This Earth Day Craft is a simple project for young students to make while introducing them to the structure of the Earth’s surface. While making these Earth suncatchers, students can work on developing important fine motor, counting, color recognition, and pattern skills. Once these suncatchers are complete, you will have bright and colorful artwork to celebrate Earth Day and display on the windows in your home or classroom!
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Earth Day Craft for Kids
We love learning about the earth and this beautiful Earth Day craft is the perfect addition to our Earth Day unit. My kids love watercolors so I just knew they would be excited to start painting and creating their own masterpieces!
Supplies Needed:
- basket coffee filters
- baking sheet or tray
- liquid watercolor paints in blue and green
- eye droppers (these are great for fine motor skills practice) or paintbrushes
- washable glue stick
Helpful Tip: Cover a cookie sheet or tray with 2 layers of paper towels to place the coffee filters on. The paper towels will absorb excess paint.
Step 1 – Paint the Coffee Filter
Invite your students to cover a coffee filter with blue and green liquid watercolor paint. Paintbrushes work great or the kids can use the eye droppers to drop the paint onto the coffee filters and watch it as it spreads.
This is the perfect time to teach students that 71% of the Earth’s surface is made up of water. The other 29% is made up of continents and islands.
RELATED RESOURCE: Pattern Centers and Activities for Pre-K & Kindergarten
If using eye droppers, you can symbolize this by having the kids drop the paint in a pattern of 7 drops of blue watercolor paint, then 3 drops of green watercolor paint, and repeating this pattern until the coffee filter is completely covered. This is great practice for strenthening counting and patterning skills!
Step 2 – Allow to Dry
Allow the coffee filter to dry completely. Coffee filters are a great painting surface because they absorb lots of liquid paint without tearing and they dry quickly!
Step 3 – Attach to a Window
Use washable glue sticks to attach the Earth suncatchers to a window for a stunning display.
When it is time to remove them, peel the suncatcher off and wipe off any remaining bits of coffee filter or glue with a damp sponge.
Here is a quick video to show the process of how to make this Earth Day craft:
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