Earth Day is for Sorting (the Trash)

There is nothing like a real world activity to teach and target our little ones language and concepts.

Earth day is the perfect opportunity to talk about why we need to keep our planet green and ways to do it. Different activities can be used to target vocabulary, answering simple wh- questions, classification, and more. The most popular activity I've discovered is sorting a pile of trash and recycling items.

So how do we know what needs to be recycled? The CalRecylce site will give you a refresher on what can and can't be recycled. For this activity, I suggest keeping it simple. The categories I like to have my kids sort into are:

Plastic     Metal     Paper     Organic     Trash

For little ones, first define each of those terms. How do we know something is made of plastic? Is it clear and bendable? What does organic mean? Was it something we ate? Does it grow in the ground? Now decide. Put it in the trash? Recycle? What's it made of? A great opportunity for critical thinking would be to ask can we save it? Can it be reused?

One of my favorite activities is a bird feeder made out of cartons or plastic bottles. I prefer to make something useable that is also an art activity. That way it serves a function without needing to be displaying the children's art museum that is my house.

If you can't do it with real garbage or if your kids are so into sorting (time to recruit them for chores), use this cut and sort activity.

And here in the Bay area, it's going to be another beautiful weekend. There are a plethora of Earth Day events to choose from if you want to spend it outside. Here are some:

Earth Day in Santa Cruz - April 18
Earth Day at the San Francisco Zoo - April 19
Muir Woods Free Admission Day - April 18-19
Earth Day Celebrations - Los Altos Hills, April 26

Happy Earth Day!
Michelle Lachman
Schedule your free consultation today: 1.408.365.4423 / mlachman.speech@gmail.com