World Environment Day Activity Ideas 2021

World Environment Day 2021 will be celebrated on June 5th. Since its beginning in 1973, World Environment Day has developed into a global event, raising awareness on urgent issues such as global warming, marine pollution, sustainable living and the preservation of wildlife. Over the years, millions of people – including children of all ages, have taken part in this initiative, helping to change our habits as well as change national and international environmental policy. Our World Environment Day activity ideas will help guide you with crafts, books and movies that are a great way of introducing the concept of “environment” to young children. 

What is this year’s theme?

Firstly, it is important to emphasis to children that the word “environment” refers to everything in the world around them, including all living creatures and plants as well as mountains, rivers, the climate and air. Plants and animals need a healthy environment to survive. The theme of the year’s World Environment Day is ecosystem restoration. An ecosystem is an area where living organisms interact in a specific way with the local environment to survive. When ecosystems are damaged by man, then some living organisms may not be able to survive.

Ecosystems are being harmed through human actions:

• There will be more plastic in our oceans than fish by 2050 and approximately 25% of the world’s coral reefs have been irreversibly destroyed.
• The demand for palm oil and wood has resulted in massive deforestation issues in South America and south-east Asia resulting in the loss of up to 80% of natural forest. This has led to a decline in animal populations. 
• Humans send over 2 million tonnes of waste to landfill each year and in the UK we recycle only 17% of our waste. This waste is taking up precious space on our planet that should be used for plants and animals.

World Environment Day Activity Ideas 

Bottle Cap Fish Art

Create beautiful recycled artwork using old bottle caps to make this simple, easy-to-create masterpiece, suitable for all ages.

For this activity:

1. You will need: old bottle caps, blue paper, green tissue paper, glitter pens, coloured paper cut into triangles (for tails), googly eyes, glue.
2. Glue triangles onto blue paper. 
3. Glue googly eyes onto bottle caps. 
4. Glue bottle caps onto triangles to create the body of the fish.
5. Decorate the bodies of the fish with glitter pens. 
6. Twist and crumple the tissue paper and glue down, filling in the gaps between the fish.
7. Add bubbles using the glitter pens. 
8. Your artwork is complete!

Homemade Bird Feeder

Making homemade bird feeders is a fun way for you and your kids to get to know which birds live in your area, and to help them find food.

For this activity:

1. You will need: an orange, string, bird seed and a knife.
2. Cut the orange in half and scoop out the flesh. 
3. Poke a hole on each side of the orange half. 
4. Tie the ends of a string through each hole.
5. Fill with bird seed.
6. Find a tree to hand your feeder on and watch the local birds enjoy their treat!

Tennis Ball Playdough Globe

Explore our planet through this simple craft using a recycled tennis ball and blue and green playdough to create the globe and continents.

For this activity:

1. You will need: an old tennis ball, blue and green play dough.
2. Flatten the blue play dough into a circle and place the tennis ball in the middle. 
3. Mold the play dough around the tennis ball, covering the surface. 
4. Using the green play dough, shape two triangles connected with a tail for North and South America.
5. Continue to shape Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia using the green play dough. 
6. Stick the continents onto the globe.
7. Enjoy exploring and naming the different continents with your child!

Best books to celebrate World Environment Day 2021

One World by Michael Foreman

This iconic book is over 30 years old but still hits on the important environmental issues threatening our oceans and sea-life in a clear way for younger children to understand.

This great picture book raises awareness of the fragility of our planet and how we all have a part to play in preserving it. Children will love the beautiful watercolour illustrations. A great way to start a discussion about our environment.

The Last Bear by Hannah Gold

This touching story of kindness, adventure, and is about a girl named April whose father takes her one a scientific research trip to a faraway Arctic outpost. April catches a glimpse of a polar bear who shouldn’t be there — who is hungry, lonely and a long way from home. The melting polar ice caps threaten him and all the other polar bears and April becomes determined to do all she can to save the bear — and the Arctic.

