Above is a collage of just a handful of our Earth Day and Recycled Crafts that we have for you to enjoy today. We are putting down the glue and heading outside to enjoy this special day on it’s 40th anniversary, and hope you do too! If you need some books to keep the learning going below is our selection of Earth Day books.
Happy Earth Day!
Books!
In the Gardenby Leslie Bockol is a little board book all about growing your own fruits and vegetables in your garden. It is simple and although it’s listed for 3-6 year olds I would read it to 1-3 year olds. It identifies a number of fruits and vegetables and completes each page with “I pick it and eat it!” my son loved the repetition and quickly completed each page for me while I was reading it to him. I think it’s a perfect book for toddlers and young preschoolers to introduce gardening to them.

The Whole Green World by Tony Johnston was an unexpected hit with my son. Today reading it he learned that you can’t judge a book by its cover, he saw the book in our pile to read and wasn’t taken with it, but I suggested maybe just reading the first page and he was hooked. The book is really about appreciating the whole world, from the view point of a little girl who grabs some seeds, plants them , waters them and savors the beauty all around her. My son loved the sing song text and the ultra detailed illustrations by Elisa Kleven. Which my son would study with every turn of the page asking me “Mommy which bird, which book, which cake is your favorite?”making reference to the illustrations . It was a wonderful book to snuggle up with !
It’s Earth Day!
by Mercer Mayer . In this book in the Little Critter series, we follow along as Little Critter tries to make a climate change machine to reverse the effects of global warming. Along the way other green choices are explained like taking the school bus instead of each child being driven in their own cars, not letter water run, and the three Rs.
EcoMazes by Roxie Munro is a new book that was sent to me by the publisher for review. The idea of this book is to showcase different ecosystems like wetlands, the tundra, desert and more through both a maze and search and find game. This book is not designed for preschoolers although my son loves it. We do the maze together as that is far too complicated for him, but he loves to find the animals on each page and has learned a lot about them too. What is awesome for older children ( 7-10) is that along with an answer key to the maze and pictures there is a full page of information about each ecosystem in the back of the book. This doesn’t talk down to the reader and gives great information using sophisticated vocabulary. I am excited to see how this book’s use changes over time in my home.
Herman and Marguerite: An Earth Story by Jay O’Callahan is a funny story with interesting and sometimes unexpected illustrations. The story is about a worm who has heard about the orchard above and wants to see it, but the sun is threatening and he is saved by a caterpillar! They develop a friendship and because of it the orchard that was once barren starts attracting animals again. It’s not all easy along the way and the worm gets to return the favor of saving the caterpillar when she gets stuck between rocks on her way to spin her chrysalis. When she emerges as a butterfly her worm friend is there and so is a beautiful flowering apple orchard! My son liked this book , I found it somewhat disjointed and what we both thought was odd was the random inclusion of photos of the author throughout the book. “Who is that weird guy Mama?” I wasn’t sure how to answer that one. Still he sat for the whole thing, and learned just how important worms are. It won’t be renewed over and over from the library though.
Big Earth, Little Me
by Thom Wiley is a cute introduction into an environmental theme for toddlers. The book is a lift the flap format and the pages are extra sturdy for fumbly toddler fingers. I love the illustrations by Kate Endle they bring the super simple text to life, and get across the point that even little kids can help the earth.
Jen says
Have fun outside with your little man! Happy Earth Day!
.-= Jen´s last blog ..Recycled Creatures? Happy Earth Day! =-.
admin says
Thanks Jen- I hope you are having fun with your girls and little man!
Looking outside i am not too sure we will be doing anything outside, but after seeing this collage my son wants to build a new recycle town so we will be gathering boxes and turning the family room into recycle town instead.
Kate @ The Shopping Mama says
Happy Earth Day! Thanks for the book suggestions and the links to related crafts.
.-= Kate @ The Shopping Mama´s last blog ..Together We Can Recycle! Plus Martha Stewart Prize Pack Giveaway =-.
Sally says
Here’s my earth day project. Show the children a picture of the Earth from outer space. Paint the bottom of a pie tin with blue-ocean, green or brown-earth and white-clouds…flip and print on a piece of black construction.
3 year olds will be happy painting the pie tin for a long time. You can also paint blue…print paint green…print paint white…print for a silk screen type of approach. Enjoy!