1-2-3 Come Do Some Earth Day Recycling Activities With Me

Are you looking for a little something to give your students on Earth Day?  How about a bookmark?   The "Every day should be Earth Day!" bookmarks come in full color or black and white, so your kiddos can color their own.  Click on the link to get your copy. 

April 22nd is the official Earth Day celebration, but because of the importance of taking care of our earth, I took an entire week to do all sorts of reduce, reuse and recycle activities with my Y5's, proving to them that even young children can make a difference.

Making a class book is a fun way to get your kiddo's excited about writing.

After a short video and class discussion, each child finished their page; I collected and collated them into a booklet. A cover is included.

On their worksheet, students complete the thought for each of the 3 sentences: How do they reduce, reuse and recyle to help our earth?

Remind them about capitalization, spacing and punctuation, so that you cover those standards as well.  When you share the completed book with your class, have each child read their own page.

Add some pizzazz by having students color the illustrations and then glue their own school photo over either the girl or boy's face.  Click on the link to view/download the Earth Day Class Book.

Another way you can have students learn and write about reducing, reusing and recycling, is to have them make this simple, but striking 3D Earth Day dangler.

The recycling symbols and hearts are glued together to form 3 sides; one for each R word. Students write how they reduce on one heart, how they reuse on another and finally how they recycle on the 3rd one.

Hang from a yarn loop so the writing prompt "craftivity" twirls and dangles from the ceiling. Add a photo for that finishing touch.  Click on the link to view/download the Earth Day Writing Prompt Dangler.

Finally, I made an Earth Day game that helps review clock numbers, simple addition, and things that can be recycled.

Students roll first one, and then two dice, to get a time-to-the-hour number that they write on their clock. 

They then glue the matching numbered item that it is "time to reduce, reuse or recycle."

Click on the link to view/download Earth Day: It's Time To Recycle Clock Game.

That's it for today.  I hope you found something here to get your sweeties excited about helping to take care of their planet.

The rain is splattering against my window; such a soothing sound.  I have it open a crack and the air smells wonderfully fresh.  Wishing you a blessed day.

"Everyone wants happiness; no one likes pain, but you can't have the rainbow, unless you have some rain." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Make A Difference With Me!

Are you looking for a quick, easy and fun writing prompt for Earth Day?  You've stopped by the right place. 

Depending on the age of your students, there are several ways they can put together  their "The 3 R's" Earth Day dangler.  

Run off double copies for younger students, so that they can glue them back-to-back, or if you don't need these double-sided, simply hang them as a border up against a wall.

Older students can write how they plan to make a difference on the back of the eye rectangle.  Add some color and a school photo for that finishing touch. 

The packet also includes certificates of praise for a boy and a girl.  Click on the link to view/download the I Can Make A Difference Earth Day writing prompt craftivity.

To see more interesting Earth Day activities, click on the link to pop on over to that section of my site to grab even more FREEBIES. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

"The ultimate test of man's conscience, may be his willingness to sacrifice something today, for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard." - Gaylord Nelson 

1-2-3 Come Learn About Reducing Your Environmental Footprint With Me

Since both my sons are Eagle Scouts, we were very into recycling while they were growing up.  From paper drives to cleaning up the parks and river projects, we enjoyed "going green" and trying to do our part to help conserve the earth's resources. 

Caring about conservation followed me into the classroom as well.  We collected paper trash in a box and I tried to do at least one recycled sort of craftivity each month. 

Even though Earth Day is celebrated only one day on April 22nd, I did a huge week-long unit about ways even a child can pitch in and do their part to help sustain the earth.  I can only hope that the information that they learned, became healthy habits for them. 

Reducing man's carbon footprint has been a much talked about topic lately, so I thought I'd design an Earth Day writing prompt and footprint craft with that in mind.

Start by explaining to students the fact that we’ve all seen our footprints on the beach or left in the mud.  When we step, we leave marks that can last even after we are long gone.

In the same way, all of us place pressure on the environment by the way we live our lives.  Scientists call this an “ecological or carbon footprint” one which can show how hard we tread on our earth’s resources.  

Leaving an environmental footprint means we have left things behind, that have not or can not be recycled, and the size of our footprint depends on how much biologically productive land and water we require to live our life. 

No matter what one knows about leaving a "carbon footprint" the fact is, that we all need to try to reduce them,  thereby impacting our world in a positive way.  I thought a good way to start, would be to make up a list of how to go about this. 

Hours of interesting research later, I comprised quite a long list, and was surprised at how simple many of these activities are to do.  Quite a few items are not difficult, expensive, or time intensive to perform, and merely easy behavioral changes.

Hopefully, just by sharing them, and making students aware of do-able things, via this checklist, they'll start implementing a few into their lives. 

After reviewing the information in the Reducing Your Environmental Footprint packet, (I've included a list of informative websites you may also want to visit) have students do the footprint writing prompt craftivity.  

To make things more personal and a keepsake, students can trace their own foot, or they can opt to use my flip flop template. 

After discussing things people can do to reduce their footprint and checking ones off the list that they can truly start doing, students write these down on their footprint. 

I've included several ways to go about this.  Students can write the prompt on their footprint, or they can write it on the back of the earth and simply glue their footprint on the globe. 

They can also make a smaller, 3 dimensional earth, by gluing 3 earth "circles" together, and then suspend their footprint from the sphere, or simply hang students' footprints from the ceiling and enlarge the earth and hang that in the middle of your display. 

