THIS YEAR MAKE
EARTH DAY, APRIL 22ND,
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Tips On Getting Kids Excited About Greening Our Planet Earth
This April 22nd marks the annual celebration of Earth Day, a national American and now
global expression of public will bringing together environmental activists and
the community at large, to foster respect for the planet and help create a
sustainable society. The following article provides creative ideas and suggestions for
youngsters, teens, educators and parents seeking to celebrate the
riches of our planet on Earth Day through simple,
impactive gestures at the home, school, community, civic and
political levels. The EcoMall offers the following
environmentally conscious activity ideas to celebrate Earth Day:
- Appreciate the Earth: Wake early, take a morning walk with your
children and watch the sunrise. Breathe in the morning air and focus on
the natural world around you. Reflect on the things that you love
about the earth. Write in your journal, make up a story, draw a
picture, write a poem. Think about how you as a family can preserve
and keep the earth in good health.
- Make an Earth-Day Pledge: Sit down with your family and come up
with earth-friendly resolutions you can all keep. Examples could be to
start recycling and purchasing recycled products, make the change to
non-toxic cleaners and pesticides, purchase organic produce, bike to
school or work, or become vegetarians.
- Arrange a Special Earth Day Action in Your Own Community: Plant a
tree or organize an Earth Day clean up - supply bags and pick a park,
street, or other public area and clean it up. Host a recycling event
or organize a drop off site for toxic materials such as batteries and
paint cans. Set up a table in a public place and let people know how
you feel about taking care of the earth. Set up a compost
demonstration alongside a plant sale.
- Beautify Your Schools: Participants can prepare garden beds and
children can plant flowers at a later date. Have volunteers bring
garden tools. Ask for landscaper and Master Gardener volunteers to
help oversee this project. Plant a tree at the school.
- Green Your Schools: Talk to school administrators about changing
over to non-toxic cleaners, serving organic milk, food and juice, and
using recycled, non-toxic school supplies. Have your school conduct an
energy audit. Ask them to incorporate environmental themes and
activities into the school’s curriculum.
- Organize an Eco-field Trip: Plan a trail walk through a park, a
visit to a nature center, organic farm, science museum, your local
recycling plant, landfill, or water reservoir.
- Plan an Earth Day Event : Write and perform an Earth Day play,
organize an Earth Day Music Concert or Earth Day Art Show. Have an
Eco-Fashion show, demonstrating clothes made from hemp and organic
cotton. Organize an organic picnic - invite friends for lunch in the
park on the grass with only organic foods. Get the local schools
involved in their own special events with the kids. Your school can
make a sculpture of recycled materials, or individual classes or
individual children can create their own recycled art projects.
Create an Earth Day mural.
- Support Pro-Earth Groups : Plan an Earth Day walk-a-thon or
clean-up-a-thon. Take financial pledges from people to sponsor you for
each mile you walk or each garbage bag you fill. Donate the money to a
reputable environmental agency or use the money for local
beautification. Adopt a park, playground, or street. Adopt an
endangered animal from an environmental organization.
- Shop Green: Use your purchasing power to support environmentally
friendly companies and products by doing your shopping on-line, which
cuts out pollution from car travel and the waste of paper catalogs. To
browse hundreds of earth-friendly companies offering everything from
non-toxic household cleaners, organic and hemp clothing, natural body
care, energy efficient products to recycled paper and more, shop around here at the EcoMall web site.
- Reduce Waste: Clean out your closets and bring things that you no
longer need to a thrift shop. Don't throw things away! Instead, have
a swap meet and trade clothes, toys, and books with your friends.
Make a list of disposable items that you can do without. Take a
grocery store tour and learn how to purchase products that have little
or no packaging, organic produce, and products made of recycled
materials.
- Take Action! Write a letter with your children to the President or
your local, state or federal government representatives asking them to
focus on a particular environmental issue. Write to a corporation and
congratulate them on their "good" environmental practices or ask them
to clean up their act.
©EcoMall
Special thanks to: Carol Baxter (Teaching Green).
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