Five easy ways to Celebrate Earth Day’s 50th anniversary at home

Social distancing is making many things a little bit more challenging this year, but with a little creativity, we can still enjoy many things that we love! This year is the 50th anniversary of one of our favourite annual observances - on April 22 - and we at Teachers on Call do not see any reason why COVID-19 should prevent you from celebrating it with some great educational activities.

Here’s some things you can do around your own home and yard, enjoying a little outdoor time in the process!

Join a digital event being held by EarthDay.org
Older children and parents can tune live into Earth Day on April 22 as EarthDay.org takes the world’s largest civic event digital for the first time in history to “flood the world with messages of hope, optimism and, above all — action.” There will be social media activities, learning sessions, and digital events to suit every interest.

Get creative with the second of the three R’s
Recycling is great, but most recycling centres can only take so much stuff, and it’s labour and energy-intensive to process materials. That’s why it’s last behind Reducing and Reusing! There’s thousands of ways we can reduce and reuse at home. Why not spend a few minutes looking in the recycling and garbage bins to see what you throw in there that you might reuse?

If you have lots of paper goods that you are tossing in the bin, here’s just a few ideas to get you started:

• using the backside of printed documents for notes and coloring
• using cardboard boxes and toilet paper rolls for arts and crafts projects
• old newspapers for paper mache sculptures and homemade piñatas (Cinco de Mayo is coming up, after all!)

Watch a documentary and paint a happy little scene
Feeling low-energy? That’s okay. If enthusiasm is low, or the weather’s unpleasant, Netflix has dozens of documentaries on every subject, from Night on Earth, to Dancing with the Birds, to A Plastic Ocean. And then once you’ve been inspired by some scenes of nature, why not take some more inspiration from Bob Ross (also to be found – and super popular right now – on Netflix), and paint your favourite scenes with their own happy little clouds and happy little trees?

Try a new app
If the weather permits, why not go on an outdoor excursion in your local neighbourhood? There’s many apps for both Android and iOS that can be used to identify plants and flowers from photographs taken with your electronic devices. Plantsnap is one, but there are many others as well. Try a couple out and share your favourites with us!

Help out in the yard with gardening
With the warming weather on its way (hopefully!), it’s time to get around to taking care of fallen branches and prepping the yards and balconies for growing things. Even if you’re living in a condo, perhaps more this year than ever, people will be looking to grow food and other plants at home – even if it’s just in small herb gardens in containers. Seeds can be bought online in many places, and it’s a great time of year to get growing!