20 Caring for Earth Ideas:

1. Brainstorm with your chapter simple ways to care for our earth. 

Create a flier or poster with these ideas.

2. Read a book about caring for the earth. 

Suggested books:

My First Green Book by Angela Wilkes

Maya and the Town that Loved a Tree by Kiki and Kathryn Shaw

This Is Our Earth by Laura Lee Benson  Illustrated by John Carrozza

The Earth and I by Frank Asch

EarthDance by Joanne Ryder  Illustrated by Norman Gorbaty

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Whole World by Christopher Corr and Fred Palmer

3. View the Power Point on Plastics with your chapter and create an action plan to reduce plastics in your lives. 

4. Create canvas bags to use instead of plastic bags.

5.  Plant a tree.       

6.  Visit one of these sites to get more ideas:

Useful Earth Day Links for Kids
        Earth Day coloring sheets and activities to further educate your kids!
        Free Earth day coloring sheets from FunSchool.com
        Coloring sheets, Globe Rider game and craft ideas.
        Wildlife coloring pages
        Birds, reptiles, mammals, insects fish...
        Kids for the Earth
        A kids guide to turning the Earth around.
        EarthDay.gov
        Links resources and activities.
        Kaboose.com Earth Day Food and Fun
        Celebrate Earth Day with unique crafts, recipes and more!
        ECO Kids
        Earth Day Canada's environmental education...games, activities and
        information for kids and teachers.
        National Wildlife Federation KidZone
        Earth Day information, games, craft ideas, science, homework help
        and so much more for kids ages infant to teen

7.  Help Clean Up a ParkCheck with your city's website for an Adopt-a-Park program.  Or, simply gather some gloves and do a trash pick-up at your favorite park.

8.   Organize a river or beach clean-up.

9.   Be Creative with Your Trash
          Make art out of trash with your kids to highlight the power of reusing. 

Check out  Arts and Scrap to get ideas on creating beautiful wind chimes, bird feeders and generally cool pieces of art all made mainly from industrial waste. Arts and Scraps offers lots of 'kits' so you can do some projects at home and they offer a great listing of similar places in other areas so you can find one near you.

10.   Buy Locally Grown Produce
      Along with eating organic foods, there's been an increasing movement to

  eat local whenever possible. This is a valuable lesson to share with kids.

11.  Plant a garden with your kids and grow your own vegetables.

12.  Visit a local farm.  

Here's a great website to help you locate a pick-your-own farm near you.

13.  Invite a guest speaker to talk about Global Warming or other earth sensitive topics.

14.  Create compost bins.

15.  Visit a dump to see the effects of trash.

16.  Start a "Saving Water Campaign".

17.  Visit www.theteachersguide.com/earthdaylessonplans.htm to see more lesson plans to help our earth.

18.  Learn about the Rain Forest  www.kidssavingtherainforest.org

19.  Contact your local elected officials and ask how you can help in the community.