Earth Day is more than a date on the calendar—it’s an opportunity to help students connect with the world around them in an active, meaningful way. What better way to celebrate than with art projects that transform recycled materials, natural elements, and everyday educational materials into planet-friendly art? In this roundup, you’ll find Earth Day crafts and activities that spark creativity, strengthen environmental awareness, and give students a tangible reminder that even small actions can help protect our planet.
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Earth Day Worksheet Bundle
Use these Earth Day themed worksheets to get students talking about our country. Students will learn about single-use plastic bottles, solve math problems, learn to sort things, and write about the future of the Earth. Just click the button and fill out the form to get yours.
1. Make natural bracelets
Using a roll of wide masking tape, make a bracelet around each student’s wrist, sticky side out. Then, take your kids on a nature walk to look for interesting leaves, flowers, berries, and more. If they find things they like, have them attach them to their bracelet.
2. Put together magazine collages
This is one of our favorite Earth Day projects. After all, generations of kids have loved making free collages from magazines. Ask families to donate used magazines, and encourage students to cut out pictures that appeal to them. Next, glue the pieces to a sheet of card stock, making sure they line up so no white shows through.
3. Weave an area rug with recyclable materials
We love this Earth Day craft because it turns everyday recycling into something creative and useful. Ask families to send in clean recyclable items such as old magazines, discarded paper, junk mail, or cereal boxes. Then, ask students to cut materials into strips and join them together to make a colorful area rug while learning that recycled materials can become something new.
4. Recycle toilet paper rolls into telescopes
This is a super fun Earth Day activity that combines rolls of customized cardboard paper into a telescope. Just tape two toilet paper rolls together, side by side. Decorate using paints, stickers, markers, and/or crayons. Finally, attach a string for the children to wear around their neck.
5. Feed the birds
This is an oldie but a goodie! Take your kids outside and collect pine cones. Attach string to the top of each pine cone. Fill the pine cone in peanut butter, then sesame or sunflower seeds. Take a bird feeder outside and hang it from a nearby tree, and enjoy watching the birds gather!
6. Create art from nature
Take students outside to collect natural materials such as small stones, pebbles, sticks, grass, etc. Bring them inside and let them play by creating a natural environment in the card stock. Once they’ve settled on a design they like, they can glue or glue their creation to card stock.
7. Make a coffee filter in the World
This fun craft is simple, colorful, and ever-changing. Have students color a coffee filter with blue and green washable markers to create an Earth-inspired design. Then, lightly spray the filter with water and watch the colors blend together into a soft watercolor-style planet.
8. Make paper flowers
This project is fun and easy. All you need are cupcake liners, mini-cupcake liners, buttons, paper straws, and glue. To build, glue a button in the center of a small cake liner. Then, glue the smaller liner in the center of the larger one. Finally, attach the straw to the back to act as a stem and add the paper leaves.
9. Grow paper flowers
Recycled paper rolls have a second life in a bright and fun way. Start by cutting out flower shapes from the end of an empty toilet paper roll and bending them outwards to make a stamp. Then, dip the roll in the paint, press it onto the paper to create the flowers, and add a center with a marker or other recycled material such as a bottle cap or a small piece of paper.
10. Pop bongo balloons
These musical instruments are so fun and easy to make! Simply take recycled tin cans of various sizes and stretch the balloon upwards. Secure the balloon to the tin with a rubber band or piece of jute string, and hit the drum!
Earth Day Crafts Videos
Check out our library of interesting videos on how to celebrate Earth Day:
Also, don’t forget to download your Earth Day printable bundle!
Just click the button below and fill out the form to get free Earth Day worksheets!
