April is one of the best months of the year because there is so much to celebrate! It’s the arrival of spring which usually means the sun is coming back out, we get to celebrate Easter, and we get to celebrate Earth Day!
This year, Earth Day is on Friday, April, 22. Earth Day is the anniversary of the environmental movement in 1970. We have come a long way with technological advancements but that means we have also learned a lot about what is harming our environment. Earth Day is a great opportunity to teach our students the importance of conservation efforts, the things we do that can harm the environment, and how we can make a difference.
This is the time of year that teachers pull out those fun Earth Day crafts or Earth Day projects so that we can make sure students understand why it is such an important day.
If you are looking for Earth Day activities for kids, you’re in the right place. I absolutely love stem activities because of the hands-on and creative aspects. So, I created some activities that would be perfect Earth Day stem activities!
Check out my favorite Earth Day activities for elementary
Wind Car STEM Activity
Based on the book If I Built A Car by Chris Van Dusen, I created this activity to get students engaged in creating their very own (environmentally friendly!) wind car.
This is a fun team-building activity that gets students thinking critically as they design and build a car after reading the book. STEM Wind Car Lab is an activity that engages students in thinking through the Engineering Next Generation Science Standards. It can be used any time of the year or used as an Earth Day or spring challenge!
Students plan and construct a wind car using only a few productive resources. Economics is integrated into the lab through discussions and understanding of scarcity, human, natural, and capital resources. Students collect the data on the distance their cars traveled. Through this experience, students will learn many concepts as they are engaged in a fun activity!
This makes the perfect Earth Day activity for schools because students will have to think critically about the materials they are using and how they will impact the environment. It’s so fun to see what students come up with when they really put their minds to it.
Another activity that is perfect for this time of year is my Kite STEM Challenge.
This is another great activity connected to a book. You can do this activity after reading Iqbal by Francesco D’Adamo or it can be a stand-alone STEM Challenge. This challenge will engage your students as they learn about kites, design, and test their kites. Students will construct kites after they research them. It takes them through the Engineering Process as they build and test their kites using various materials to construct them.
I hope you love these STEM activities as much as I do! What are your favorite Earth Day activities for kids? Let me know in the comments!
For more Earth Day activities for elementary, check out my post here!
