Kids' Activities for Going Green

You can motivate children to recycle and care about the environment.

Kids are passionate about all sorts of things, but you can help them channel their passion toward taking care of the environment. Doing fun activities with them, whether in the classroom or at home, will help them understand why taking care of the world around them is essential. These activities can show kids that they can make a difference.

Waste-Free Lunch Week

Kids in a single class may enjoy the challenge of having a waste-free lunch week. They would have to make several changes in the foods they usually bring to school. Instead of using a brown lunch bag, they would use a reusable fabric lunch sack or lunchbox; instead of plastic baggies for sandwiches and snacks, they should use hard plastic containers. They would bring a thermos for a drink instead of a juice box, use a metal spoon instead of a plastic one and try to choose foods with as little packaging as possible. Show students the difference in the amount of garbage they produce during the waste-free lunch week and on a normal week.

Business Pledges

Kids can truly make a difference by doing this activity. They can write letters to businesses in the community encouraging them to make a pledge toward improving the environment. In the letter, students can make a list of possible pledges that the business might make, such as instituting a certain recycling program, conserving a particular resource or buying recycled goods. If students are able to publish the names of businesses that have made a pledge, they will be likely to convince many businesses to do so.

Environmental Art

Children with a flair for art can use their artwork to help the environment. Some students may enjoy creating their own posters encouraging environmentally sound practices. Others may create cartoons for a school (or local) newspaper to print. They may also create art out of various recycled items and display them at a community event to show how items can be reused. Kids will be overjoyed to see how good artwork can make people pay attention to the message that it sends.

Conservation Experiments and Research

Kids who like science may prefer doing experiments and research about ways conserve material. For example, they might conduct an experiment to see whether a bath or a shower uses more water, which materials disintegrate the fastest when buried or which car gets the best mileage for its gas. They can also do research to figure out the most energy-efficient light bulbs, the effect of detergents on the environment, and when leaving the car running is more efficient than turning it off and on again.

References

• Children of the Earth: Environmental Pledges: Writing Letters to Local Businesses
• Children of the Earth: Waste-Free Lunch Week
• KinderArt: Recycling Lessons and Activities