Nature Kindness Activities for Kids: Easy Ways to Help Planet Earth

Help children commit simple acts of kindness towards the natural world with these fun, eco-friendly kindness activities, perfect for Earth Day or any day of the year.

Encourage children to be kind to Earth with the kindness activities for kids below, helping create the environmental stewards we need for a sustainable future and a better tomorrow. When children learn to care for nature, they begin to see the world as something to admire and protect, not merely to enjoy. Kindness isn’t just for people, it’s for the birds we watch, the tiny bugs beneath our feet, and the trees we climb.

Be Kind to Planet Earth and Mother Nature with These Fun Activities for Kids:

Discover simple nature-focused kindness activities for kids. Learn easy ways to inspire children to help Planet Earth, care for the environment, and foster a lifelong love of nature through everyday acts of kindness. Then make these kindness activities, and others like them, a habit in your home or classroom.

Small acts of kindness, such as picking up litter, watering plants, or leaving a windflower for the bees, help children feel connected to the outdoors in a meaningful way. These simple acts of kindness invite children to slow down and notice the natural world. They foster empathy, spark curiosity, and teach respect for all living things. Best of all, they show children that even the smallest hands can make a big difference. You may also enjoy Get Outside and Connect.

Inspiring Acts of Kindness with the “Kindness Elves”

When this post was first published on March 17, 2018, it encouraged children to commit simple acts of kindness towards nature to help the Kindness Elves save this beautiful planet and conserve our most precious natural resources. However, you don’t need the Kindness Elves to complete these kindness-to-nature activities for kids. This part of these activities is entirely optional. Today, there are several alternatives you can try.

The Kindness Elves are cute little dolls for children that encourage simple acts of kindness year-round. They were first introduced as a refreshing alternative to the Elf on the Shelf, but unlike the Elf, they can encourage kindness year-round through nature activities like those in this informative guide. Learn more about these inspiring helpers in 10 Reasons to Choose the Kindness Elves Over the Elf on the Shelf.

Encourage Acts of Kindness to Nature with the Kindness Elves, Another Character They Enjoy, or Yourself:

Optional notes from the Kindness Elves (or another character your children admire) can encourage kids of all ages to complete the kindness activities below. Today, the step-by-step kindness activity instructions have been updated to include ideas for leaving notes from another person or character they admire, if desired.

These notes can be pretty helpful at motivating young children to commit acts of kindness towards Mother Nature, should you choose to use them. If you are not interested in using notes to inspire children towards action, skip to the list of nature kindness activities in the next section.

Alternatively, you can write the notes yourself or find another way to encourage children of all ages to complete the nature, kindness, and eco-friendly suggestions below. For more nature-friendly ideas, please visit “How to Care for the Earth.”

How to Use Notes to Motivate Children to Perform Acts of Kindness towards Nature:

If you would like to use postcards from the Kindness Elves, or notes from another admired character, or yourself as a source of encouragement, follow the step-by-step instructions below:

1. Leave your children a message from the Kindness Elves (or another character or person they admire) that suggests ways they can be kind to nature.
   • In other words, write them a note signed by the Kindness Elves or another of their favorite characters, such as the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, a superhero, or a person they admire, such as Grandma, Grandpa, or a favorite teacher. Or, sign the note yourself.)
   • Alternatively, you can doodle the notes from the Kindness Elves on leaves like Liska over at Adventure in a Box for even more nature fun.
2. Encourage the kids to look in their mailboxes to see if there is a message or a kindness activity for them. Or simply leave a note or a card for them somewhere they will find it.
3. After they have completed the activity, leave your children a little note from you or from the person or character they admire, congratulating them on their act of kindness towards nature. Doing so will reinforce the behavior, making them more likely to repeat it. They can record their experiences in their homemade nature journal or Little Book of Big Kindnesses (if you have this optional book).
4. Repeat the steps above as many times and in as many ways as you like!
5. Discover ten ways to encourage kindness to nature with the kindness activities for kids in the next section!

Update: The original Kindness Elves are the only colors available today. When this post was published, there were a few different sets of elf colors, each with its own story and primary kindness mission. The green elves are nature lovers, so we use them to encourage kindness to nature in our home. However, the classic Kindness Elves and other characters or people your kids admire can be easily substituted. You can see our adorable little green elves in the photographs in this post.

