Top 10 Earth Day Activities From SmarterKids.com

Business Wire, April 13, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 13, 2000

In celebration of Earth Day 2000 (April 22), SmarterKids.com offers 10 great activities to get the kids involved and encourage a love and appreciation of nature and the environment.

-- Together, brainstorm simple ideas that you and your children can do to help the environment. Consider earth-conscious activities such as taking part in a neighborhood clean-up or a public park trash pick-up. Start a beautifying project such as planting a tree or some flowers.

-- With your child, set up a recycling center in your house. Label different plastic bins for glass, soda bottles, plastic bottles and newspapers. Many towns provide a special recycling pick-up on Earth Day.

-- To help your child understand how pollution can hurt animals, conduct an acid rain experiment. Have your child pour some vinegar into a glass. Drop a piece of white chalk into the liquid. Observe what happens, this is the same reaction that acid rain has on stone.

-- On a monthly calendar, assign at least two days each week to Earth-conscious activities such as a neighborhood clean-up, recycling collection, public-park trash pick-up or a beautifying project.

-- Have a shorter-shower contest. Create a chart on which everyone in the family records the number of minutes they spend in each shower. At the end of the week, total each person's shower time and divide it by the number of showers they took to get an average. See who wins the shortest shower award and present that person with an appropriate prize.

-- Experiment with evaporation. Place a small amount of ocean water in a shallow metal dish such as a pie pan. Have your child predict what he/she thinks will happen if the dish is placed in the sun. Next, watch as the water evaporates, leaving the salt and small particles of sand behind.

-- Build your own water cycle to show the various stages of evaporation, condensation, precipitation and transpiration (the movement of water through plants). Layer a jar with small rocks, sand, dirt, a plant and a small cap containing water. Place the jar in a sunny window and observe the water cycle.

-- Visit a local stream or pond to look for different kinds of frogs. Take photos of the frogs. Then, using a book from the library or the Internet, identify the types of frogs found.

-- Feed the birds. Birds like to eat broken nuts, cracked corn and sunflower seeds. Children can throw these seeds on the ground to attract birds. To supply water, children can also put out a bowl of fresh water for birds to drink on a daily basis.

-- Create a panther habitat. Every animal needs an environment to live where they are safe from harm. This environment is called an animal's habitat. Have your child use the local library or the Internet to research the Florida panther's habitat. Make a list of words describing the habitat. Next, have your child create a diorama of the panther's habitat (use a shoe box, construction paper, markers and real items from the outdoors like grass, rocks, etc.) Ask your child to identify ways to protect the Florida panther from extinction.

SmarterKids.com offers links to a number of Earth Day resources and earth-related products to help teach your children to love the environment. Visit the SmarterKids.com Parents Center at http://www.smarterkids.com/rescenter for a complete listing of Earth Day activities.

SmarterKids.com (NASDAQ: SKDS) is the Internet's leading educational resource for parents with infants through 15 year olds. The site is designed to help parents help their children learn, develop and grow.