Pivotal to the story is the reality of climate change and effect it’s having firstly on the polar bear population, and on the planet as a whole.

The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

The author and artist Lynne Cherry journeyed deep into the rain forests of Brazil to write and illustrate her gorgeous picture book based on the story of an exhausted man who is chopping down a great kapok tree in the Brazilian rainforest. He puts down his axe to rest and as he sleeps, the animals who live in the tree plead with him not to destroy their world. 

This book will make kids think about deforestation and how it affects the habitats of many animals.

Best movies to celebrate World Environment Day 2021

The Lorax

A boy living in a polluted area of town seeks to discover what happened to the Lorax. To discover this he visits a man called Once-ler in the place where the “Grickle –grass grows”. While visiting Once-ler he hears the sad story of how Once-ler chopped down all the Truffula trees to fund his manufacturing business, destroying the home of the animals and polluting the air and water. This in turn drove the Lorax away and the Once-ler now lives alone and with deep regret of his selfish actions.

Based on the short story of the Lorax which was published in 1971, it’s clear what the important themes are that Dr Seuss has focused on and it’s sad that over 40 years later these themes are still major issues that we face today. The major catalyst to the Lorax leaving was the cutting down of all the trees. The Lorax speaks for the trees “for the trees have no tongues” and unfortunately all his speaking did could not save them – especially as the innovation in Once-ler’s axe technology quadrupled his turnover of tree harvesting!

Sadly, at our current rate of deforestation, our rainforest could disappear in a hundred years. The most common reasons behind deforestation are agriculture, logging and urban development. The biggest impact deforestation has is on the 80% of the earth’s animals and plants that live there. 

WALL-E

This 2008 Pixar film is set in a dystopian future where Earth has turned into a barren wasteland void of life due to humans’ failure to care for it. The responsibility to clean up rubbish left by humans has been undertaken by the last robot on Earth, WALL-E. Humans have started living on a spaceship, going through their daily lives on comfortable hovering chairs while having their every request served by robots. The main characters of the story are WALL-E and EVE, a robot tasked by the space colony to find life on Earth. The film revolves around the trials and tribulations of the robots in bringing a seedling, which managed to grow despite the conditions on Earth, to the captain of the spaceship. WALL-E finds love and ends up saving humanity from itself. Underlying the film are strong environmental messages to: reduce, reuse, recycle, and think about what you’re doing to the planet.

Over the Hedge

This Dreamworks animated film from the early 2000s reminds us of the challenges animals face due to human development. Over the Hedge is a super funny family classic that reminds us we should be appreciating the natural environment rather than destroying it. In the film, the forest animals, led by raccoon RJ, wake up from their winter hibernation to find their forest has been destroyed and replaced by a suburban neighbourhood. In a light-hearted way, the film depicts the struggle the animals face to navigate their new environment. The neighboring humans are evaluated on their eating habits, modes of transportation and garbage collection from the perspective of these furry forest animals. The main theme of how urban development impacts the animals a l is clear even to younger viewers. 

How can kids help the environment?

Aside from these World Environment Day activity ideas, it is important to speak with our children about simple actions they can take to help preserve our planet such as:

• Try to use reusable items as much as possible to reduce waster. For example, carry a reusable water bottle, use reusable food containers, reuse carrier bags at the shops. 
• Switch off lights when not using them and other electrical appliances, this will help save the family money on electricity bills and also help to reduce the amount of electricity produced. 
• Reduce your paper usage by using all side of a paper when writing and drawing,  use a reusable cloth instead of paper towels and recycle any leftover paper.
• Save water by turning the tap off while brushing your teeth and try to take shorter showers to avoid wasting water.
• Recycle as much as you can! Find out what items can be put in your recycling bin.

By celebrating World Environment Day 2021, you will be to educating and inspiring your children to live in harmony with nature, encouraging them to become protectors of our planet for generations to come.