Earth Day is coming up, and this Earth Day craft using coffee filters is an easy and fun activity that I love doing with my students each year!

I loved the “stained glass” tissue paper earths that Maria made with her class, but I wanted something that would require my 4th graders to use a little more of their knowledge of the continents. Then I found this coffee filter tutorial and knew it would be perfect!

Earth Day Craft Materials:

• Coffee Filters
• Blue and Green markers (some students like to use multiple shades of green + blue!)
• A spray bottle with water

Earth Day Coffee Filter Craft Instructions:

This is a fairly quick project to do with students! After I model what to do, I pass out the coffee filters and have students color them with green and blue markers. I usually display a few different views of the Earth that they can choose from when they are coloring the continents to try to draw them in their actual positions, but I tell them it doesn’t have to be perfect! After they finish coloring their coffee filters, I put a paper towel underneath and spray each one with water (about 7-8 squirts, sometimes more sometimes less)! They love to watch the water spread and create a watercolor effect on their Earths! Then we just leave them out on their desks to try!

Display Earth Day Craft with Writing or as Art:

After doing the Coffee Filter craft, I had my students read an article about the history of Earth Day and then they wrote an informational paragraph. They typed their paragraphs and then we printed them off and glued them on a piece of black construction paper under their Earth Day craft!

If you are planning to display the craft as art, they look great on a bulletin board or taped to classroom windows! When I displayed them like this I loved creating these black frames to really make them pop! To make the black frames I cut one piece of black construction paper that fit the size we needed, and then pulled my students a few at a time to the back table where they traced and cut out the frame. Then they taped the coffee filter to the back!

Hope you have a wonderful Earth Day with your class! And of course if you didn’t get to celebrate it yet, you can celebrate the Earth any time of the year!