Teach preschoolers about plants by helping them grow their own small plants. Preschoolers can start by decorating small clay pots with paints. One idea is to have them create their own earth on the pot by painting the background blue and adding continents in green. After the paint is dry, kids can fill the pot with potting soil and plant a seed for a flower or herb in their pots. This activity helps preschoolers see how plants grow when they are taken care of.
To discourage preschoolers from throwing things away, especially littering, help them make a bug out of found materials. Children should collect items such as plastic containers, egg cartons, bottle caps, twigs, leaves and other small materials. Each child can then make a small bug using only these materials and basic white glue. The bugs remind the children that many items that are typically thrown away can have other uses.
Making bird feeders out of pine cones is an ideal Earth Day activity because it both uses natural materials and helps preschoolers relate better to their environments. Have kids roll a pine cone in a mixture of vegetable shortening and oats (or cornmeal) and bird seed. Help them attach a string to the top of the pine cone. Preschoolers can take their bird feeders home and hang them from a tree. A week later, children can report back about what kind of birds they have seen eating from their bird feeders.
Animal mobiles with preschoolers' favorite animals can help remind children that the environment is worth protecting. Have preschoolers cut animals out of old nature magazines or draw animals on blank paper. Adults can help each child tie the animal pictures to wire hangers to make the mobiles.