In lots of little but profound ways, we can help our kids develop a foundation in environmental stewardship, doing our part of growing a generation that will be empowered to fight for their planet. Creating a healthier planet is a big problem to solve, but each of us can take small actions that together, add up to a big impact.
This activity has been featured in our April Activity Calendar in honor of Earth Day. Sign up to receive our free calendars each month here.
The Guide
Step 1: Watch the Earth Helpers video lesson.
To support families in helping kids become stewards of the Earth, we've made the Earth Helpers video lesson from our Winter 2023/Problem Solving series of Tinkergarten Anywhere available to anyone. Get the kids, then click here to watch how Meghan and other explorers take small steps to care for the planet and other creatures. After watching, kids will be inspired to be earth helpers in their homes and communities, too!
Curious about Tinkergarten Anywhere? Learn more here.
Step 2: Problem solve together.
Wonder with kids, "How could we be helpers to our planet?" Invite kids to share ideas and share some of your own, too. Wonder together about the plants and creatures who live in your area and what they might need to thrive. Look through some of the ideas below together, too and talk about how these actions could help the planet.
Step 3: Pick one action and make a plan.
Work with kids to pick one small action that you can do as a family this week to help care for the earth. Make a plan together for when and how you will take this step and what materials you might need. Here are some of our favorite ways to engage kids in being helpers to our earth and its creatures:
Pick up one bag of trash.
What would happen if every person picked up just one bag of trash? Enjoy these tips for picking up trash with little kids in tow, and join in the earth-loving, gratifying fun! Engage your circle of family and friends, too. Check out our One Bag of Trash DIY activity for tips and ideas.
Cut out plastic.
Much of the plastic we use and throw away ends up in our oceans, and animals like sea turtles can mistake the plastic for food and get entangled in it. We can each help by finding ways to use less or even no plastic at home! Check out our Cut Out Plastic DIY Activity for ways that kids can really help!
Be a water protector.
Each of us can be a water protector! Try out some of these simple ways kids and their grown-ups can take action to conserve water in their homes and make a positive impact on water supply in their community.
Make compost.
Composting helps reduce the impact of wasted food on the environment, while enhancing soil and helping plants thrive. One way to get kids right into the action is to engage them in adding food scraps right into soil. Read our Make Compost DIY for tips on how to involve kids in composting and give them an introduction into the rather elegant cycle that underlies how we all survive!
Plant for pollinators.
Picking out plants that support the pollinators in your area is a great family activity, and you can help kids understand how important the pollinators are, how many of them are in danger, and that we can all help give them what they need. Read here for tips on how to find out which plants are ideal for pollinators in your area and how to get kids involved in helping our pollinating friends.
Save the dandelions.
Early in the spring, dandelions pop up to entice and offer pollinators like bees and flies a source of food while other plants take their time in producing nourishing flowers. These amazing flowers are often weeded out in pursuit of the perfect lawn or over picked for play, taking that important early food source away from our friends, the bees—friends who are increasingly in danger and need our help! Take the dandelion challenge with kids, spread the word and help save the bees! Read here to learn how.
Make a water fountain for bees.
Bees need to drink water, just like us! Bees use water to digest their food, feed their babies and dilute honey that has become too thick or crystalized. Bees also add water to their hive and fan it with their wings to cool down the hive when it becomes too hot. The pollen and nectar that bees eat don't contain much water, though, so bees must have a water source. Read our Water Fountain for Bees DIY for tips on how kids can create a water source for bees.
Care for migrating birds.
Some experts estimate that there are more than 2,000 species of bird in North America, and many of those birds travel long distances as they migrate with the changing of the seasons. These travelers burn tremendous amounts of energy, and they can really benefit when we put out safe sources of nutrition to support them on their way. Learn how to make a pine cone feeder with kids here. Or, read here to learn how to turn an orange into a feeder for migrating birds.
Why is this activity great for kids?
Kids today can't help but feel the concern we all share for our planet. Helping them to take action and to feel like they are part of a world in which others care and are taking action too can really help counter balance their worries and lay the foundation for a lifetime of stewardship for our planet. Considering the needs of other creatures and doing something to meet those needs develops both compassionate and cognitive empathy. Finally, family projects designed around helping others are wonderful ways to reinforce both family and community values.
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When we talk about problem solving, we mean the ability to solve a problem in which the solution is not obvious and in which the possible paths to solution are many. To solve such problems, kids will need two things. First, they’ll need the self confidence and comfort to both attempt to find and persist in finding a solution. The only way to develop this is to be given the chance to struggle with ambiguous situations or open-ended problems. We parents are all guilty, from time to time, of helping kids avoid struggle or swooping in to alleviate frustration when our kid encounters challenge. The goal is actually to do the opposite whenever possible. As long as the problem is not too difficult to understand or challenging to solve, even young kids can get comfortable with the feeling of not knowing the solution and fall in love with the joy of finding a solution to a problem.
