Earth Day Activity: Cookies

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd every year. It is the perfect time to talk about important topics like climate change, recycling, and energy conservation with your kids. One activity I like to do with son is baking. So, if you are looking for an Earth Day activity for your kids then make these Earth shaped cookies with them! It is fun for all ages and you can talk about all things Earth Day while you make them. If you are looking for other indoor activities check out my post: Indoor Activities for Toddlers.

Step 1:

This is a super easy activity and the kids will love it! You can make your own dough if you have a favorite recipe to use but I used prepackaged cookie dough. Divide your dough into thirds. One third will be used to make the green and two thirds will be used for the blue.

Discussion opportunity: talk about how the Earth’s surface is made up of over 70% water and that is why we need more blue dough!

Step 2:

I used this food coloring from Betty Crocker (see below). For some reason I needed very little blue food coloring but I used the entire green tube!  I am honestly not sure why.

Add food coloring. Add blue to the two-thirds dough bowl. And add green to the 1/3 bowl dough. The exact amount of food coloring will depend on your dough and the desired color. Add about a ½ teaspoon at a time until it is completely mixed in and repeat this until you have reached your desired color.

Discussion opportunity: build on our previous discussion about how the world is made up of mostly water and lead into a discussion about water conservation. Like, taking shorter showers and turning off the water while we brush our teeth.

Step 3:

Preheat your oven to 350*

Step 4:

Roll a spoonful of dough into an inch sized ball, place it on a cookie sheet and flatten it so that it looks more like a hockey puck or a disc.

Discussion opportunity: talk about how people used to believe the world was flat but through the help of exploration and science, we now know the earth is round.

Step 5:

Use the green dough to make the continents. Take a small piece of green dough and create the desired shape you want the land to look like. Then, place it on top of the blue dough. Push gently so it attaches but don’t push it completely into the dough or it won’t keep its shape (see above).

The length of this step will depend on how intricate you want to be and how old your children are. My son is only three so we did this step with more imagination then accuracy. But, if you have older children you can have a contest seeing who can make the most accurate looking continents.

Step 6:

Put the cookie sheet in the oven and bake! It took my cookies about 10 mins to cook but even between batches, the cook time differed. So, cook until the edges start to turn a light brown then you know they are cooked. I would start checking them after 8 minutes.

Step 7: ENJOY

Discussion topics ideas that you can talk about while you enjoy your tasty treats

• The importance of recycling
• The importance of turning lights off when we leave a room
• The importance of using things like toilet paper, paper towels, plastic water bottles, etc. sparingly and how we should try to avoid one-time use products as much as possible.
• Why we need to take quick and efficient showers and not waste water!

No matter what you talk about this Earth Day activity is full of possibilities!