A caption you could write on the large earth could be "Mr./Mrs. ____________'s class is stepping up to help the earth!"   Click on the link to view/download the Earth Day Footprint Writing Prompt Craftivity.  I hope your students enjoy it.

Every little bit truly does help and I find it comforting to know that many others are also on board, trying to make a difference one step at a time.  

If you're looking for a few more Earth Day recycling actvities and crafts, click on the link to pop on over to that section of my site. 

I also have a very "pinteresting" PIN board, entirely filled with more FREE Earth Day ideas, activities & crafts. I spend way too much time looking for free educational "stuff", but then you don't have to!

Thanks Stephanie, a librarian from Seattle,  who told me about a wonderful list of links to all sorts of recycling projects for children. (And a special thank you to Mary, her student, who shared it with her!)  If you have an educational website, craft or activity you'd like to share to help others, I'd enjoy hearing from you.  diane@teachwithme.com  or feel free to post a comment here.

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Praise the Lord the sun is shining, especially since we had snow flurries yesterday (What? I's March 28th for pete's sake!) and it's only 27 degrees out.  Sigh... I guess this is just another cold Michigan spring.  Wishing you a clean and green weekend.

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed."  Mahatma Ghandi

1-2-3 Come Do Some More Earth Day Craftivities With Me

Are you looking for a little something to give your students on Earth Day?  How about a bookmark?   The "Every day should be Earth Day!" bookmarks come in full color or black and white, so your kiddos can color their own.  Click on the link to grab them.

If you're into owls, then I think you'll enjoy the "Give a Hoot; Don't Pollute!" writing prompt craftivity.  Take a close look and you'll see that I used 2D shapes to design the owl. 

Take advantage of this teachable moment on Earth Day to review shapes as well as ways your students can take care of the earth. 

The packet includes the owl poster pattern pieces and a writing prompt for older students.  They can glue this to the back of their poster. 

Completed projects look wonderful suspended from the ceiling. 

I set this up as a listening and following directions-whole group activity, so that I could assess how my students were doing with that life skill. 

Everyone got a large sheet of blue construction paper at their desk, along with the owl body and caption to cut and glue to their poster. 

When everyone accomplished that, I passed out the shapely owl pieces. 

To expedite this, I had set all of them out in student piles a head of time.  From there I'd hold up a piece and glue it on my sample and my Y5's would do the same.  We continued "monkey see-monkey do" 'til everyone had their poster done.  If you have older students, they can simply get their supplies and work away. 

I've also included some "Give a hoot" bookmarks in full color as well as black and white so that your students can color them.  Click on the link to view/download the Give a Hoot Earth Day Owl packet.

Another cute "craftivity" perfect for Earth Day, involves a litterbug.  We don't see littering as much as I used to when I was a child.  Eons ago, people threw lots of trash out of their cars, and the countryside was looking like an awful garbage dump. 

Thanks to Lady Bird Johnson way back when, laws were passed and fines implemented for littering and "Keep America Beautiful" became a popular slogan. 

With that in mind, I nostalgically drew a grumpy old litterbug and designed a "craftivity" around him, that encourages kids to be litter leaders and not litterbugs. 

Your students can create their own ugly litterbug, or color and cut out mine. 

For some 3D pizzazz, staple a Dixie cup to the bug's belly and wad up a piece of trash paper to put inside. 

The packet includes a writing prompt that older students can complete and then glue to the back of their litterbug.

There's also a poster of a song-poem I wrote, plus a black and white "promise" version for students to color. 

I've also included some litterbug bookmarks in color as well as black and white.  Click on the link to view/download the Litterbug Earth Day Writing Prompt packet. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  For more Earth Day FREEBIES scroll down to take a look at the other blog articles with that theme, or click on the link to pop over to that section of my site.

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." -John Muir

1-2-3 Come Reduce, Reuse and Recycle With Me!

April 22nd is fast approaching.  Do you need a little something to plug in for Earth Day?

I've been busy designing some quick and easy writing prompts, craftivities, and a game, that I think you'll enjoy.

Making a class book is a fun way to get your kiddo's excited about writing. Each child completes their page; you collect and collate them.

Students complete the thought for each of the 3 sentences. How do they reduce, reuse andrecyle to help our earth?

Remind them about capitalization, spacing and punctuation, so that you cover those standards as well.

When you share the completed book with your class, have each child read their own page.

Add some pizzazz by having students color the illustrations and then glue their own school photo over either the girl or boy's face.  Click on the link to view/download the Earth Day Class Book.

Another way you can have students write about reducing, reusing and recycling, is to have them make this simple, but striking Earth Day dangler.

The recycling symbols and hearts are glued together to form 3 sides; one for each R word. Students write how they reduce on one heart, how they reuse on another and finally how they recycle on the 3rd one.

Hang from a yarn loop so the writing prompt "craftivity" twirls and dangles from the ceiling.

Click on the link to view/download the Earth Day Writing Prompt Dangler.

Finally, I made an Earth Day game that helps review clock numbers, simple addition, and things that can be recycled.

Students roll first one, and then two dice, to get a time-to-the-hour number that they write on their clock. 

They then glue the matching numbered item that it is "time to reduce, reuse or recycle."

Click on the link to view/download Earth Day: It's Time To Recycle Clock Game.

For more Earth Day "craftivities" scroll down to the next article.  Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think may be helpful to others.

"It is not the IQ, but the I Will, that is most impoortant in education." -Unknown