Awesome Earth Day Activity for Kids with Free Cootie Catcher
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This Earth Day activity for kids is full of hands-on fun with a special tool - a printable cootie catcher!
It's a free printable that's a simple yet powerful way to celebrate Earth Day with kids. The creative prompts make it an excellent interactive way to enjoy Earth Day fun.
This open-and-go activity gets kids thinking about ways to take care of our planet plus gets them up and moving!
RELATED: Enjoy more hands-on + creative activities with our free Earth Day perler bead crafts patterns!
Easy Ways to Celebrate Earth Day with Your Kids
You can easily make Earth Day a special celebration with your kids. With just a bit of planning and prep work, you'll have a blast sharing ideas on taking better care of planet Earth.
One of the great things about Earth Day is that you don't have to spend any money. The concepts of Reduce~Reuse~Recycle encourage you to think of ways to conserve energy and materials.
Over the years, I've enjoyed celebrating Earth Day with my boys in our homeschool. Through beautiful books, videos, and crafts, the boys and I have grown in our appreciation for environmental issues and what our family can do to help.
In addition to our Earth Day coloring pages, Earth Day color by symbol pages, and tracing worksheets, I've added this cool cootie catcher for a hands-on Earth Day activity.
How to Make & Use This Earth Day Cootie Catcher
Need some help assembling and using this printable activity? It’s really not too hard!
Simply follow these steps and you’ll be on your way to enjoying this fun Earth Day activity?
- Print your Earth Day cootie catcher.
- Use a pair of scissors to cut along the dotted lines of the cootie catcher.
- Fold the cootie catcher in half along one of the center lines. Open and repeat the fold with the other center line.
- Open up the cootie catcher and place the printed side down. Fold in one corner to meet the center. Repeat with all corners. You'll end up having four corners meet in the center, forming a square.
- Flip over the cootie catcher. Fold the corners into the center with numbers pointed in.
- Fold the square in half with the numbers touching each other. Unfold and repeat with the other side.
- Note that the original corners will now gently pull out. Insert pointer finger behind one slot and thumb behind other on the same side.
- Push your fingers & thumbs up to meet others in the center. Gently manipulate cootie catcher in & out.
- Now, it’s time for some fun! The participant picks one of the Earth Day-themed objects/words (RECYCLE, PLANT, EARTH, or SUN). For each letter of the chosen word, manipulate the cootie catcher.
- Four numbers will appear inside of the cootie catcher. The participant selects one number. Manipulate the cootie catcher that number of times.
- Again, four numbers will appear. The participant selects one number. You open the cootie catcher and then the participant must answer the question or perform the challenge.
- Repeat and have fun!
Fun Ideas for Elevating the Fun with This Earth Day Cootie Catcher
This special cootie catcher includes two different kinds of prompts. One set of prompts encourages participants to think of ways to take care of Earth. The other set of prompts gets you up and moving for some Earth Day fun.
To bolster the learning fun with this Earth Day activity, try any or all of these creative ideas:
- Record responses on a sheet of paper. Count and total all of your great ideas!
- Go outside and enjoy the activity.
- If a participant gets stuck on thinking of an idea, read a book or watch a video to learn more.
- Challenge each participant to do one thing today to help take care of our Earth.
- If using in a classroom, library, or for a party, print out one copy for each person. Encourage everyone to use with family, friends, and loved ones to spread the positive Earth Day messages.
Oh, and my boys and I have had a blast with our free Earth Day challenge! It's full of fun ways to do a little bit each day to help planet Earth.
Get Your Free Earth Day Cootie Catcher for a Fun with Kids
Ready for some easy Earth Day fun?
This printable set includes one page of Earth Day Cootie Catcher (+ a page with terms of use).
I encourage you to print out as many copies as you need to enjoy this Earth Day activity with your kids, class, or library. If you have a friend or co-worker who would like this free printable, please share this post. Thank you so much for sharing and spreading the positive Earth Day vibes!
When you subscribe and join the Rock Your Homeschool community, you’ll receive this printable activity in a PDF file in an email, along with a password to open the VIP Resource Library to all RYHS freebies. Also, you'll get emails with ideas and encouragement to make life and learning fun.
(Current RYHS members just need to access the VIP Resource Library page and enter the password in your welcome email. You can contact Amy at rockyourhomeschool@gmail.com with any questions.)
⭐ Get your FREE Earth Day Cootie Catcher now! ⭐
I'd love to know how you're celebrating Earth Day with kids.
Please share your ideas and plans in the comments area below!
Would I’ve these for my students
Hey there! I'm not sure what you're asking...please email Amy at rockyourhomeschool@gmail.com - thanks 🙂