Earth Day – 50th Anniversary

💚 Plant something! There’s a reason we celebrate Earth Day in the spring. Plant some flowers, fruits, vegetables, even a tree to celebrate life and the beauty that God has gifted us.

💚 Make a bird feeder out of pipe cleaners and Cheerios to hang on your porch or in your backyard.

 

💚 Go on a nature walk and collect foliage matching the color of the rainbow.

💚 …Or collect leaves of various shapes and sizes to make animals or insects.

💚 Preschoolers and Kindergartners can do these cute Color by Letter images of the earth, the recycle triangle, and flowers by either uppercase or lowercase letters provided by Totschooling.

💚 Bigger kids can do this Earth Day Word Search from Crayons & Cravings Blog.

💚 Eat one of your meals outside today. (Try to make it a no-waste meal, or be sure to clean up any trash or scraps.)

💚 Lie down after your meal 👆 and feel your surroundings with your other 4 senses. Lie in silence for a few minutes giving thanks for your body and the creation all around you that you can hear, smell, feel, and see.

💚 When I was a school teacher, I use to ask grocery stores to donate paper bags for my classroom on this occasion. I would have each student decorate a bag with Earth Day-friendly messages like “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!” and then give them back to the stores to pass out to their customers. A lot of stores are discouraging the use of reusable bags during the Corona Virus crisis and are handing out paper bags again. This is a great opportunity to set your artists free and decorate bags to reuse again when you can eventually bring those back to the store (or however you plan to reuse them).

💚 When the Shelter-in-Place is lifted and/or when you feel comfortable, make a commitment to collect 50 pieces of trash from a local park or community area in honor of Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary this year.

💚 Listen to and/or sing along to this appropriate song… “For the Beauty of the Earth”

Lyrics

1. 1. For the beauty of the earth,
   For the beauty of the skies,
   For the love which from our birth
   Over and around us lies,
2. [Chorus]
   Lord of all, to thee we raise
   This our hymn of grateful praise.
3. 2. For the beauty of each hour
   Of the day and of the night,
   Hill and vale, and tree and flow’r,
   Sun and moon, and stars of light,
4. 3. For the joy of human love,
   Brother, sister, parent, child,
   Friends on earth, and friends above,
   For all gentle thoughts and mild,
5. 4. For each perfect gift of thine,
   To our race so freely given,
   Graces human and divine,
   Flow’rs of earth and buds of heav’n,