Happy Earth Day!
Around one billion people choose to recognize Earth Day on April 22nd every year! The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. It was to inspire people to protect our environments and take care of the planet that we share.
Common Earth Day activities include: trash pickup, planting trees, and cleaning coral reefs. Small, daily ways to help keep the Earth healthy and clean include: recycling, turning off lights when not in use, using less water, and thinking of ways to create less waste.
Check out this blog for more information on Earth day and a fun activity to work on language development.
Learning Through Nature
Utilizing nature for learning can provide great benefits such as, more physical movement, lessened levels of stress, higher levels of interest and enjoyment, as well as higher levels of creativity. Nature play promotes growth for physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development for children and adults. Interacting with natural settings allows for learning by doing and experimenting with different ideas.
Planting a Seed
The plant a seed activity is designed to target sequencing, vocabulary, sensory play, cause-effect, and fine motor skills. Print this activity sheet and follow the steps to plant. Talk about each step then ask your child/children to recall the steps by themselves. Some ways to make the activity more enriching and interactive are as follows:
- Allow the child/children to accompany an adult to purchase or find seeds. Read the packets to learn how to care for the chosen plant.
- Watch the suggested read-aloud book before starting the activity
- Plant multiple seeds and place the pots in different areas (i.e. outside, in closet, window sill) and discuss how or why they turn out differently.
- Allow child/children to personalize the pot or container with paint
- Take pictures on a phone or camera while completing each step and use them to practice recalling the activity when finished.
Additional Resources
- Free Print-Plant a Seed Mini Book
- Lola Plants a Garden YouTube Read-Aloud
- Garden Themed Activities by KidsGardening.org
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