Early Learning Activities to Show Appreciation for the Earth

Thursday, April 23, 2020

We’ll be posting new ideas each week for ways you and your little ones can move, get creative and eat healthy while you are at home. Visit our resources page for more helpful information on how to talk to young children about coronavirus, how to de-stress as a family and more.This week as we celebrate Earth Day, it is the perfect time to talk with children about caring for the world and all the people, animals and plants that call it home. In the spirit of that, we have a few early learning activities that you can do with your child to celebrate spring, the sunshine and all the wonderful things our planet provides.

Neighborhood Walk Scavenger Hunt

If you are able to take walks around the neighborhood, ask your children: What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? Touch a tree and ask your child does it feel rough or smooth? Turn your walk into a scavenger hunt by jotting down a list of things to seek out: something green, 3 different leaves, a crooked stick, an acorn, a rock, etc. Older kids might enjoy this STEM-inspired nature walk video.

Upcycled Musical Instruments

Explore creative ways to reuse materials to make musical instruments your child will love.

• Do you have plastic eggs around the house? Fill them half-full with rice or dried beans and tape them shut. You've got a musical egg shaker!
• A coffee or oatmeal container can easily turn into a drum without any work at all
• Mini Banjos: Use jar lids, rubber bands, tape and popsicle sticks to make a mini banjo!

Flower Art

Fork flowers: Apply paint on the prongs of a fork and press down. Does it look like tulips?Pop bottle flowers: Do you have any empty pop bottles? Put paint on the bottom and press down. Do you see a flower?

Garden Yoga

Children can practice yoga poses while pretending to be a tree, frog, seed, butterfly or flower.YWCA Minneapolis equips children with the knowledge and skills to reach their true potential. Our NAEYC-accredited and Four-Star Parent Aware rated early learning programs offer a whole-child learning approach to build children’s social-emotional, cognitive, physical and cultural development. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, YWCA Minneapolis is offering child care to essential workers at our Abbott Northwestern Hospital location and our Ecolab location.LEARN MORE ABOUT YWCA CHILD CARE