15+ Easy & Effortless Earth Day Ideas for Your Homeschool (for Older Kids!)

Earth Day activities for younger kids are easy to find…but what about the older kids?

But prepping activities right now? HA! I’m not great at that in September, forget about it in April.

So what’s a gal to do? Go low prep & lean into technology!

These no-prep ideas will connect your kiddos to nature and the roles they can play to care for it.

RELATED Low-Prep Ideas for Your Homeschool this Spring

Extra, Extra!

Holiday/seasonal learning can be as simple as reading about it. Kids practice the skill of reading non-fiction articles,

• Where did the idea for Earth Day begin?
• Notable Earth Day Events
• ReadWorks offers a variety of levels, topics, and article styles

Get Outside for Earth Day

1. Become citizen scientists with Global Observer app from NASA Grab your phone, the app, and head outside. The app will walk you through how to record the trees you see, the clouds up in the sky, and the general landscape of your area. Anytime or anywhere, you can grab your phone and scan away!

2. Bird Sleuth curriculum from Cornell’s School of Ornithology — With lessons available from kindergarten through high school, this curriculum is a great way to get outside with your nature-loving kiddos.

3. Oregon State University has its Master Gardener program online! There are 12 units with several classes in each one. While there is a charge for some of these self-paced classes, others are free!

Head to the Couch

Shows & documentaries make up a BIG part of our homeschool. High-quality, super-engaging shows are pretty easy to find. Bonus: no prep & my boys love them.

1. A Plastic Ocean (Netflix)
2. Night on Earth (Netflix)
3. The Pollinators (Amazon Prime)
4. Recycling is Broken & Your Recyclcling Isn’t Always Recycled (shorts from PBS)
5. Welcome to Earth series from National Geographic (Disney+)
6. The Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom (Disney +)
7. 1970 – 2020: What has changed?

A little friendly competition: Kahoots!

Free resources from Teachers Pay Teachers

• Have some fun reviewing parts of speech with PopArt Parts of Speech. Review the grammar & have some fun coloring the themed coloring sheet.
• These task cards allow your kiddos to be creative — create a “Facebook page”, design a T-shirt or poster for Earth day, write a poem, etc. This can be done independently or together and can work for a variety of ages.
• This close reading allows grades 4-8 to learn about the history of Earth Day & practice reading skills. (Not familiar with close readings? There is an included sheet with information/how-tos about it. It’s basically an activity where the focus is on critically reading a passage for details.)
• Backyard Ecology: An Assessment of Your Yard {A few years ago, we did this orally together at home, at the park, and then at a local state park where a great ranger helped us.}
  
  And one for the younger kiddos….Have some math fun with Math Puzzles and Fraction Task Cards for early elementary.