Earth Day Ideas for the Classroom

Earth Day is coming up on Tuesday, and we always devote our whole day to it in the classroom.  Yes, we do believe that every day is Earth Day, and we're big on recyling and conserving energy in the classroom, but on April 22nd, we tend to go a bit bigger with our thoughts and actions.

Here are some ideas I've done in the classroom with my kiddos:

Integrating Art and Language into Earth Day

-  Earth Day Report Card - click on the link to try this freebie out.  Students complete a "green" report card for either their home, classroom, or school (all three versions are included).

- Recyled Earth Art Project - These are projects were a big hit!  I gave each student a piece of paper with the outline of the Earth on it.  They then used recycled magazines to fill in all the white space with the appropriate colours (green for the land, blue for the water, and a darker black, grey, or black for the outside area.  So simple, and so effective.

We put both of these ideas together on our Earth Day bulletin board.

I've recently updated this Recycled Art Idea to integrate Poetry Month, as well.  This "I am the Earth" activity has your students creating a collage of the Earth with recycled magazines or colored paper, and writing an "I Am" poem, from the point of view of the Earth.  My students' poems always contain the most beautiful phrases after we've spent some time discussing our impact on the Earth and the actions we can take.

Integrate Math into Earth Day

- Take the current math concept you are studying in class, and turn it into a problem-solving activity with an Earth Day Twist.  For this problem, we were studying perimeter and area.  Students completed their activity on half sheets of recycled chart paper, complete with diagrams.

Integrate Math and Phys Ed into Earth Day

- We usually get out for a yard clean-up on Earth Day (however, I doubt this one will be happening this year with all the snow we STILL have).  Last year we did a Yard Clean-Up Relay Race.  So much fun!  I divided the class into teams.  Each team had a garbage bag and a whiteboard.  As each person came in with their garbage to tag the next team member, the team also had to keep track of every piece they collected with tally marks on a white board.  The team that collected the most garbage won, but really, the whole school won with a clean yard.  We then used the data we collected on our white boards to complete a graphing activity.  We were amazed by the amount of garbage we were able to collect ... and requested a few more garbage cans be placed in the yard in hopes of reducing the amount of garbage.

Integrate Drama into Earth Day

- Have a little fun on Earth Day with this brand new Earth Day Drama Circle.  Students will love sharing ideas and information about Earth Day with this activity.

Integrate Technology into Earth Day
- We've been making infographics for Earth Day this year.  We're using a great site - www.easel.ly to create our infographics, and the students are LOVING it!  What a great way to integrate technology, research skills, and media all into one.  Another site you can use to make a graphic collage is www.mural.ly
I took some screenshots of some of the infographics my students are currently working on.

Integrate Language, Oral Speaking, and Leadership Skills into Earth Day

- This year my students have also written Earth Day announcements they plan to read over the P.A. system during morning announcements for the next two weeks.  Some of their announcements were research based about Earth Day, and some were activity based for the events we would be taking on in the school (I let the students choose their own topics for their announcements).  Because the students have an authentic audience, they took extra care with their writing, and their announcements turned out great!  We discussed using hooks to start our writing, and satisfying conclusion to end our announcements.

Integrate Language, Art, and FUN into Earth Day
- For our last Earth Day project this year, we plan to complete an Earth Day Craftivity I made.  This will be the final piece to our bulletin board display - alongside our announcements and infographics.  I can't wait to pull it all together!!!

You can see this Earth Day craftivity by clicking HERE.

I hope you enjoyed all these Earth Day ideas for your classroom!!!  How do you recognize the day in your classroom?

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Celebrating Earth Week

Although we discuss the importance of global responsibility throughout the year, we really try to focus on it during Earth Week in the classroom.  I tried to incorporate these kind of activities into all subjects across the curriculum this week.

On Monday we did this word problem for our three part math lesson.  We've been studying perimeter and area for about a week, so I thought they'd be good to go.  But boy, they struggled with it.  They all wanted to do 1.2 x 10 = 12 for area.  Not so much.  I gave them hints to draw a diagram, and I even started off a diagram for them, but we still had to revisit the problem the next day to consolidate the learning and fix-up some of the misconceptions.  It was a real math work-out.  ;)

On Tuesday we got outside for a yard clean-up.  But I decided to add a twist.  I divided the class into 4 groups and we made it a relay race.  I kept track of the number of pieces of garbage collected on the whiteboard - because my class is so competitive this year - this was a HUGE success.  They set a goal to collect 100 pieces of garbage, but I ended up filling both sides of the whiteboard with tally marks, and we ended up collecting well over 300 pieces of garbage (I would just like to insert that we have a gigantic school yard, and we did the back, front, driveway, and parking lot).  Fresh air, exercise, and some care of the school grounds ... perfect!

