Earth day, every day! GRAND ways to celebrate!
- Apr 15
- 9 min read
Updated: Apr 24
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
WELCOME BACK TO OUR GRAND LIVES!
🩵 💚 🩵
Springtime is such a wonderful time of the year to spend with children
and neither of us can think of anything more fun than
sharing the beauty of nature with our grandkids,
or, as we call them in this blog, our Littles.
We love sharing simple ways to engage with the precious little ones in our lives
as well as find ways to support and celebrate life with our own grown children…
All while fully appreciating this GRAND stage of life!
THANKS FOR JOINING US ON THIS JOURNEY!
EARTH DAY IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!
It takes place each year, on April 22,
and it’s the perfect opportunity to pay a little extra attention
to the world around us!
In honor of Earth Day, we’re highlighting the topic in today’s post
by sharing a few ways to celebrate our beautiful planet
with the Littles in our lives!
Earth Day provides a chance to step outside,
notice the small things we might usually overlook,
and think about the ways we care for the spaces we live in every day.
Whether it’s trying something new,
beginning a habit that might make all the difference,
or just spending time outdoors,
Earth Day gives us an easy, meaningful reason
to slow down and appreciate the environment we’re a part of.
This annual event first began on April 22, 1970, in the United States.
It's focus has always been
to remind us of ways to care for our environment and help it thrive!
The theme for Earth Day 2026 is
Our Power, Our Planet!
What a befitting message
as it also reflects our investment,
as Grands,
in our own children’s and grandchildren’s futures!
After all, it is never too early to start teaching Littles about our planet
and ways we can help protect and preserve it!
Our ideas are all suited for families OR grandparents/grandkids to do together
AND
many are appropriate for school-aged, preschool or even toddler Littles!
In fact, be sure to check out our Toddler Tips along the way!
Each idea shared will provide a fun and engaging way
to celebrate Earth Day together!
🌎 An Earth Day Treasure Hunt! 🌎
Laurie’s Littles, who are ages 2 ½ and 4 ½ right now,
are really into treasure/scavenger hunts
so she decided to create this fun activity for them!.
Little D and Little P love to hear clues and figure out where to find new ones
and they also love putting jigsaw puzzles, too!
With this in mind, I decided to fall back on what they love best
and use these ideas as a base for their learning!.
THE PREP
I looked for a simple printable puzzle on Google and found a picture of this cute earth one on this site (I had searched “Earth Puzzle Pieces Kids Activities”). I took a screenshot of the image, printed it on cardstock, and cut out each puzzle piece.
NOTE: Kids Activities Blog is a great resource for finding free printables!
I inserted each piece into an envelope, and started to work on my clues.
I wanted to use this as a teaching hunt, so I planned for it to take place outside and wrote clues about things that would help our earth, each geared to their age levels. I glued one clue on the outside of each envelope. The first clue was not on an envelope - just a piece of paper, and the last envelope did not contain a puzzle piece.
That last clue simply said “Go put your Earth Day puzzle together!”
Then I hid the clues outside, making sure my Littles had to run back and forth between the front and back yard as they burned off energy!
THE ACTIVITY
I wasn’t sure how much understanding my Littles had about Earth Day so I started by sharing a book with them that I think is a perfect fit for young children!
Here’s a link to a Youtube version of the story!
As another option, in preparation of the activity, you could simply talk about what Earth Day is, look at pictures in books or on the computer, and share what your family does to take care of the earth.
I had tucked the first clue of our hunt in the end of the book, and my Littles were thrilled when it fell out.
Off they go on another hunt!
As the Littles found each envelope, they handed it to me. I read the clue and held on to the envelope.
The last clue said it was time to put the puzzle together.
We went into the house and completed it.
This activity was such a fun way to spend some time outside,
enjoying our beautiful earth together!
(Plus now my Littles know where our outside recycling bin is!!)
🌎 Earth Day Clean Up! 🌎
This is probably the most basic and simple Earth Day activity. Yet it can have a huge impact, especially if taken on as a family!!
Head outside and clean up your yard, your neighborhood, a nearby park or any outside area you choose! You could also check your local newspaper or city website to see if there is a community clean up scheduled that your family could participate in!
Grab a big bag for your group or enough smaller bags so that each person has one. If you have gloves, bring them, too and then go in search of litter!
You could have a contest to see who picks up the most trash OR you can sort the litter collected, putting trash in one bag and recyclables in another!
🌎 An Earth Day Suncatcher! 🌎
This suncatcher is a wonderful reminder of Earth Day and is so simple to create! It does require some prep ahead of time though, so beware of that! Depending on the age of your Little, he or she may need some extra guidance from you.
SUPPLIES NEEDED
• 2 pieces of clear contact paper (about 12” in size)
• 1 piece black construction paper (to be cut into a circle frame)
• Small pieces of green & blue tissue paper, cut to about 1” or so
• Scissors
OPTIONAL - Piece of ribbon, twine or string (to hang your suncatcher)
PREP AHEAD OF TIME
Make a circle frame out of the black paper, as shown above.
If not done yet, cut the tissue paper into small pieces, about 1”.
Peel 1 sheet of clear contact paper.
Place the paper STICKY SIDE UP!
Place the black circle frame in the center of the sticky contact paper.
DIRECTIONS
Now let your Little(s) have fun adding the tissue paper squares inside the black frame, filling the space. Your Little(s) can overlap the squares, filling as much of the area inside the frame as possible. As they work, help your Little(s) as needed and spend time talking about how this project reminds us of our planet Earth, with the green squares for the land covering the Earth and the blue ones representing the water!