Related: Nature Crafts and Art Ideas

Kindness Activities for Kids: How To Encourage Kindness to Nature and Mother Earth:

Use the kindness activity ideas for kids below to encourage kindness to the natural world and all Mother Nature’s many varied creatures. Everything we do and purposefully don’t do makes a difference. Thank you for your help caring for Planet Earth and the beautiful world in which we live!

1. Encourage Children to Go Outside to Play Every Day:

Encourage children to go outside to play every single day. Make it a part of your daily rhythm. To help make playing outside a habit at home, write a motivational note from the Kindness Elves, another character, or yourself to inspire your kids to take action. Getting outside helps children fall in love with nature. When you hear your kids say, “I’m bored,” you can say, or leave them a note that reads, “Have you played outside today?” as a reminder that playing outside is a way to share kindness with the natural world.

My mother constantly told my brothers and me to play outside as kids. If we came home before dark, she would, half-jokingly, say, “The sun is still up, what are you doing in the house?” Then she’d help us drink water, grab a snack, use the bathroom, and head back outside again. Thanks, Mom! It was one of the best things she did for us as kids. It gave her the space she needed to stay sane with four young children running around the house, and my brothers and I had the opportunity to fall in love with the beautiful wild spaces and creatures we found in the great outdoors.

A simple way to help children start caring about nature is by helping them notice the living world around them. Spending as much time as possible outdoors is a great way to do this. It’s hard not to notice and begin to care for what you are immersed in. A simple way to encourage children to go outside and play is to leave a note with a simple outdoor play suggestion. It can even be an imaginary play kindness mission!

For example, when my daughter was a toddler, I left a note from the Kindness Elves that read, “Make mud pies and throw a party for the woodland creatures.” My daughter ended up playing independently in the backyard for hours and enjoyed herself immensely.

Related: DIY Outdoor Art Table and Mud Kitchen

2. Stay on Marked Trails:

Please stay on marked paths and trails in the wild world; it matters more than you think. Walking off trails can damage plants and disturb animal homes. Venturing off onto unmarked trails, including what seem like harmless game trails, invites several potential hazards. It can lead to erosion, getting lost, or the introduction of unwanted foreign invaders into an environment, such as disease or invasive species.

Please stay on marked trails to help our natural parks remain healthy and thriving well into the future. By staying on designated trails, you preserve nature for future generations to appreciate and help reduce erosion and habitat loss. Before you go hiking in nature and other wild spaces, leave the kids a note gently reminding them to stay on marked trails and paths to help preserve the natural world for years to come.

3. Please Leave Wildflowers Where They Grow, Don’t Pick Them:

It can be tempting to pick a pretty wildflower, but it’s best to leave it where it grows. Wildflowers are an important food source for pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and other insects. When flowers are picked, these animals lose the nectar and pollen they need to survive. Many wild plants also rely on their flower to produce seeds. If a flower is removed, the plant can’t reproduce, which means fewer plants will grow in that area next season.

Picking wildflowers can also harm the broader habitat. Some species are rare or protected, and removing even a few can make it harder for them to return year after year. In popular nature areas, many people picking “just one” flower can quickly leave empty fields. Leaving wildflowers where they grow helps keep ecosystems healthy, supports wildlife, and allows everyone to enjoy their beauty right where they belong.

It’s also wise to check local rules before picking anything from nature. In many parks, preserves, and protected areas, picking wildflowers is prohibited. These rules help protect fragile ecosystems and ensure native plants continue to grow for years to come. You can look up local guidelines online or check signs, trailheads, and visitor centers. When in doubt, take a photo instead. It lasts longer and keeps nature growing and thriving for generations to come.

How to Help Children Leave Flowers Growing:

Before hiking in a protected area, I gave my daughter a note from the Kindness Elves. A note from you, another person, or a character can be easily substituted. The note read, “Please take good care of the beautiful wildflowers today by staying on the trails, and please don’t pick them. The flowers want to grow big and strong like you. When you come home, please draw us a picture of them.” Alternatively, you can have a conversation with your kids or students about these topics instead.

