Good morning!
Today is earth day, and I wanted to share a super simple and easy thing to do today to celebrate. With quarantine right now, I do not suggest going out to the store just to buy these items if you don’t already have them in your home, but have a couple ways you could modify the activity if necessary!
d i r t c u p s . . .
Items needed:
1 chocolate pudding cup – we used the sugar free pudding cups (or make yourself using a powdered chocolate pudding box if you have one!)
Crushed up oreos
Candy gummy worms or fruit snacks that are in the shape of fruits/veggies (we love the welch’s brand ones!)
What to do:
If you don’t have chocolate pudding cups, make yourself with a powdered chocolate pudding packet, OR you could even do something like vanilla yogurt + a little cocao powder or hershey’s chocolate syrup and mix together to get more of a brown, dirt-like cup!
Next, have your kiddos crush up oreos (I like to put them into a stasher bag or plastic bag and crush them up that way. Then, have them sprinkle the crushed oreos on top of your chocolate pudding.
Last, add worm gummies or other gummies you might already have in your home! I like the fruits + veggies shaped gummies idea to create a little garden dirt cup, too!
a f t e r y o u m a k e y o u r c u p s . . .
If it’s nice outside, go outside and enjoy your cups! We did this activity last year and as I was getting out calendar upstairs ready and put the earth day card for today’s date she asked me if we had dirt cups to make again… 🙂 So sweet how she remembered this from last year, and it was such a simple and sort of last minute idea I had that I remembered doing with my students on earth day when I was teaching!
o t h e r i d e a s . . .
Some other simple ideas for earth day today you could do social distantly…
As she enjoyed her dirt cup, I read Joanna Gaines’s book, “We Are The Gardeners”. I plan to read this book again + a few other earth/world stories… including the story of creation! Use any children’s bible you have or even simply grab your own bible and read it out loud to them about How God created everything. We love this storybook bible and read from it daily, and we also are going to read this Tales of Truth Book, “God’s Very Good Idea”, which tells “about God’s very good idea to have lots of different people enjoying loving him and loving each other. This beautifully illustrated journey from the garden of Eden to God’s heavenly throne room shows how despite our sinfulness, everyone can be a part of God’s very good idea through the saving work of Christ. This book will help children see how people from all ethnic and social backgrounds are valuable to God and how Jesus came to rescue all kinds of people. It will also excite them about being part of church.” -from description of book! I love that this Tales of Truth Book begins with stories from the first book of the bible in Genesis 1 and ends with stories from the last book in the bible, Revelation (chapter 7 emphasized)!
- Clean up around your yard.
- Go on a walk around your neighborhood, park, roads you live by and have a trash bag with you, picking up garbage you see as you go on your walk. I had a childhood neighbor man who did this overtime he went on a walk, and I think he still does this!
- Make a small switch to a more eco-friendly option for your home- we LOVE these stasher bags and a friend of mine shared with me that they are having a site wide 25% off sale for earth day today! They replace ziplock plastic bags! Another idea- purchase reusable sponges (my mom found some really awesome ones and gave them to me from QVC I believe!), or even switch to using more hand towels rather than paper towel right now (although you might already be doing this if you can’t find any at stores around you!) 😉
- Plant a new tree!! Stop by your local greenhouse and plant a new tree in your yard! 🙂
I hope you enjoy today, OUTSIDE… enjoying all of God’s beautiful creation. There is a special closeness I feel to God in nature, quietly observing all the good gifts He gives us in creation to freely enjoy. I hope you celebrate earth day in this way today, too!
with love,
from courtney
withlovefromcourtney.com 