Once the frame is completely filled with tissue paper, peel the second piece of contact paper and place the STICKY SIDE DOWN on top of the tissue paper pieces. This will seal all the papers in place.
Then trim around the frame, cutting away the excess contact paper. As an optional final step, you can punch a hole at the top of the project and add a string for hanging OR you can simply tape the artwork to a window as we did. (Please ignore the dusting of snow in the background... We are doing our best to do so! 😳)
SUCH A LOVELY REMINDER OF OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET!
🌎 Sorting Waste Together! 🌎
This was a powerful activity that Laura did each year with her kindergarten class.
We’d lay out a big waterproof tablecloth or piece of plastic and then dump our class waste cans on the floor. We’d then sort the items into different piles - those with items we could (1) reuse or (2) recycle or (3) compost. After sorting this way, we’d see how much we actually had left to throw away. Everyone was always amazed at how much of our waste was reduced by doing this!
Imagine doing this activity with your own Littles, using your family’s weekly trash to do so! You could even take it a step further with older children and sort the recycled pile into different groups - plastic, paper, metal and glass! And… if you compost, be sure to show your Littles your set up! They will be so intrigued by it all! As an extended activity challenge yourselves to a “Zero Waste Challenge” between households and check in on each others’ progress each week!
🌎 A Recycled Art Gallery! 🌎
This fun and simple activity will stretch your LIttles’ imaginations! All you need is clean recyclable items from around your house. Check out your recycling bin to see what you have! Give each Little 3-5 items and encourage them to build - anything - everything! Let their imaginations soar!
Some suggestions for items are boxes (empty food boxes, toothpaste, Kleenex, etc) cans, plastic bottles or milk jugs, paper towel or toilet paper tubes, large sheets of newspaper. The list goes on!
Your Littles may also need tape (masking tape seems to work the best), glue or glue sticks, markers, crayons, construction paper (and perhaps help with a stapler)!
Look at all the materials collected for a special project
created by one of Laurie's Littles….
This is a Spring Maker created by Little M!
"It sucks up the winter and spits out the spring!"
WHAT AN IMAGINATION!
🌎 And Finally… 🌎
A Few of Our Favorite Earth Day Stories!
You all know how much we love snuggling up with our Littles and a good story! In addition to The Earth Book highlighted earlier in the post, here are 3 more of our favorite children’s books that celebrate Earth Day! (We’ve provided two links for each book - one providing details about the book from Amazon and the other, a Youtube read along option!)
by Mercer Mayer (All Ages)
(Youtube link here)
by Alison Inches (All Ages)
(Youtube link here)
by April Pulley Sayre (Elementary Age)
(Youtube link here)
AND AS AN ADDED BONUS…
by Dr. Seuss (All Ages)
(Youtube link here)
As you can see, there are A LOT of ways
to celebrate Earth Day with your Littles!
However, the MOST IMPORTANT resource you can share with those Littles
is your own love and appreciation of this planet we call home… Earth! ♥️
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so please feel free to comment at the end of this post!
We’ll be back later this week with a new edition of our monthly feature…
OUR CHOICE THIS MONTH MAY SURPRISE YOU!
While we always look forward to celebrating Earth Day - in past years with a classroom filled with eager 5-year-olds and now as GRANDS to our curious Littles, we also know that the focus of Earth Day must extend much, much further - into our daily lives! So, while the activities we shared today can certainly be done on or around Earth Day, they are also great experiences to participate in any day of the year!
We each have a voice and a responsibility to help take care of our Earth! By investing our time, energy and efforts into protecting our planet and conserving its resources we can ensure that its beauty - God’s amazing creation - is here for future generations to come! Sounds like the best kind of investment to us!
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING SITES FOR FEATURING OUR POST!
Busy Monday from A Pinch of Joy
Senior Salon Pit Stop from Scratch Made Food for Hungry People
Share Your Style from French Ethereal
Homestead Blog Hop from Ridge Haven Homestead
Homestead Blog Hop from Houseful of Nicholes
Homestead Blog Hop from The Cape Coop Farm
Homestead Blog Hop from Simple Life Mom
A Morning Cup of Joe from The Cottage Market
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EArth day ahs passed us by since we moved back to the UK, it was a big deal in both South Africa and the UAE and we joined in with it with a variety of activities. My favourite was a candle light celebration in a local park in Duabi, bring your own candle, arrive on foot, bring a picnic and listen to local music. In the UK i don't think it was even mentioned on the news. Thanks for joining in with #pocolo
I love these ideas! What great ways to remember Earth Day and love our Mother. :) The suncatcher is darling. Thanks so much for sharing this post with us at the Will Blog for Comments #82 linkup.
What fun ways to celebrate Earth Day! This is definitely one of the things I miss about not being in school anymore. Our FLS and AVLS kids loved "planting" seeds in wet cottonballs which we hung on our classroom windows to get sunlight. Last year, we were able to plant them into plastic pots I brought into the classroom and then they took their grown seedlings home! It's the fun craft and science ideas that I always loved as a kid and I'm sure your kids and grands love, too.
So happy to have shared for y'all this week at Share Your Style #495,
Hugs,
Barb :)
Your grandchildren are truly blessed! What a fun way to celebrate Earth Day
Wow! So many cute ideas for Earth Day. Your grands are such lucky children to have you be a huge part of their lives! #MMBC