Growing grass and other Earth Day themed learning activities for preschoolers.

This week’s Virtual Book Club for Kids pick is The Earth Book by Todd Parr, paired with an Earth learning theme. You can also read What Does It Mean to Be Green for this week. All of the activities are wonderful ways to celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd.

Growing Grass: A Fun and Easy Earth Day Themed Preschool Science Activity

We have grown grass as a preschool science activity for years now. Grass is easy and fun to grow, making it the perfect preschooler science activity. The year I took these photos (2009), the grass even survived three-year-old Emma and one-year-old Johnny dumping out the cups of newly-planted grass seeds and then throwing everything back in topsy-turvy.

MATERIALS:

• Cup (clear ones are nice since you can see some of the roots)
• Soil
• Grass seeds
• Water

STEPS:

1. Fill cup with soil, leaving at least 1 inch of clearance at the top.
2. Add a thin layer of grass seeds.
3. Cover the grass seeds with a small amount of soil.
4. Water.
5. Place in a sunny area.
6. Wait for seeds to grow.

Grass is the perfect plant for preschool botany, because it is incredibly hardy. This year is the perfect illustration of this hardiness, because Emma’s cup of grass seed was dumped all over the floor within an hour of being planted.

I swept up the dirt and dumped it back into its cup. I thought it wouldn’t grow, but I was wrong. Here is the poor destroyed grass plant surviving five days later:

And thriving two weeks later. You have to look twice to tell which cup was dumped out and which one was left alone!

Kids love giving their grass plants “haircuts” – perfect for practicing scissor skills.

More Earth Day Learning Activities

Here are some more wonderful Earth Day themed learning activities for preschoolers!

• DIY felt map of the world
• Plants and sunlight experiment for kids
• Celebrate Earth Day every day
• Gardening with kids: planting tomatoes
• Raising kids who love their planet
• Recycling bin counting with printables
• 35 ways to be an eco-friendly family
• Earth themed preschool letter sensory bin
• Earth Day art project
• Sight word Earth Day color by code
• K cup Earth Day craft
• Rain painted earth craft

THE 2016-17 VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB FOR KIDS

Click on the image above to see all of the themes, books, and activities for this year’s 2016-17 Virtual Book Club for Kids! I am updating the page as new posts go live.

What is your favorite way to celebrate Earth Day with kids? Please share in the comments below, or on my Facebook page. You can also tag me on Instagram. Sign up for my newsletter to receive book recommendations, crafts, activities, and parenting tips in your inbox every week.