With Earth Day 2025 coming up on 22nd April, why not plan some outdoor activities for you and your toddler to celebrate our planet or help the environment? Whether your toddler likes gardening, birds, stomping in the forest or building dens, there’s something for everyone in our handy list of Earth Day ideas.
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1. Plant Some Seeds – Earth Day Activities For Toddlers
Watching your own plants grow from seed can be so much fun for a toddler. Tomato plants are really easy to grow, indoors or out. You can start the seedlings off indoors on a sunny windowsill until they get big enough to repot or plant outdoors. If you don’t have a garden, you can put plants in a sheltered spot on a balcony or keep them on a windowsill.
If you do have some outside space, or an allotment, you can easily spread wild flower seeds to help bees and nature. There are also community allotments, gardens and projects out there – watch out for forest schools running child and family-friendly sessions in your local area.
2. Make A Cress Egg Head – Earth Day Activities For Toddlers
Making a cress egg head with your toddler for Earth Day is oh so simple. You just need a clean, washed-out egg shell. With a felt tip, your toddler can draw a face on one side. Add a piece of damp cotton wool or kitchen roll, sprinkle on a generous amount of cress seeds – and voilà! In a few days, your egg head will have ‘hair’!
3. Go To A Park And Do A Nature Scavenger Hunt
That usual trip to the park can be made even more exciting with a nature scavenger hunt. You can draw a picture list of things for your toddler to find, like twigs, bees, daisies, sticky grass etc. There are loads of ideas and downloadable resources on our blog post here too if you’re looking for inspiration.
Another good one is ‘Nature I-Spy’. Starting with ‘A’, what can you and your toddler spot? Not only will this help your toddler be more tuned into nature, it’s also great phonics practice too!
4. Help Your Toddler To Create An Edible Tray Garden
For Earth Day, why not help your toddler create a little tray garden? For this, you just need a seed tray – or use a paint tray if you don’t have one to hand – some soil and a few packets of herb seeds. Simply plant different herbs (like basil, thyme, rosemary and mint) in the four corners of the ‘garden’ and watch them grow. Your toddler could even ‘plant’ a little yoghurt pot as a mini water-feature, and use this to water their garden! This tray garden will look and smell delicious, with the added bonus that you and your toddler can snip the herbs to use in cooking.
5. Make A Cardboard Tube Bird Feeder
A cardboard tube bird feeder is a great alternative to one of our favourites here at Happity, the orange bird feeder.
Simply get an old toilet roll tube or cut a kitchen roll tube in half. Help your toddler to punch two holes at each side in the top and bottom. Through the top two holes, tie a piece of string or twine to create a hanger. Through the bottom two holes, thread a straight twig, stick or small bamboo skewer so it sticks out on each side.. This will be the perch for the birds to stand on.
With your toddler, cover the outside of the cardboard tube in a layer of peanut butter (check allergies first), almond butter or lard. You can now roll the tube in birdseed and it should stick! Finally, hang your homemade bird feeder outside and watch to see which birds visit. Thanks to Little Bins for Little Hands for the inspiration for this one.
6. Construct A Bug Hotel – Earth Day Activities For Toddlers
You can easily make a bug hotel with your toddler, again using just a toilet roll or kitchen tube and a few basic materials. Collect twigs, leaves and small sticks from your garden or local park. Your toddler can stuff these into the tube – the tighter, the better. Then hide the tube in a shady spot under a tree or in a hedgerow, and see which bugs and insects crawl in.
7. Create Recycled Art – Earth Day Activities For Toddlers
Ever wondered what to do with the plethora of empty cartons, yoghurt pots and lolly pop sticks which can have a tendency to accumulate (particularly if you’re into recycling)? Well, now’s your chance to make some cool recycled art. You just need some PVA glue. For yogurt pot people, just glue lolly pop sticks on as arms and legs. Or make a ‘sculpture’ by just sticking everything together and seeing where your toddler’s imagination leads you. With bigger boxes and cartons, you can make a castle or spaceship.
8. Build A Den – Earth Day Activities For Toddlers
You can build a basic den with your toddler by leaning a few sticks or branches against a tree and covering it with leaves or smaller sticks. There may be a forest or wood nearby where people have built existing dens, in which case it is easier for a toddler to add to it!
Alternatively, you can create an easy shelter with an old sheet and clothes pegs clipped onto a tree. You can do this out and about or in a garden. Toddlers will love having their own little hideout in nature. You can help them collect twigs and leaves for their own pretend ‘campfire’ as well.
9. Go To A Nature Or Forest School Toddler Class
Forest and nature classes are very popular for little ones. With many of these running throughout the winter and spring months as well, your toddler will get the benefit of being outdoors in the changing seasons. Many nature classes will include a short walk, nature craft and story, so your little one will be interacting with nature all through the session. It can feel very liberating for parents too to get out and about with a group of similar-aged children and their adults, whatever the weather.
10. Stomp Through A Wood – Earth Day Activities For Toddlers
Stomping through leaves and grass in a forest or wood is probably the closest you’ll get to ‘forest bathing’ with a toddler. And you’ll still reap the benefits of being amongst the trees. Think dappled, rejuvenating patches of light on a sunny day, welcome shade and the sound of birdsong in the treetops above (if you can hear it above the crunch of leaves and twigs!) It’s amazing what games toddler can invent for themselves in nature too when given the opportunity.
Read more about Earth Day 2025 here.
Want To Know More About Spending Time Outdoors With Your Toddler?
1000 Hours Outside™ is a website and app which helps you track the amount of time you and your family are spending outside. Experts say to aim for at least 3 hours outside every day where possible. Obviously this is easier in the spring and summer months, but also don’t worry if you don’t manage a chunk of time outdoors every day. According to the website, statistics show that on average children are only getting 4-7 minutes of free play outdoors daily! So any time outdoors is a bonus and so good for you and your family’s mental as well as physical health. You can download a free PDF from the site as a visual and fun way of tracking your hours outdoors.
Want to get out and about, have fun with your baby or toddler, and meet other parents?
Search Happity to find everything that’s happening for the under-5s in your local area – from music and singing classes, to messy play, arts and crafts, baby massage, gymnastics and more. Simply enter your postcode and child’s age to search, and then book your spot in a few taps. Enjoy dedicated fun time with your little one, watch their skills develop, and make friends at the same time. Mums, dads, grandparents and carers will all find something to love!
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