Add these fun earth day cookies to your cookie sheet activities. Also, grab this fun idea using cookies to build the Eiffel Tower.
When you’re out on Earth Day on April 22 picking up trash, planting gardens and conserving water take a fun break.
Make these Earth Day cookies and add this idea to your cookie sheet activities.
Besides, it’s a great time to learn some fascinating facts about earth.
Too, these Earth Day cookies are a great activity for the whole family, and you will get different results from kids of different skill levels.
For example, encourage your older (middle and high school) kids to go for accurate continents.
Let the toddlers go wild with blobs while you teach them that blue is for water and green for land. That’s a fun super easy introduction to geography.
12 Fascinating Facts About Planet Earth
- Earth is the 3rd planet closest to the sun at a whopping 92.67 million miles.
- The earth rotates at around 1000 miles an hour- wow!
- The circumference of Earth is 24,901 miles.
- Some scientists believe that the continents were not always separate but existed as one large landmass that broke apart-Pangea.
- Earth is the 5th largest planet in the solar system.
- Earth is nicknamed the blue planet or ocean planet, because it is covered in so much water.
- The inner core of the earth is made of iron.
- The earth’s atmosphere is made up of 6 layers. Those layers are called troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere, and ionosphere.
- Did you know that earth is the only planet that is not named after one of the Greek or Roman gods?
- Early ancient Greeks, Sumerians, Egyptians, Vikings, and Babylonians believed the earth was flat because of what they could see around them and the belief that the Heavens were above the earth.
- The driest place in the world is the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, oddly enough it is right next to the biggest body of water — the Pacific Ocean.
- Because the earth is not a perfect sphere its gravitational pull is not the same everywhere. The planet’s surface is bumpy, and water flow, ice drift and the movement of the tectonic plates create different gravity pulls.
Then, look at more ideas below for cookie sheet activities and earth science fun.
More Cookie Sheet Activities
Have you ever considered using a cookie sheet for something other than cookies?
Let’s look at some of my favorite cookie sheet activities that can turn a cheap kitchen item (think Dollar Tree) into a useful learning tool.
- Use a cookie sheet to recreate this Edible Rock Cycle for some tasty earth science.
- Remember when we did a study on George Washington Carver and made peanut butter cookies as part of our learning? What a great dive into history and science that was.
- Use a cookie sheet Cook Ancient Sebetu Rolls and learn about Ancient Mesopotamia.
Next, here are a few that have nothing to do with cooking.
- Check out this Cookie Sheet Challenge Sight Words, much more fun than practicing on a worksheet.
- Or work on early math skills using the Cookie Ten Frame Matching Game for younger children.
- Turn a cookie sheet into a DIY Chore Chart for each child that they help design, a great way to teach them to take ownership of their responsibilities.
- A Magnetic Scrabble Board is an amazing way to work on vocabulary and spelling skills with older children.
Additionally, look at a few more activities to include if you’re learning about this beautiful planet we live on.
More Earth Science Ideas and Activities
- Free Earth Science Lapbook
- 40 Awesome Earth Science Movies
- Edible Rock Cycle Fudge and Hands-on Rock Activities
- Rock Activities For Kindergarten And Fun Edible Rock Cycle
- EASY Hands-on Earth Science: Fun Water Testing Kit
- Erosion Hands-on Easy Homeschool Science Activity
- Edible Geography – Sea Levels
- Free Ocean Lapbook and Unit Study
- Easy Salt water Density Ocean Science Experiments
- Hands-on Fun Nature Tree Study
Finally, let’s get onto the simple tutorial for our Earth Day cookies.
Earth Day Cookies
You will need:
- 1 package sugar cookie dough (or your favorite recipe)
- Green food coloring
- Blue food coloring
- A map or globe for reference
First, mix up your cookie dough according to package directions.
Remove ¼ of the cookie dough and put it aside in a separate bowl.
To the larger amount of cookie dough add blue food coloring and mix until desired shade is reached. Due to the yellow of the egg yolk your blue is going to be more of an aqua/turquoise color than blue.
Add green food coloring to the smaller bowl of dough and mix well.
Roll cookie dough into balls in your hand and then flatten on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Pinch off small amounts of green dough and form rough continent shapes.
As they bake, they are going to spread and become a bit misshaped anyway so focus on the fun and getting the general idea more than perfection.
If your butter is too softened your cookies will spread and give you a large flatter cookie.
If you prefer a thicker, softer cookie pop the dough into the fridge for 15 minutes to chill it before baking.
Bake to the minimum time on your recipe. Keep in mind something about the coloring seems to make them brown and get crunchy edges faster.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Enjoy.