The hike was in a protected area, with signs warning visitors not to pick wildflowers and to stay on marked trails. In the past, I struggled to keep my daughter from running into the fields of flowers and picking them all. Thankfully, on this day, she helped Mom take pictures of all the beautiful wildflowers instead. When we returned home, she drew a lovely picture of the flowers dotting a green landscape with a blue sky.

The next day, I left her a note to learn more about the flowers she had photographed using our wildflower field guide. This note helped us have another great day, filled with learning for both of us as homeschooling parent and child. Give it a try!

4. Reduce Plastic Use:

The plastics we use don’t disappear when we are finished with them. Plastic doesn’t just go away when we don’t need it anymore. Plastic never goes away, and it is devastating our planet. Single-use plastics, such as bottles and bags, as well as clothing and shoes made with unnatural materials, are just a few of the primary substances polluting our world today. Please do your best to reduce or eliminate plastic use, and purchase clothing made from natural fibers to help reduce microplastics in our waterways and around the world.

With help from the Kindness Elves or another character or person, you can encourage kids to reduce their plastic use. Ask them to use fewer plastic cups, bags, bottles, and straws. For my daughter, it was single-use straws. The following section shares how I used the Kindness Elves to help her see how damaging this habit is to the health of our waterways, wildlife, planet, and people.

5. Stop Sucking, Ditch the Single-Use Straw:

Single-use plastic, such as straws, is one of the most damaging things in the world’s waterways. I desperately wanted my daughter to stop using them. She never would have started if not for going “out” to eat, because servers give them to children as if it were a requirement. It’s been a struggle to race them to the glass with the portable stainless steel straws I carry in my purse over the years.

Once she learned of their mighty existence, she refused to drink anything without one. Solving this problem was easy enough at home. I invested in a set of stainless steel straws for her to use. She was so obsessed, I didn’t think I could convince her to say “No, thank you” to the single-use straw when we went out to eat. When I tried to ask her not to use one, she’d refuse because she just didn’t get it, and I couldn’t figure out a way to explain it in a way that made sense to her yet.

Then I thought of a way to convince her that plastic straws are the last thing she or our planet “needed.” The Kindness Elves left a note asking her to watch a video about something very important. As soon as we finished watching the video, she was inspired into action. We purchased a set of portable steel straws for my purse, so my daughter could still enjoy using a straw even when we were out and about. This motivated her to make the change and say goodbye to single-use straws. Like the young girl in the video below, she is now on a mission to inform others of the dangers of single-use straws by helping her friends and their families leave plastic straws behind, and I am so proud of her!

6. Volunteer:

Donate time to your favorite park or wild space to be kind to nature. There are lots of simple things you can do to help. Contact your local city, state, or national park to learn more. Once you determine what you would like to do to volunteer, tell them, or leave a note from the Kindness Elves, another person or character they admire, or yourself to share the volunteer mission with your children or students. Please remember to write the volunteer mission’s location, date, and time in the note, and add it to your calendar or rhythm.

7. Pick up litter, even if it’s not yours:

Picking up litter is an act of kindness toward nature that has a positive impact. Removing litter from natural and urban areas helps keep nature clean and safe for animals and prevents pollutants from entering our natural resources, such as water and soil. Even small pieces of litter can harm wildlife, pollute water, and leach chemicals and microplastics into soil.

Every bit you remove makes a difference. Our environment, children, food and water sources, and the future of our planet can benefit from this simple act of kindness in more ways than can be counted. Inspire children to help by leaving a note asking them to take a nature walk to pick up trash. Or go to the park and do the same as they do while they play.

8. Plant Something:

Encourage the kids to get their hands dirty by planting seeds or starter plants in your backyard or front yard. They can even help start a garden! Seeing new life sprout from the Earth is an excellent way for children to experience nature’s bounty and begin to develop a reverence for it. Try any of the simple gardening activities for kids on the list below:

Gardening Activities for Kids:

There are lots of fun things to plant and grow with children. Make a plan to plant sunflowers, spring flowers, tomatoes, or even a tree for Arbor Day or Earth Day. You can also grow a sunflower house or start a fairy garden!