Our science unit is Conserving Energy, so I decided to pair it with some writing this week, and I used some writing prompts and paper from The Science Penguin.  Click here to see her Earth Day Freebie.  I let the students choose from 8 different prompts, then they had to complete their good copies on the Earth Day stationery in the pack.  We added some art (coffee filter globes) and had a perfect display for Earth Week.

You can get directions for making the coffee filter globes here.

How did you celebrate Earth Week with your class?

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Friday Art Feature - with an Earth Day Twist

It's been a bit since I've done a Friday Art Feature.  Two reasons:  1)  I LOVED my Kandinsky trees so much I can't bear to take them down yet, and  2)  I'm feeling the pressure of testing looming (even though it's more than a month away), and I'm trying to squeeze in as much review as possible.

I wanted to focus on Earth Day at school today, so I thought I'd try to squeeze in a quick art project.  And since I was planning on putting these up on a different bulletin board, I could still leave my Kandinsky trees up - they just make me happy.




Isn't this collage of Earth stunning???  My friend, Tracie, had pinned an image similar to this from Artsonia.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to do this project as part of our Earth Day activities.  We recycled old National Geographic magazines for this project (LOVE how vibrant the pictures are in National Geographic - absolutely perfect for this activity).

I gave each student an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of white paper (recycled paper, of course) with a picture of the Earth on it.  Each student also got one recycled magazine.  I instructed the students tear pieces of coloured images to make their collages - green or brown for the land, blue for the water, and a dark colour for the space around.  It was a quick and easy project - only took between 30 and 45 minutes - and the finished products are beautiful!  (I think I might like these as much as the Kandinsky trees ... maybe).

We also did our Earth Day Report Cards today (did you grab your free copy yet?).  I gave the students the choice between the school or the classroom report cards.  I did get a good balance of the two.  The students really enjoyed interviewing the principal, secretary, and custodian to find some of the answers for questions asked.  I am happy to report my classroom and school scored quite well, according to the students.  I LOVED the suggestions they came up with (garbage monitor in the lunch room, ban the electric pencil sharpeners [I SO agree with this one], no homework to save paper [not so sure I agree with this one ... but totally expected it ;)]).  I sent the students home with the home version of the report card (so much for no homework), for the them to do with their parents on the 22nd.

Just before I left for the day I put the finishing touches on our Earth Day bulletin board.  A few days ago I saw this door on Pinterest (can't find a blog to credit it to), and thought it was brilliant!!!  I knew the phrase "The Earth without 'art' is just ... 'eh'", would be perfect.  And I was right - LOVE how our bulletin board turned out.  Our school is actually recognizing Earth Day all next week, but the early bird gets the worm ... wait ... a worm ... how can that be a good thing??  ;)

How are you celebrating Earth Day at your school?

Happy Friday!!!  (what a crazy long week ... thought I wasn't going to make it for a while).

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Earth Day Freebie

It's been a beautiful weekend here - all weekends should be four-day weekends!  We've enjoyed two fabulous Easter dinners with extended family, have satisfied (more than satisfied) our chocolate cravings, enjoyed the beautiful weather outside, and got in a little crafting, too.  I thought I'd try to squeeze in this post while we're waiting for the glue to dry on our craft.

Are you thinking about Earth Day activities already?  I am.  Two of my favourite books to use for Earth Day are Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg, and Human Footprint by National Geographic Kids.  National Geographic also has a free PDF resource about the Human Footprint (good for middle school and older).  Click here to see it.


So, all the thinking about Earth Day activities, and being outside enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend, made me want to make an Earth Day freebie to share with all of you.  In this Earth Day Report Card, students are given three versions of Earth Day report cards:  one for the whole school, one for the classroom, and one for the home.  Students can work in small groups or individually to complete the report cards.  There is also an activity page for students to illustrate and create a plan to improve one of the categories that didn't score well on the report card.

