With Earth Day just around the corner, here are some fun Earth Day-inspired crafts for you and your toddler to enjoy together.
Earth Day Rocks:
Materials:
- Rocks
- Water-based blue and green paint
- Paint dish
- Painter’s tape
- Water
- (Optional) Clear acrylic spray
Instructions:
- First, you need to find your rocks.
- You can go on a walk to find them or there might be some in your backyard you want to use.
- Wash your rocks in the sink.
- Once they are dry, they are ready to be painted.
- Put a little water in your paints before you begin painting with them.
- This will help the paint last longer and it will run over the rock more.
- You can put your paint in a paint dish.
- (Optional, but fun!) If you want to help your toddler, use painter’s tape to tape up portions of either land or ocean.
- Have fun and paint your rocks!
- Once they are all painted, leave them to dry.
- If you would like to seal your rocks, you can use an acrylic spray to keep the design in place. If you want to try again, you can easily wash the paint off.
Footprint Earth:
Materials:
- Blue and green paint
- Scissors
- Newspaper or wrapping paper
- Old clothes
- Shallow dish
- White cardstock or some cardboard to make a large circle
Instructions:
- Cut out a large circle from cardstock or cardboard. If your child is old enough, they can help you cut out the circle.
- This step is a little messy: Lay out some newspaper or wrapping paper around the circle. Squirt blue paint all over your circle. Your child will love running their hands and feet through the paint.
- Let your circle dry completely.
- Squirt some green paint into a shallow dish.
- Have your child walk into the green paint with bare feet and then walk on your circle. This will look like the land and begin to look like the earth. You will want to make sure your shallow dish is very close to your earth.
- Have fun making the Earth with your feet.
These crafts were provided by Parenting Now's Children's Program Coordinator, Kalina Glover Moresi.