museum” of these objects and have kids write to tell why they “treasure” this natural object.

Upcycle Projects

Involve kids in a “trash to treasure” Upcycle Project where they learn how to transform an object, such as a milk carton, water bottle, paper tube, or egg carton, to create something new.

Invite them to begin by drawing a design of their idea and list materials that they might need for their project. Let kids know that they are free to alter the object in any way, by cutting off parts or adding things to it.

Provide time for each child to share their project and to tell how they got their idea and what steps they took to make it. Display the projects on a shelf and invite others to view their creations.

Earth Superheroes

Take kids on a Virtual Field Trip to Earth Academy where they will unlock the top-secret training needed to become an Earth Hero, whose mission is to protect and defend our planet. Create different environmental tasks that children will enjoy completing before graduating form Earth Academy and taking an Earth Hero pledge.

Read more about Earth Day Superheroes: A Kindergarten Earth Day Project.

The Earth is In Our Hands

Help children realize their personal responsibility to care for the Earth by teaching them the song, We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands. Invite kids to take turns inserting the names of beloved plants and animals into the song (i.e. We’ve got the trees and puppies in our hands) while the whole class sings the song with the new verse.

Kids can create Earth art to go with the song by cutting out a white circle, placing it inside a box, squirting on some blue and green paint, and rolling marbles over the surface to mix the colors.

Earth Day Clean Up Project

Help children care for their school environment by taking an Earth Day Clean Up Walk. While on the walk, ask them to also observe and count the number of trash/recycling bins located on the property.

After the walk, work together with them to sort the trash into four groups: recycle, reuse, trash, or compost to learn personal responsibility for trash disposal. 

Go Green Posters

Help children learn what it means to “go green,” by reading books such as Our Class is Going Green written by a class of kindergarten kids or Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green by Eileen Spinelli.

Then let children create their own “going green” posters using various shades of green paint and paper.

Every Day, Earth Day Projects for Kindergarten

While it’s wonderful to celebrate Earth Day with projects that encourage children to think about ways to care for their planet, it’s equally important to develop classroom routines and habits that help children live out their responsibility to take care of our Earth every day of the year. Here are a few things you might try:

• Make it a practice to bring a trash bag with you when you go to the playground or take a walk. Pick up any trash you see along the way. Be sure to talk with kids about the kinds of trash they should not pick up (i.e. needles, weapons, etc.) and make sure they wash their hands when they return to the classroom.
• Set up a Classroom Makerspace where kids can use discarded materials for building and upcycling projects and challenges. Families are happy to send in paper tubes, egg cartons, tissue boxes, or pieces of cardboard that the kids can use in their creations.

• Create a nature table, shelf, or tray in your Science Center for kids to display natural objects they bring in from home. Create labels, “Touch” and “No Touch” and let children choose which is best for their object. This area can be changed out seasonally and children can use magnifying glasses to look closely at the objects and sketch exactly what they see.

• Continue to positively reinforce any “Earth Hero” behavior you see in kids and highlight these acts during morning meeting or create a bulletin board display around this.
• Make “Earth Steward” one of your classroom jobs whose role is to care for classroom pets, empty the recycling bin each day, and check to make sure the water and lights are turned off when they are not in use.

For more Earth Day ideas, check out The Green Project and Earth Heroes: A Kindergarten Earth Day Project.