Students can use these report cards to collect and analyse data for a graphing activity.  They can use the results for persuasive writing to write a letter to the principal, or create announcements to be read aloud to the school.  Completed activity sheets could be posted on a bulletin board in a high-traffic area of the school.

I've uploaded this product to my TPT store and TN store.  Just click on the picture above to download your own copy.

Happy Monday!!!

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The Earth is in our Hands

We continued our Earth Day activities at school this week, reinforcing to the students that every day is Earth Day. I found this fun, free activity on another seller's site on TeacherspayTeachers, and knew it would be perfect. Click here to download your own copy.


My grade 6/7 class is reading buddies with the junior kindergarten class at my school. I've done reading buddies before with my classes, but I had a very selfish reason for taking it on this year. This year my little girl (my middle daughter) is in the junior kindergarten class. Reading buddies has taken on a whole new meaning for me! I take such joy in creating and finding activities that will both engage my own students, and be fun and educational for our "little buddies". Although my daughter has her own buddy in my class, this week her buddy was away and I got to take on the role. Such FUN!

We've been studying inferring and point of view as our language focus the last few weeks, so my students wrote Earth Day poems from the Earth's point of view. We talked about personification and metaphors, and I was very impressed with how my students were able to include both in their poems. We left the title line blank so our buddies could write the title (is there anything cuter than a 4 year-old's printing???). My students traced and cut out handprints, little and big, and our little buddies glued the handprints around the Earth. We posted them on a large bulletin board in our school's lunch area, and titled our display, The Earth is in our Hands. I think it looks fabulous.

Katie, I had a blast being your "big buddy" this week, and I'm so proud of what we created together!

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Earth Day Fun ... At HOME!

A day off with the kiddies at home! Being Earth Day and all, the teacher in me wanted to have a theme day. My inspiration came from my sister, who has this absolutely fantastic blog called Meet the Dubiens. She does this great feature called "Fun Food Fridays", so I decided to create my own Fun Food Friday in honour of Earth Day. My girls were soooo excited!

After lunch we decided to make play doh globes. Again, another idea I stole
ummmm ... borrowed from my sister. The girls loved this and were wowed when I showed them the cutaway containing all the Earth's layers. After a quick science lesson (which I'm sure went over their heads), I let them make their own. Aren't they cute? My three year old made the first one (she called it her "Earf", my five year old made the middle one, and my seven year old made the last one (I think the other two had used all the blue and green play doh by then).

We finished off our day making Earth Day cookies. Add a few icing mountains, and you've got some very happy kids! (now to peel them off the walls to bring them up to bed) ;)

Happy Earth Day!

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Earth Day Ideas ... Buried Under ALL This SNOW!

     Our school will be celebrating Earth Day on Thursday.  One of our tried and true activities is our annual community clean-up.  The entire school is divided into groups, and each group is responsible for cleaning up an area around the school and main road.  It's a great activity that gives students a real feeling of ownership over the community.  Unfortunately, this year there is new snow on the ground, and the forecast is calling for more.  YIKES!  So, it's back to the drawing board ... indoor activities it is!

• Do you make the grade?  Last year my students completed a "Green Report Card" for the school.  They surveyed the school, interviewed the teachers, support staff, principal and custodian.  They graphed the results, and gave suggestions for improvements over the announcements.  It was a fantastic activity and really got the students involved in the school.  Print out your own copy here:  http://www.nczoo.org/education/EducatorResources/AGreenReportCard.pdf
• Get planting!  We start our seeds (indoors) for our school garden on Earth Day.  We plant them a few weeks later (if the snow ever goes away, that is). 
• My absolute favourite poem to read to the class on Earth Day is "Lost Generation".  I have typed out the words and give handouts to the students for shared reading (this can also be done over the projector).  We discuss the tone and mood of the poem as is.  THEN ... (and this is the exciting part) I show them the youtube video that has the poem being read forwards and then backwards.  The reaction from the students is priceless!!!  At least half my class bring the poem home to share with their parents.  Check out the youtube video here:                                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA                                                                      This is an effective poem for Earth Day, but is equally effective ANY DAY.  It's a great poem to use when discussing mood and tone.

    

Students want to get involved and feel they have made a difference.  Show them they can on Earth Day!

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