Petit Collage loves the planet we live on – and wants your little ones to fall in love with it, too.

With World Environment Day on June 5 and World Oceans Day on June 8, it’s the perfect opportunity to get your little one thinking about our world!

Here are a few planet-astic things you can do together to mark these important dates, brought to you by Petit Collage...

Celebrate Biodiversity

The theme of this year's World Environment Day is Biodiversity. There are 8 million species on the planet, from plants and animals to fungi and bacteria. We suggest you take a notebook and pen around with you all day to jot down all the different species you can spot and name together. How many of the 8 million will you find?!

You could take your notebook out again in the autumn or winter and do the same exercise all over again! Has the number of species changed? 

Recycled Shapes Art

Get your little one to name all kinds of interesting shapes by painting around recycled items. Tubes, cereal boxes and yogurt pots are all fun and easy to paint around. You can make it a real masterpiece by sticking on extra fun bits like biodegradable glitter and flowers or leaves from the garden! As your little one creates, they'll be learning plenty about what we can recycle, too.

Even if you don’t have any recycling lying around, you can still get your little one engaging with recycled art. For example, you can check our Pop-Out Play Sets which are all made of thick, sturdy, recycled board. We recommend our Ocean Pop-Out Play Set for World Oceans Day!

Draw up a Happy Planet List

Create a list of things you and your family can do to protect the planet! Encourage your little one to put a sticker next to a family member's name each time they do something positive for the planet. This can be anything, big or small – turning off the lights, walking somewhere instead of driving, taking the recycling out…

Scoop & Pour!

Become scientists for the day and mix up your own laundry detergent, using natural ingredients! Many popular detergents contain dozens of potentially harmful ingredients, and are toxic to marine life.

By mixing up your own, you'll avoid using some of the more harmful substances for our planet (such as petrochemicals, carcinogens and optical brighteners). Plus, there'll be plenty of fun scooping and pouring involved for the little one!

Here's a recipe you might like, which contains simple, easily obtainable ingredients. 

Recreate the Ocean...

This Ocean Zones science project is fantastic for those who are home-schooling slightly older kids at the moment - and it's a fun weekend activity, too! 

Recreate the ocean layers - from the Sunlight Zone all the way down to the deep, dark Trenches - with some glass jars and food coloring. Pop some ocean creature models into each layer, to understand who lives where! Label all the jars, stack them on top of each other and you'll have a super exciting display piece. 

Bedtime Reading

Time for bed? Get them nodding off to positive, uplifting stories about the environment. This list of children's books about animals and nature is a great place to start. Fill them with wonder with tales about the birds, the trees and more!