Kids also need strategies to attack problems with which they are faced. If adults are able to work with kids to solve problems “as a team” but in such a way that the children feel and act “in charge” of the decisions, adults can actually teach foundation problem solving skills and strategies through modeling. For example, when you solve a problem together, kids get practice with key parts of the process like brainstorming, testing ideas, revision and solution. It’s also pretty easy to model how to use simple strategies like trial and error or breaking a problem down into smaller parts. Although children age 1 to 7 should not be expected to name, catalog or identify when to use a particular problem solving strategy, they are able to form habits and repeat approaches once those habits or approaches have become familiar. The more problems they solve, the better they know and can use these methods.
Why does it matter?
“The highest ranked skills for students entering the workforce were not facts and basic skills; they were applied skills that enable workers to use the knowledge and basic skills they have acquired” (Source: Are They Really Ready for Work? Conference Board 2006).
Although it seems a long way to go before our young children are hitting the job market, the ability to solve challenging, ambiguous problems has already been identified as a critical skill for success in the 21st Century. With advances in technology, finding information has never been easier. However, knowing how to interpret a problem and use available information to devise a solution still needs to be learned. And, we fear that the classrooms of today are neither designed nor incentivized to teach these skills effectively. In most schools, so much time is spent learning discrete skills, that applied skills like problem solving are wildly underemphasized. In a world that demands it, it is increasingly necessary that children learn and practice these skills outside of school.
Empathy
Category:
Social Skills
What is Empathy?
Simply put, empathy is the ability to think and care about the feelings and needs of others. The good news is, the more we study, it appears that children are empathetic by nature. All we need to do is nurture it in them—that of course is now always easy. Even though young children are simply working on gaining control over their emotions and won’t learn to really think about their emotions and the cause and effect of their behavior on others until their school years, they can start to develop the foundation for empathy much earlier. Taking actions (and watching adults take actions) that benefit other people, caring for animals and their environment and even just wondering how other people or creatures are feeling helps build both positive habits and a strong base for the development of empathy.
Why does it matter?
Empathy is at the root of what psychologists call “pro-social” behavior—behavior that people must develop in order to develop a conscience, build close relationships, maintain friendships, and develop strong communities. Empathy also helps kids avoid bullying, one of the most worrisome social challenges young kids face. Being able to think and feel for others can keep kids from becoming either bully or victim and equip them to stand up for others who are bullied. Imagine if all kids had such tools!
Teamwork
Category:
Social Skills
What is Teamwork?
Teamwork is the ability to be both an individual contributor and a supportive member of a group. Not easy for little ones, but never too early to start learning how. Although the notion of teamwork seems rather self explanatory, the combination of skills that are required for kids to effectively work on a team is rather complex. People can work effectively in a group when they have a sense of their own strengths and needs, the ability to understand the needs and motivations of others, the ability to agree and focus on a common goal, and the capacity to adjust their personal needs for the good of the group. Needless to say, young kids are too young to master these skills, but they can make tremendous progress if we give them genuine experience with teamwork and help them develop the foundations that underlie this more complex set of skills.
On a most basic level, kids start to build teamwork skills as they learn to negotiate and share limited resources. Anyone who has kids know that these skills do not come naturally, but are developed with age and practice. Kids who have experience sharing and working in groups without the dominant management of parent or authority figure (e.g. the good old pick-up game of kick-the-can that was managed only by the kids in the neighborhood) get much more opportunity to develop the self awareness and skills needed for effective collaboration. The more chances we give kids to feel the pleasure in sharing and giving, the more quickly they become effective at sharing. In addition, when we model how to set a goal and allow kids to practice working towards that goal, we model the behavior they will eventually adopt as their won. Finally, when they experience success as a member of a team, they develop a lasting sense of the power of teamwork and the motivation to start to value a team over themselves.
Why does it matter?
Collaboration makes the cut on nearly every list of top 21st-century skills—and it has become not just a goal but a requirement for most jobs. Technology increasingly enables people to work together with people who differ by geography, culture and mindset, and businesses and institutions worldwide expect employees to work effectively in both face-to-face and in virtual teams. Those who collaborate effectively will not only be effective workers but will be poised to help find solutions to the increasingly complicated challenges this young generation will face.
Further, in most schools from elementary level up, kids get more out of the curriculum if they know how to work well in groups, and this trend of increased peer-to peer-teaching and learning is only gaining ground in older school years. Research even shows that how well young children solve simple problems in groups predicts how they will transition to and fare in formal schooling.
Age: 0 to 8+
Time: 1 hour+
Materials: various