Another fantastic act of kindness towards nature is making your backyard more wildlife-friendly by planting native plants that birds and pollinators enjoy. For tips, please visit these birdwatching ideas for kids and backyard birders everywhere. Ideas include information about planting flowers that bees, butterflies, and birds enjoy, or even turning it into a certified wildlife habitat. Planting them gives our essential helpers a safe place to rest and feed. Spur your little helper into action with a note from the Kindness Elves or another person they admire.

9. Start a Compost:

Compost turns food waste into rich soil. This helps plants grow and keeps waste out of landfills. Encourage the kids to help recycle food scraps into compost. Composting is a fantastic way to help children complete the natural cycle and help improve soil. Learn more about composting and how to get started with this eco-friendly activity here: Composting at Home: What, Why, and How to Compost.

To inspire my little helper, I left a note for my daughter asking her to help her Dad empty the countertop compost into the compost bin outside after dinner daily. She did a great job helping with this simple task every night. Eventually, taking out the compost became a part of her daily cleanup duties after dinner.

10. Take only Pictures, leave only Footprints:

There is a saying that goes, “Take only pictures, leave only footprints.” This saying encourages us to leave an area as undisturbed as possible. Please do your best to pack your trash and leave no trace. Be kind to nature and our environment. Kids love collecting unique natural treasures from the great outdoors to take home. Shells, rocks, sticks; I’ve never met a mother without some natural item in her pocket when outdoors with her children.

Collecting natural treasures in this way is fine within reason, as long as it is welcomed. This activity is prohibited in many places and spaces, and considered illegal in some natural areas, including most national and state parks. Assist your little naturalist by taking only what they need to display on nature tables, as natural, open-ended toys, or to make nature crafts from places that allow it. Help them bring home only what they promise to use with a note of encouragement from someone they admire or the Kindness Elves. These little notes work like magic!

11. Water Plants and Trees During Dry Spells:

Plants need water to stay healthy, especially during hot or dry weather. Helping them thrive supports the whole ecosystem. Bring water to various trees and plants in the wild world around you to help them quench their thirst when temperatures climb. One way to do this is to bring more water than you think you need hiking in your reusable water bottles and packs. When you are on the return trip or leaving the park, use it to water the plants before you head home.

12. Turn off Lights and Water When Not in Use:

Saving energy and water helps protect the earth’s precious natural resources for future generations. It also helps reduce pollution and keeps our plants healthy for everyone. Please encourage your children and students to join you in this simple conservation activity that helps protect the natural world. Discover several more conservation tips in Caring for the Earth.

13. Make a Pledge to the Earth:

Help children make a pledge to the Earth that encourages kindness to nature. Alternatively, get access to the entire set of Earth Day Printables.

Eco-Friendly Rewards and Gift Ideas for Kids from the Kindness Elves for Acts of Kindness Towards Nature

If children have done well on their kindness missions, give them a gift from yourself or another person or character they admire, such as the kindness elves. This gift can be both a reward for their service and an easy way to encourage them to continue their mission of kindness towards nature. Look through these fantastic ideas for natural baby, toddler, preschool, and open-ended toys that make great gifts for kids. You might also enjoy this Eco-Friendly Gift Guide for Kids.

Encourage Kindness To Nature with the Kindness Elves:

Like anything else, kindness toward nature deepens with practice. Each small, thoughtful act adds up. In the long run, they can help children develop a lifelong love of the wild world around them. When children care for the earth, they also learn to care for themselves and others.

Over time, these simple habits shape how children see their place in the world. They come to understand that they are a part of nature, at one with it, not separate from it. As John Muir said, “When we tug on a single thing in nature, we find it attached to everything else.”

Real change begins with children who feel connected, responsible, and inspired to care for our beautiful planet. As parents, teachers, and caregivers, we can show them the way. Use the kindness activities above to encourage kids to be kind to nature, to help lead the way to real change.

Guide humanity towards living in greater alignment with nature by sharing these simple acts of kindness, like those on the list included here, with your children. Our future depends on it. You may also enjoy making Kindness Cookies to gift as an act of kindness.

Learn more about Nell Regan Kartychok, author and photographer of these kindness activities in nature HERE, and Rhythms of Play HERE!

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