Earth Day is inside your Refrigerator

Earth Day is right around the corner and with the necessity to shelter in place, it is even more important for children to celebrate our beautiful world from home this year. But how? I felt stuck. Many of the Earth Day traditions I would recommend to families are not possible this year, especially for children living in Brooklyn. Any other year, I'd encourage families to join a park clean-up, plant a tree, or walk or bike to a nearby park for time outside. These are not options during the pandemic. I found many wonderful resources on the web that recommend family-friendly documentaries to watch this month pertaining to the celebration of Earth Day from home, but as wonderful as nature videos are, they aren't tangible learning experiences.

Earth Day is about taking action:

1. Actively reconnecting with our earth and discovering her beauty
2. Being in touch with our world using our five senses

How can children be in touch with our planet, using their senses, understanding the interconnectedness of all the parts of our world while sheltering in place?
 

How to be an Explorer this Earth Day

Have you looked inside your cupboards and refrigerator lately? I mean, really looked. I imagine many of your foods (kidding: all of your foods!) come from our Earth in one way or another. This Earth Day, I invite you to make discoveries with your children about the foods in your home. Let them be active scientists, asking questions and evaluating what they find.

My friend was working in a school system as an art teacher, and learned that her students had only seen chopped carrots. She assumed her students knew what the whole of carrots looked like with all their feathery foliage when pulled out of the Earth. When she asked them to draw a picture of a carrot, they drew only the slices. Where does this vegetable grow? How does it get to the supermarket? These are questions for every family to explore if you buy canned carrots, frozen carrots or whole carrots. It can help children create a relationship with our earth and how we rely on its resources.

Ask your child, can you imagine a world without pickles?!  I can't! It could happen if we don’t take care of our Earth. Do pickles grow salty?  No, they don't. How do they get this way and from which vegetable?  You have the tools to ask questions and learn about farming and food systems without leaving the house. It will lead to conversations about protecting our earth and help kids invest in our farms in the future. Without farms, there isn’t food.

Create a table using any or all of these categories on a piece of scrap paper. You can simplify for younger children with yes/no questions or make your own exploration questions about color, size, shape, or who in the family likes to eat it! Here's an example:

Fill in your own table with this free template!

*opening image courtesy of Pinterest