Carbon Footprint Worksheet For Kids

What Does Carbon Footprint Mean?

Carbon footprint refers to the total greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) caused by your activities. It is measured in tons of carbon dioxide. Greenhouse gases come from the production and consumption of goods and services.

Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and cause the temperature of the Earth to rise, leading to Global Warming. Human activity is responsible for most of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years.

One of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases today is burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation. A smaller amount of greenhouse gases comes from farming and logging trees for paper and other products.

Learn more about the carbon cycle for kids.

Ways To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Everything we do has an impact! From how you travel to school, to what you buy at the grocery store. Every day activities contribute to your personal carbon footprint but there are things we can all do to reduce our carbon footprint!

Here are 10 ways kids can reduce their carbon footprint at home… Can you think of any more?

• Turn off electronics when you aren’t using them
• Turn off the water while you are brushing your teeth
• Turn off lights when you leave the room
• Walk or cycle if possible
• Recycle
• Buy secondhand
• Use reusable grocery bags
• Avoid buying products with lots of plastic packaging
• Eat meat less often
• Eat fruit and vegetables grown locally and in season

We can all help take care of our environment by decreasing our carbon footprint. What about a carbon footprint elementary school? Small changes can make a big difference!

How To Set Up A Carbon Footprint Activity

Supplies:

• Carbon footprint worksheet
• Markers
• Scissors
• Glue stick

Instructions:

STEP 1: Print out the carbon footprint worksheet.

STEP 2: Color and cut out the carbon footprint icons.

STEP 3: Match each symbol to its location on the footprint and glue them in place.

STEP 5: Add other ideas for things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

More Environmental Science For Kids

Discover many fun and doable Earth Day activities for kids, including, art and crafts, slime recipes, science experiments, and more. Like these ideas…

Call it eco-friendly, or cheap, check out these recycling science projects you can do with recycled materials for STEM.

Create this fun Earth Day recyclable craft using egg cartons!

Explore more ways to help our environment…

Set up an acid rain experiment and learn about the impacts of acid rain on the environment.

Find out what stormwater runoff pollution is with this simple stormwater demonstration.

Find out what impacts the carbon cycle.

Learn about the effect of storms on coastal erosion and set up a beach erosion demonstration.

Here is a simple ocean science experiment you can set up with seashells in vinegar that explores the effects of ocean acidification.

Try this oil spill cleanup experiment to learn about ocean pollution right at home or in the classroom.