It’s Not Too Late to Plan a Great Earth Day Celebration for Your Classroom
This is a hand-drawn image of the Earth from the Pics4Learning Collection in netTrekker’s reference feature.
Earth Day’s 40th anniversary is only two days away. Have you made your plans to spend some time outdoors with Mother Nature on Thursday, April 22? It’s not too late to write a quick note to send home in backpacks today. Ask parents to pack a lunch that requires no electricity and contains minimal packaging waste. A paper bag containing a peanut butter sandwiches, a piece of fruit, and milk or bottled water make for the perfect eco-conscious meal. Save the beverage containers to recycle and weigh the limited packaging and/or food waste. Keep a record of this and compare it to a “regular” lunch next week. Students will be amazed at the difference. Visit Educator’s Reference Desk: Cleaning Up for Earth Day. This site contains an activity for students of all ages to do on Earth Day. It shows students the things that humans waste as well as how to sort objects to be recycled.
Plan to begin your day with an Earth poem or song. Lin and Don Donn: U.S. History Lessons: Holidays: Earth Day contains lessons for Earth Day as well as coloring books, songs, and the like.
Go outside and observe nature. Have students complete a sense chart and record the sights, sounds, smells, and tactile qualities of natural objects.
Plant a class tree to commemorate this 40th anniversary. EcoKids provides simple tips for proper planting. To properly dedicate your new tree and honor Mother Nature, take the Earth Pledge.
Have students sit under your newly planted tree and work together in groups to create a Haiku, a traditional form of Japanese poetry about nature. The Kennedy Center resource, Kennedy Center: A Fact Haiku, will provide you a guide and assessments.
Enjoy a picnic lunch. Use any of the recyclable lunch containers to build a creative statue. Name this statue and keep it in your classroom as a reminder to REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYCLE.
A great book by a treasured author.
Wrap up the day reading Just A Dream by Caldecott-winning Chris Van Allsburg. This story will serve as the perfect resource to reinforce your Earth Day activities and to motivate students to continue to make responsible choices as they play a part in preserving Earth’s resources. Chris Van Allsburg’s website is wonderful! It includes a Kids’ Corner, Teacher Resources and many other great literature resources to use anytime of year.
Do you already have some great plans for Earth Day? Post a comment to this blog. Also, visit netTrekker Village and start a discussion of Earth Day reflections. Post photos, quotes, or any other artifacts and let us know how you celebrate this important day.
Tagged Earth Day, ecology, Integration Ideas, lesson plans, literature, netTrekker, read, staff development, Training
Sabrina KinneyApril 20, 2010 at 11:40 am
Our school changed over to the milk in a bag to reduce waste. I actually think they have more waste now. We use to use the milk cartons to create bird feeders, plant seedlings, or to build Ginger Bread houses with. And now instead of a cardboard carton we have a plastic bag that changes the taste of the food.
Great activity!
Amy EllisorApril 26, 2010 at 8:56 am
Thanks for your great comments, Sabrina. Maybe the Lunch Ladies will figure this out and get the good ole cardboards back.
Amy