Need an experiment for Earth Day?? I LOVE this Earth Day Experiment!!!! It is such an amazing hands-on activity and GREAT visual for the kids to see just exactly what reducing and recycling means!!! I’ve been doing it for years with my kiddos….but, this year, I want to make it bigger, better and even more memorable!!! Check out the fun things I have planned!!!
First we read this book that you can find in my “Where does Garbage go?” pack. This book talks about how when you throw trash “away”-it doesn’t really go away!! It explains the difference between dumps and landfills. It also talks about things you can do to help…
Get their little brains thinking and build even more background knowledge!! I have also included an activity in the pack where kids can sort different household items that they can recycle every day.
Last, there is a cute activity about tires. Did you know that tires take up TONS of space and can sit in a dump for thousands of years and NEVER break down??? This activity tells them ways that tires can be recycled.
Before we start the experiment, why not get the kids SUPER excited about what they are about to do???
I just happened to have these construction hats left over from Finn’s 3rd birthday party!!!
AND this construction tape!! Yay!!
I wanted to get some little construction vests…but, I couldn’t find any adorable ones ANYWHERE!!! But, I DID find some yellow and orange Hanes T-shirts at the dollar tree!!! (they must have been slightly defective) So, I cut the sleeves off of them, cut them straight up the middle, got some Duct tape and made these:
(If you can’t find helmets, or don’t want to spend money on them, I have updated the pack and included some cute paper ones AND some adorable construction worker nametags!)
I will also be playing this in the background:
So, then comes the experiment. To begin, each group gets a “Tiny dump” filled with tires. Last year, I decided to use Chocolate Cheerios to make them look more like tires. WHY didn’t I think of that before???
The kiddos are given a marker and told to smash up their tires.
Wow!!!! Look how we’ve reduced the amount of tires that we had!!!!!!
Check out this experiment and all of the other activities in this packet! Just click on the picture below!!