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Earth day is a great opportunity to teach kids about taking care of the earth, recycling and the importance of being respectful of our environment.  A great way to show kids about recycling is to use recycled materials in earth day crafts.  Here are a compilation of Earth Day Craft ideas featured here at Toddler Crafts.  Enjoy, and Happy  Earth Day!

• Make a drum -Recycled Earth Day Craft
• Make a recycled loom
• Painted Planter - Earth Day Craft
• Recycled Watering Can Craft
• Earth Day Craft – Penguin Craft

photo credit: Photocapy

This is one craft that your kids will surely love and enjoy. This will develop their creativity and resourcefulness. As they grow taller and stronger, they are attracted to moving objects.  They are also becoming more aware of their mobility.   Making a pull-along mini-cart would satisfy their curiosity and active desire to be in control of things.  Moreover, this craft can be a learning activity in which the children can identify colors and shapes.

What you will need:

• Drinking/plastic cup
• Colored cardboard
• Two pieces of pencils
• Modeling clay
• String
• Pair of scissors

How to do it:

1. Place your drinking/plastic cup on the colored cardboard and trace the base with a pencil to make four wheels.
2. Cut the four wheels out of the cardboard.
3. Push the two pencils through the two wheels respectively. Be careful in handling the pointed tip to avoid piercing or hurting yourself.
4. Attach the pencil on each wheel and seal it with modeling clay to prevent it from loosening.
5. Make a small rectangular box with an open top using your colored cardboard. You can use a different color this time to make the body of the mini-cart distinct from the wheels.
6. Make four holes on the sides of the box, two on each side.
7. Push the pencils with wheels through the holes.
8. Attach the remaining two wheels on the two pencils, respectively and fixing it with modeling clay.
9. Tie a string on one end of the box, just long enough for your kid to pull it along.
10. Now that you have a pull-along mini-cart, ask your child to give it a name to make it more meaningful for him.

I have found some great recycled crafts on some other sites recently and wanted to share some of them here with you as well as highlight a few we have had at Toddler Craft.  The creative things that can be created from our used cans, bottles, toilet paper rolls, boxes etc are endless!

Here are my 5 favorite recycled crafts I found:

1. Make a night light out of a crystal light container
2. How to make a papier mache fish
3. Giraffe Puppet sock
4. Earth Jug Planter
5. Things you can make with old wire hangers

Here are some more recycled crafts to check out here on Toddler Crafts …

• Make a Drum
• Make a recycled loom for weaving!
• Recycled craft – make a birdfeeder
• A compilation of recycled crafts on Toddler Craft

Enjoy!!

This is a fantastic recycled craft that the kids can play with too.  It’s a drum that they can play music with and create with recycled Oatmeal containers!  If you make a bunch you can have a little band!

Supplies:

• Oatmeal container (or other round container)
• Construction paper
• Tape
• Crayons/Markers for decorating
• Ribbon
• Stickers for decorating

Steps:

1. Cut Oatmeal container in half (you can make 2 drums from this)
2. Wrap construction paper around container and tape to secure it.
3. Fold extra construction paper into hollow part of container and tape it there.
4. Decorate outside of container with stickers and markers
5. Secure ribbon to sides with tape

Enjoy!!

This is such a fun craft for kindergarten!  Kids feel so proud that they made their “rug” (or whatever they want to create) and in the process of doing it they are working on their fine motor skills, working on their concept of over and under, reinforcing left and right and so much more!  It’s an educational, fun craft that uses recycled material, what’s better then that?  This would be a fun one to add to your list of Earth Day Crafts if you are working on reinforcing the concept of recycling with your kids.

Supplies:

• Piece of a card board box
• Scissors
• Yarn, Ribbon (can be scraps, just tie together)
• Pen

Steps:

1. Use the piece of cardboard (about 5 inches wide x 10 inches long) and cut triangle pieces out on each side- about 8-12
2. Use a piece of ribbon and wrap it around the cardboard (lengthwise) looping in all the triangle nooks.  Once it is in all the triangle hooks, tie it to itself on the back and cut the excess ribbon
3. Tie a piece of ribbon on the top left ribbon tied to the cardboard
4. Begin weaving by going under then over, under over, each ribbon until you get to the end of the ribbons
5. You will then start back going toward the left from the right and so on
6. When you have finished with your weaving you will want to carefully cut a couple of the base ribbons at a time and tie one of them around the other 2, then cut another 3 and repeat.

Enjoy your creation!!