Our Mother Earth; our most important resource! Although planets are a bit of an abstract concept children are never too young to learn about our Earth, its beauty and importance. As we work on letter E, we prepared ideas for Earth theme in our Tot school to enjoy with your toddlers and preschoolers for seven days.
Continuing our A to Z Tot School series we’ve done the planning and provided seven days of play and learning activities. The play activities take a little less preparation and could be best for the toddler age group. The learning activities will introduce concepts, take a little more direction and could be best for preschoolers.
So let’s get started!
Letter E – Play Activities for Earth Theme
We can talk and learn about Earth through play! You will find here Earth themed sensory activities, simple art and craft projects as well as a little game to play. We place on the shelf few of our favorite Earth themed board books to read and learn about planet Earth and pick one each day throughout the week.
DAY 1 – Earth Day Sensory Play| Growing Hands on Kids
Sorting animals living on land and in the water is a main objective of a shaving cream Earth sensory bin. Sensory bins are an amazing for tactile experience as well. Details at: Growing Hands on Kids
DAY 2 – Garden Sensory Bin| Mess for Less
Pretend play planting flowers and other plants with garden sensory bin. Discuss with toddler how plants grow and why it’s important not to pluck flowers and destroy nature. Details at: Mess for Less
DAY 3 – Invitation to Paint with Recycled Materials| Learn with Play at Home
Grab few items from recycle bin and invite toddlers to create an abstract art with those materials. Easy and fun activity. You can also talk about each of the recycled materials and how long each of them takes to decompose. Details at: Learning with Play at Home
DAY 4 – Coffee Filter Earth Craft| J Daniel 4s Mom
Super easy Earth craft – making a coffee filter Earth will also get toddlers to work on their fine motor skills. It’s lovely to see, when you work with a group of children, how everyone’s Earth turns out different. Details at: JDaniel4’s Mom
DAY 5 – Galaxy I-Spy Bottle| Best Toys 4 Toddlers
Contain the mess inside this Galaxy I-Spy Sensory Bottle! I Spy games are awesome for building concentration and visual skills. You can also introduce words like galaxy, solar system, planets and names of all planets. Details at: Best Toys 4 Toddlers
DAY 6 – Planet Earth Suncatcher| Learning and Exploring through Play
Another easy Earth craft to make and display in your windows. Use crayon shavings to make adorable Earth sun catchers. You can invite toddler to spin around the globe and see how water / land portions change. Details at: Learning and Exploring through Play
DAY 7 – Earth Day Playdough| Natural Beach Living
Toddlers love playing with playdough! Make a batch of green and blue playdough and form them to Earth shape. You can also use store-bough playdough for this. Details at: Natural Beach Living
Learning Activities About Earth and Letter E
DAY 1 – Oil Spill Science Experiment | Kitchen Counter Chronicles
Rescue animals from an oil spill! Super easy activity to prepare and learn about protecting environment and pollution. Details at: Kitchen Counter Chronicles
DAY 2 – Sediment Jars | Inspiration Laboratories
Try sedimenting dirt as one of the ways to explain about some of the processes that take place on our planet. Details at: Inspiration Laboratories
DAY 3 – Earth Day Alphabet Activity | Pre-K Pages
Clean up fun! Let kids pick up and sort ‘trash’ – letters by size: uppercase and lowercase. You can also talk about an importance of picking up litter and using trash cans. Details at: Pre-K Pages
DAY 4 – Growing Seeds| Playdough to Plato
Experiment with growing different types of seeds. It will be interesting to observe how they develop and grow in different pace. Details at: Playdough to Plato
DAY 5 – Make Seed Bombs | Little Bins for Little Kids
Making seed bombs is a lovely Earth day activity but can also be a lovely gift to mom or grandma on Mother’s day. Details at: Little Bins for Little Kids
DAY 6 – Earth Day sorting activity | Totschooling
Things that make Earth happy vs. things that make Earth sad. Pick free printable and let kids sort the items and activities. Perfect for teaching little ones how to be responsible for their actions. Details at: Totschooling
DAY 7 – Sorting and Classifying Rocks| Rhythms of Play
Many kids love playing with rocks. This is a great opportunity to sneak in a bit of learning as they explore different types and textures of rocks. Details at: Rhythms of Play
A Perfect Globe for Your Little Explorers – Shifu Orboot!
Explore 400+ highlights and 1000+ world facts across 6 categories – cultures, monuments, inventions, animals, maps and weather for various countries. Set comes with: 10” globe, passport, stamps, country flag stickers, and a detailed help guide. App is free for use both on Android and iOS. Learn more and buy here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
Favorite Books to Learn About Earth
Here We Are is a beautiful, sensitive and fun book. Perfect to read to little ones to turn them into people who care about the earth , environment and it’s inhabitants. Author explains the solar system, the ocean and the sky at the level a toddler would understand. Find the book here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
Here are the titles of some chapters that might interest readers: Air pollution; Deforestation; Household waste; Plastic forever; Electronic waste; Food waste, and Get involved! This book has 72 chapters of information we need to know to make changes now to begin to make clean our world. Find the book here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
“Hi, I’m Earth! But you can call me Planet Awesome.” Written from perspective of Earth itself. It’s funny and cute book where readers will discover key moments in Earth’s life, from her childhood more than four billion years ago all the way up to present day. Find the book here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
Don’t Miss to Pick Up a Free Earth Day Printable Pack!
We hope you and your tot enjoy these activities for learning about our earth. Be sure to check out our FREE printable Earth Day pack for more early learning opportunities.
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