Earth Day Craft for Kids with Recycled Newspaper

Fun Earth Day crafts are such a great way to start the converstion about environmental awareness and how to take care of our planet. One of the best parts about this Earth Day craft is that it uses one of the best recycled materials…newspaper. Almost every house has a pile of them in the recycling bin (and if you don’t grandpa probably does).

Happy Earth Day! This year Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd. It’s a great time to try out this fun activity with kids of all ages…and a fun way to learn all about our beautiful planet.

I bet you’ve never heard of craft flashcards…Of course you haven’t…because I totally made it up 🙂 As a pediatric Occupational Therapist, I’ve witnessed kids struggle to complete multi-step activities. So, I came up with this brilliant (if I do say myself) way to break down crafts into bite-sized pieces in the form of flashcards.

These are especially perfect for those kiddos who have limited attention spans.

Crafts are such a great developmental tool for kids (improves motor planning, attention span, executive functioning, fine motor skills, language development and more), and using flashcards makes planning crafts for your kids to enjoy even easier.

Just print out a few of your favorites onto cardstock, cut them into the cards with a hole in the corner and place them on a keyring that you can connect to your craft supply bag (which you can fill using our master list of supplies that we stick to for every single one of the projects in the flashcard collection). It’s so simple.

And the best part is that there’s not a screen in sight. Technology is such a great thing, but it’s also nice to take a break from it once in awhile and let the brain explore in other ways. Click the image to learn more about our collection of 100 Craft Flashcards for Kids.

Fun Facts About Planet Earth

• Earth is around 4.5 billion years old.
• It takes 365 days to orbit the sun, which is one year.
• Our 4 seasons are because of the Earth’s tilt.
• Earth has gravity, which is a force that pulls objects to toward the Earth.
• The Earth isn’t perfectly round but is more like a squished ball.

For more interesting facts about mother earth, check out this article.

Save this Earth Craft for later. Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board…

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How to make one of our Easy Earth Day Crafts

Easy Earth Day crafts are the perfect thing to add to a lesson plan or to just make for the fun of it. When hands are busy, minds often open. So, making a craft of the Earth can turn into such a great teaching opportunity.

CRAFT SUPPLIES FROM THE BAG

• Recycled newspaper
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Stapler
• Green tissue paper squares
• Blue marker
• Pencil (optional)

Making crafts with your kids should be fun and simple. It shouldn’t be time spent scouring Pinterest, a million trips to the store and closets filled with craft supplies no one ever uses just to spend 30 seconds on a craft that your kids don’t even enjoy.

To keep things actually enjoyable for you and your kids, we stick to a master list of basic craft supplies that fit into one bag for making all of the creative projects you see here. That way there’s so little prep and mess that you can get right to the good stuff.

Check Out the Video Tutorial for this Easy Craft:

Instructions:

Step 1: Draw a Circle

• Grab a section of newspaper that is just black and white print, without images.
• Cut the large sheet of newspaper in half, keeping both layers.
• Use your marker to draw a large circle on the newspaper.

*If you don’t have newspaper on hand, try using old magazines instead. The look will be a bit different but still fun. You can even use some plain white paper.

Step 2: Grab the Glue Stick

• Inside your circle, make a “land mass” using your glue stick.
• You may want to outline a section first with your marker or a pencil before placing the glue.

Step 3: Add the Tissue Paper Land

• While the glue is still sticky, place small pieces of crumpled tissue paper all over the glue. This is the perfect way for little hands to practicing a mature grasp and they pinch and place the tissue paper.
• Repeat this process of gluing and placing tissue pieces to form all of the land masses you want.

*If you don’t have tissue paper, you can use paper scraps instead. Or you can even grab green crayons or markers or green paint for this step. You can even choose to get our the craft paint to create your land and sea.

Step 4: Color in the Water

• Once the land masses have all been put in place, fill in the space around it with your blue marker. These are the oceans and seas.

*You can choose to use blue crepe paper or blue tissue paper for this step instead, but it will add a significant amount of time for completion of this globe craft.

Step 5: Cut Out the World Craft

• Once you’ve created your Earth, keep the 2 layers of newspaper together and cut out around the outside.

Step 6: Staple All Around

• Begin stapling around the outside of your globe, keeping the staples about 1/2 apart or so. They don’t need to be right next to each other, but you also don’t want the stuffing to come out later.
• Staple all around the outside, leaving about a 5 inch section open.

Step 7: Stuff It with Recycled Newspaper

• Tear strips of newspaper and crumple them up. This part is so much fun!
• Place the crumpled up balls of paper, one at a time, into the opening you left.
• Keep filling up your Earth with newspaper stuffing until it is puffy but not over-filled.

Step 8: Finish It Off

• Now you can use your stapler again to close up the opening.
• For older kids, a regular stapler works just fine, but younger kids may need a mini stapler that fits their hands a little better. I think that using a stapler is one of the best ways to practice hand strength while crafting.

Optional Step 9: Add a Little More Fun

If you’d like to give your Earth a little personality, this is the perfect time. Add some googly eyes, a smile, some cut out pink cheeks or whatever you want to bring your Earth to life.

Now get out there and go for a nature walk.

Here are some of our favorite Earth Day crafts

Paper Plate Earth Day Craft

Love our Planet Paper Chain

I Heart Earth Craft

Save this easy Earth Day Craft for later. Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board…