Earth Day is April 22nd, and I’ve been brainstorming ways to celebrate in the classroom. I’ve rounded up some resources here that you can use to help your students understand the importance of Earth Day and help them learn how they can protect our Earth every day.
Cute Earth Day Craftivity
You’ll love this simple Give the World a Bear Hug craftivity that you can use to celebrate with students of all ages. It’s a fun way for kids to show their creativity and learn more about the importance of Earth Day at the same time!
With fun and engaging writing prompts and updated fonts and layout, this is a fan favorite for a lot of teachers looking for the right Earth Day activities for their primary students.
This PDF Craftivity Includes a complete template for the bear craft, plus lots of writing activities:
4 writing pages with both primary and secondary lines:
- Let’s Make Our Earth A Happy Earth
- Give Our Earth A Bear Hug
- Let’s Make Earth Day Every Day
- I Help Keep Our Earth By
2 half-page writing activities
- I Help Keep Our Earth Clean By
- Give Our Earth A Bear Hug
To extend your Earth-Day celebration, this pack also includes:
- 2 Venn Diagrams
- 2 Acrostic Poems
Get The Talking About Earth Day With A Freebie!
On Earth Day, I always try to get my kids thinking critically about ways they can help the planet. I like to talk a little bit about the history of Earth Day and what it means, and then follow up with a few discussion prompts. It’s so fun to see how creative my kids can be with their suggestions!
I have a fun freebie slideshow with discussion prompts that you can use to get your students thinking about taking care of our earth. These discussion prompts are great for helping kids learn how they can help protect our environment every day. Project them on your Smart board or send them to your students’ devices!
Looking For a Few More Ideas to Celebrate Earth Day?
Here are 5 more easy and accessible Earth Day activities to try with your students:
1. Classroom Scavenger Hunt
What do you see as you walk through the hallways, inside your classroom? In your school’s play yard? How can you make sure the little things that keep our school clean happen every day? Have your students walk around school grounds (inside and out) to explore, observe, discuss, and take notes.
2. Make A Pledge
Have each student come up with their own pledge to help the earth. This could be something as simple as picking up litter for 10 minutes per week or planting a tree. Making it personal and specific to each student is key!
3. Think Outside The (recyclable) Box
Take your class on a nature hike and have them collect items they find along the way. Encourage them to think outside the box—a piece of bark might make a great bookmark, and if they cut it just right they can write their name or initials on it, too! No place for a nature hike near your school? Take them for a walk around the block. It’s amazing the things that we can discover and chat about anywhere!
4. Interactive Class List
Have students brainstorm what they think “taking care of our planet” means to them. Maybe they think it means picking up trash on the playground or planting more trees. Make a list as a class and hang it up somewhere you can see it throughout the year.
5. Open Ended Creative Expression
You can have your students write poems or other short pieces about the environment, or ask them to draw pictures that illustrate their feelings about the health of our planet. You could also discuss all the ways people can practice sustainability in their daily lives—like recycling and conserving water, and have them make a piece of writing or art to reflect their ideas.
I think celebrating Earth Day is a great way to spark awareness and discussions about ways we can all do more for our home planet for our little learners! To learn more about the resources and deals in my TPT store, stay tuned to the blog, and make sure you are part of our facebook community to get the latest updates.
