earth day post main image ssw

There are tons of adorable Earth Day worksheets floating out and about on Pinterest and the rest of the inter-webs but let’s take a pause. It’s EARTH DAY. Like the whole thing of it is conservation, recycling, and taking care of the earth. So how about instead of just giving your kiddos a handy dandy worksheet with the earth to color, let’s be creative. PS I do have some of those cutesy sheets pinned here on this Spring and Summer Holidays Pinterest Board if you do need them. I won’t judge.

If you are in the midst of standardized testing season when Earth Day happens to trend on Twitter, that’s ok. EVERY DAY is Earth Day. I published this post technically after the actual day on purpose. I have curated some ideas and thrown in a few original ones as well for celebrating it whenever you want!! These ideas can help you fill the long stretch of days between testing and the last day of school.

Speaking of that stretch of days, this post is the first in a series I’m calling “SPRING FEVER S.O.S.” I’ll be sharing ideas to help you combat that feeling of wanting to pull your hair out trying to keep your kiddos occupied at the end of the school year. My 15 year-old son literally said to me today, “Mom, if we have our End-of-Course test next week what’s the point of the last month of school?” Even younger students probably start to take on this mindset. So in the next 5 weeks, I’ll be sharing some creative ideas to help you out. I will be keeping you updated via my Hip History newsletter so make sure you are signed up here: Newsletter Sign Up! I will also be doing a corresponding Facebook Live broadcast on The Social Studies Whisperer LLC page around the same day I publish the posts! I will go back and include them in the bottom of each post. Now back to the show…..

Before I get into the ideas can I just say that I can not even think of Earth Day without hearing “Plant a tree….” in my brain so I’m sharing it here for the rest of you who are also non-millenials and will appreciate it…..you can thank me later for getting it stuck in your head;).

EARTH DAY IN THE WAY BACK WHEN

Here are some links to help build some context for the day. I will just share them instead of mixing up the details while paraphrasing;). Some of them include famous conservationists like Rachel Carson and John Muir.

  • History of Earth Day from The History Channel! Actual history on the channel, woo hoo! Earth Day Origins
  • Find an iconic image of the earth take in 1972 here!
  • Check out this video from the American Museum of Natural History to learn how things have changed since Earth Day began.

CLASSROOM LEVEL IDEAS

  • Flocabulary clips make great lesson hooks! They have one Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling for all ages and one about Environmental Change for upper elementary and above. Follow up with a writing assignment or have kids write a play.
  • Want to get your kids moving and being mindful? How about Go Noodle it?? My 5th graders LOVEDDD the Contintental Drift from Ice Age. Sounds like earth stuff to me! And you can’t go with  quick meditation type clip called Taking Care of the Earth.
  • I love Kids Discover! I have several of their titles in print and these are perfect for appreciating the earth! I also included some other oldies but goodies I came across in the humongo stack of kids books in my garage. Their website is pretty awesome, too! I came across this Infographic and Lesson Ideas Post from them on Twitter!

earth day books

LOCAL SCHOOL ACTION

  • So obviously the generic pick up trash on your school grounds would be an awesome start. If you have little kiddos use those terrible fold-over plastic sandwich bags as makeshift gloves. Don’t hate on me for the plastic. They have them at Dollar Tree.
  • Something I did once in the classroom was recycle water bottles. Once my school stopped collecting them, I took them home. Maybe you could find a student or parent volunteer to take this on. If possible people. I know what you’re thinking. I planned my own holiday parties at my last school.
  • What about food waste? I remember watching kids throw away tray after tray of barely eaten food? The whole starving kids in Africa spiel is rather antiquated so how about bring it 21st century and make a compost pile?? I’m not into dirt and worms, etc. but that doesn’t mean you can’t be. I know some schools have policies about taking food out of the cafeteria so of course, work out something with your admin. Maybe start a whole school initiative? Of course if your school is located in the inner city that idea may not work. For more ideas head here: Reducing Food Waste
  • I’ve got a really Andrea way to combine history with Earth Day and your school grounds though. Wait for it. First I saw this School Garden post from PBS on Twitter.
  • And then being someone who loves World War II, I thought to myself about how Earth Day would be the most opportune time to start a Victory Garden or encourage kids to start one at home!!!! And I think and speak in exclamation points. Head to this link to find the Victory Gardens section of the blog on The National WWII Museum site.

NATIONAL LEVEL

  • Wanna go big or go home? Adopt the Earth. Not just a road. The entire Earth apparently. Learn more here! Good luck!
  • Discovery Education put together a great collection of Earth Day resources and you can find them here on this cool PADLET from a teacher named Lindsay Hopkins.
  • Learn more about America’s changing agricultural landscape with this post from PBS. Open up a discussion about the Farm to Table movement!
  • Give students a voice on platforms like Twitter having them use the hashtag #StudentsSpeak. Learn more on Teaching Tolerance’s Blog!
  • There’s also another Twitter movement called “Dear Mr. President” where kids can tweet President Trump with their ideas for things like conservation. Learn more here about that!

GLOBAL IMPACT

  • Want to think bigger but not so big that you’re adopting the Earth? Help support people globally who are helping to take care of the earth. I have loaned money to several different Kiva.org projects and you can search by cause there for those involving environmental change. I love Kiva because you aren’t making a donation, it’s a loan. And the loans are $25 a piece and often there are organizations that match the loans kind of like Donor’s Choose.
  • I am so inspired by this teacher’s activity to have kids pick a Kiva project for the class to loan money towards. Here is one of the tweets. Hopefully you can access the live tweeting of the selection.

GET CRAFTY

  • I came across a new collection of Earth Day crafts on Twitter. I tell you what, Twitter can be a serious JACKPOT!!
  • Ok so there was one super cute Earth Day Crayons project that has been on my Spring and Summer Holidays Pinterest board forever. It’s dated 2012 and maybe that’s when I pinned it. Well I went for it and it’s not a Pinterest fail! It actually came out super cute! Original pin located here Earth Day Crayons Original Post. Entertaining original Andrea Runnels “How To” VIDEO located here EARTH DAY CRAYONS VIDEO

Earth Day Crayons video cover SSW

EARTH SCIENCE

Earth Day is always an occasion to just straight up be in awe of the power of the Earth and all its features. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, the layers of the earth and more, more, more. Find some ideas on myEarth Science Pinterest Board and check out my post about how I fused Science and S.S. together in the classroom with an impromptu Pompeii  day!

Ok, stay tuned for more ideas to help you end the school year in a less stressful way!