10 Earth Day Crafts for Preschoolers (Easy Ideas)

Start here: three Earth Day crafts that always work

Coffee filter earthScribble, spray, watch it turn into EarthNature paint brushesGrass and leaves as brushes, no cleanupKindness rocksPaint a rock, leave it for someone

10 Earth Day crafts for preschoolers, with pictures

1. Egg carton flowers

The child paints cut-out egg carton cups in bright colours and attaches them to straw or pipe cleaner stems to make a bouquet.

You need: egg carton cups, paint, flat buttons, green pipe cleaners, glue

How to make it

1. You cut the cups apart. Your child paints them inside and out. Let them dry.
2. Glue 1 button flat in the bottom of each cup as the centre.
3. Make a hole in the bottom of each cup and push a green pipe cleaner through. Bend it over as a stem.

2. Painted flower pot

The child paints or fingerprints a small terracotta pot and plants a flower or seeds in it as a gift.

You need: 1 small terracotta pot, paint in a few colours, potting soil

How to make it

1. Your child paints the outside of the pot. Let it dry.
2. Press fingertip dots around the side in other colours.
3. When dry, fill the pot with soil up to below the rim.

3. Coffee filter earth

The child scribbles blue and green on a coffee filter and sprays it so it blends into a planet Earth.

You need: 1 round white coffee filter, blue washable marker, green washable marker, spray bottle of water, 1 sheet of black paper, glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles large patches of blue and smaller patches of green on the filter.
2. Spray it with water so the colors bleed together.
3. Let it dry flat.
4. Glue the dry filter in the middle of the black paper.

4. Egg carton caterpillar

The child paints a strip of egg carton cups, then pokes in pipe cleaner antennae and adds eyes.

You need: 1 strip of 5 joined egg carton cups, green paint, 2 googly eyes, 2 short red pipe cleaner pieces, glue

How to make it

1. Turn the strip upside down so the cups make bumps in a row.
2. Your child paints it green all over. Let it dry.
3. Glue 2 eyes on the front of the first cup.
4. Make 2 holes in the top of the first cup and poke the red pipe cleaners through as antennae.

5. Eggshell caterpillar garden

The child fills a row of eggshell halves in a carton with soil and cress or grass seed, adds a face, and watches the caterpillar grow green hair.

You need: a strip of egg carton cups, eggshell halves, potting soil, cress seed, 2 googly eyes, 1 green pipe cleaner

How to make it

1. Set one eggshell half, open side up, in each cup.
2. Spoon soil into each shell to below its rim, sprinkle with cress seed and water lightly.
3. Stick 2 googly eyes on the front of the shell at one end.
4. Bend the pipe cleaner into a V and push it into the soil of that shell as antennae.
5. Wait for the sprouts.

6. Handprint Earth paper plate

The child paints a paper plate blue and green as the Earth, and a handprint or traced hands 'hold' it.

You need: 1 paper plate, blue and green paint, light brown paper, pencil, glue

How to make it

1. Your child paints the plate blue with a big brush.
2. While wet, dab and smear green on top in rough patches as land. Let it dry.
3. Trace your child's two hands on the brown paper. You cut them out.
4. Glue one hand behind the lower left edge of the plate and one behind the lower right, fingers up, so the hands hold the Earth.

Free · 30 questions · about 4 minutes Is your child on track for kindergarten? Answer 30 questions about what your child does today, and you get a report like this one: Every area at a glance: strong, on track, or worth a little time The one or two areas to focus on first Simple things to do at home for each area How many months you have until kindergarten starts Get my child's free report →

7. Pinecone bird feeder

The child spreads nut or seed butter on a pinecone, rolls it in birdseed and hangs it outside.

You need: 1 large pinecone, sunflower seed butter, mixed birdseed, 1 piece of twine

How to make it

1. You tie the twine around the top of the pinecone and knot it into a hanging loop.
2. Your child spreads seed butter over the scales of the pinecone.
3. Pour the birdseed on a plate. Your child rolls the pinecone in it until seeds stick all over.
4. Hang it outside from a branch.

8. Nature paint brushes

The child collects leaves, grass and flowers to make home-made brushes, then paints with these.

You need: 3 twigs about as long as a pencil, thin brown sewing thread, a small bunch of leaves, a small bunch of grass, dandelion, red, blue and yellow paint

How to make it

1. Lay the 3 twigs side by side.
2. You tie the leaves to the end of the first twig, winding thread in one narrow band, then knot and trim. Tie the grass to the second and the dandelion to the third the same way.
3. Pour the paint on a plate.
4. Your child paints something wonderful.

9. Kindness rocks

The child paints smooth stones with bright colours and simple hearts or smiles and leaves them for someone to find.

You need: 3 smooth rounded stones, acrylic paint in a few colours, black acrylic paint, paintbrush

How to make it

1. Wash and dry the stones.
2. Your child paints the first stone one colour. Let it dry, then paint 2 black dots and a curved black line on top as a smiley face.
3. Paint the second stone, let it dry, then paint a heart in the middle.
4. Paint thick stripes on the third stone.

10. Letter T tree

The child glues a brown T to paper as a trunk and covers the top bar with green paper, torn tissue or fingerprint leaves.

You need: brown paper, green tissue paper, light blue paper, glue

How to make it

1. You cut a large capital T from brown paper.
2. Your child glues it upright on the light blue sheet.
3. Scrunch the green tissue into small balls.
4. Glue the balls all along the top bar of the T as leaves. Leave the stem bare as the trunk.

Nothing matches that filter. Clear it and try again.

Earth day crafts for toddlers: the 2 a young three can do

Two of these a young three can do almost alone: Coffee filter earth, Nature paint brushes. No exact cutting, no small pieces, and the glue stick does the rest. For the others, you cut and they glue.

Earth Day crafts with a 3 year old, mostly outside

Start with the coffee filter earth. Blue and green markers, a spray bottle, a tray. The colors blend into a planet while the child watches, and the filter dries in the window.

A three year old can scribble, spray, paint rocks and paint with grass brushes. Pushing pipe cleaners into the egg carton caterpillar, cutting the egg carton cups and filling the eggshells with soil need an adult.

The recycled part is the lesson: egg cartons, coffee filters, pinecones and stones, nothing bought. Let the child pick the materials out of the recycling bin.

The bird feeder goes on a branch, the kindness rocks go on a neighbor's step, and the caterpillar garden sits on the sill for two weeks while the grass grows. The letter T tree ties in the T sound.

More crafts for preschoolers

• Spring crafts for preschoolers
• Flower crafts for preschoolers
• Garden and plant crafts for preschoolers
• Recycling crafts for preschoolers
• April crafts for preschoolers
• Mother's Day crafts for preschoolers
• Crafts for 4 year olds
• May crafts for preschoolers
• All crafts for preschoolers, by theme, holiday and letter

×