Earth Day: 5 Things Children Can Do for the Planet Today

Earth Day is April 22nd — and every year millions of people do something extra for the planet. But what can children actually do? Not worry, but act: plant a seed, build a water filter, clean up the neighbourhood. Here are five activities children can do at home today for Earth Day, without buying a single new thing.

What Is Earth Day — and Who Is Really Saving Whom?

Earth Day is marked every year on April 22nd. It was started in 1970 in the United States following a serious oil disaster, and today it is one of the largest environmental events in the world — with people in over 190 countries doing something extra for nature.

But here is something that might surprise you: the Earth does not need saving for its own sake.

Our planet has survived five mass extinction events. It has endured ice ages, asteroids, and continents colliding over tens of millions of years. The Earth itself is tough. It is us — the bees, the birds, the fish, the forests, and the people — who need the Earth to keep functioning the way it always has.

Next time you say "we need to save the Earth," try this instead: "We take care of each other — on Earth."

That small reframe matters. Sustainability is not an abstract concept for politicians. It is the litter you picked up from the pavement, the seed you planted on the windowsill, the little bird feeder you hung in the garden. These are actions children can take right now.

Why Is This Important for Children to Learn?

Children who learn to care for nature early develop concern for something larger than themselves. In Norway's national curriculum (LK20), sustainable development is one of three cross-curricular themes that runs through every subject, from science to Norwegian language to social studies.

The curriculum does not ask us to teach children facts about climate. It asks us to help children understand connections: what happens to pollinators when wildflowers disappear, what happens to our food when pollinators disappear. That kind of systems thinking starts with concrete, hands-on experience — not lectures.

Children who do something with their hands — plant, sort, build, observe — experience a sense of mastery rather than helplessness. That is exactly the feeling we want them to carry away from Earth Day.

Try at Home: 5 Activities for Earth Day

Age range: 6–14 years

1. Plant Seeds for Pollinators

✅ You need: a pot or small glass, soil, seeds (lavender, clover, or sunflower)

1. Fill the pot halfway with soil.
2. Press 2–3 seeds down, about 1 cm deep.
3. Water gently — do not flood them.
4. Place on a bright windowsill and wait.
5. Check daily: how many days did it take?

Lavender, clover, and sunflowers attract bees and butterflies. Pollinators visit the flowers and spread pollen, which allows plants to produce seeds and fruit. Without them, many of the plants we eat would not exist.

What would happen if you planted two identical seeds — one in the dark and one in the light?

2. Make a Mini Compost Bin

✅ You need: a yoghurt pot, food scraps (vegetable peelings, a tea bag), garden compost or soil

1. Poke a few holes in the bottom of the yoghurt pot with a pencil.
2. Place a thin layer of soil in the bottom.
3. Add food scraps: fruit peel, carrot shavings, a used tea bag.
4. Cover with more soil.
5. Place outside and moisten lightly every other day.

Composting is nature's own recycling system. Microorganisms — bacteria and fungi far too small to see — break food scraps down into nutrients that plants can absorb. Nothing disappears. It simply changes form.

What do you think will have happened to the contents in two weeks?

3. Neighbourhood Litter Hunt

✅ You need: a plastic bag, gloves (optional), paper and pen to count

1. Head out into the neighbourhood with a bag.
2. Set a time limit: 15 minutes.
3. Pick up any litter you find on the ground or in green spaces.
4. Count what you found: plastic, paper, metal, other.
5. Who found the strangest item? What do you wonder about it?

⚠️ An adult should help with anything that might be sharp.

What do you think would happen to the litter if nobody had picked it up?

4. Build a Water Filter

✅ You need: an empty plastic bottle (cut in half), cotton wool, sand, gravel, muddy water (stir soil into water)

1. Place the upper half of the bottle upside-down inside the lower half (like a funnel).
2. Layer cotton wool at the opening, then sand, then gravel.
3. Pour muddy water slowly through the filter.
4. Compare the water that went in with the water that came out.
5. What did the sand and gravel catch?

This is how natural groundwater filters work beneath the surface. Rainwater seeps through layers of gravel and sand and is cleaned along the way — long before it reaches your water source.

What would happen if you reversed the order — gravel at the top, cotton wool at the bottom?

5. Write a Letter to the Future

✅ You need: paper, a pen, an envelope

1. Address the letter to "Yourself, ten years from now."
2. Write: What do you love most about nature today?
3. Write: What do you hope it will look like in ten years?
4. Write: One thing you promise to do differently.
5. Seal the envelope and keep it somewhere safe.

Writing down what we care about makes it more real. Research on goal-setting suggests that people who write down their intentions follow through more often than those who only think them.

What do you think your future self will consider the most important Earth Day activity?

Questions to Wonder About

If the Earth could speak — what do you think it would say to us today?

Is it possible to live a completely sustainable life and still have fun?

What is the one thing you would never give up — even if you knew it was better for the planet to stop?

A Final Thought

Every child is made of good atoms — borrowed from the planet. The carbon in your body once belonged to a plant, perhaps a star, perhaps the ocean. One day it will return. That thought is not sad. It is extraordinary.

Take care of the planet today. Not because you have to — but because you are made of it.

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