 Introduce Earth Day with a globe.
- Let the children know that Earth Day was started about 30 years ago to to make people aware of the importance of keeping our planet healthy and clean.
- Place a sticker on the globe to mark where the children live.
- Talk about the term "green kids" and keeping the Earth "green" and what that means. Kids learn the meaning of this by participating in eco-friendly experiences.
Read simple Earth Day books and talk about the content. Suggestions - It's Earth Day! (Little Critter) by Mercer Mayer, Biscuit's Earth Day Celebration by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and David T. Wenzel and Let's Celebrate Earth Day by Peter Roop
Make a class book or poster
Challenge children to think of things they can do in their homes or classrooms to care for the Earth and record
- Have each student draw a picture of something they can do to help keep the Earth healthy and clean (suggestions below).
- Attach each picture to one or two chart paper posters or staple them into a class book.
When children complete one of the classroom Earth Day activities they place an Earth Day sticker next to the picture in the book or on the chart poster.
Need help coming up with ideas? Try these 8 suggestions...
1.Save water in the painting centre
Children can swish the brushes around in a container of water instead of running the water to clean them. Ask the office staff to save the large poster and advertisement junk mail for kindergarten easel painting. Children explore how differently the paint handles on the backs of the shiny poster paper.
2. Build recycling responsibility
Children take turns being recycle monitors. They keep an eye on the trash and recycling buckets each day to make sure that items are placed in the correct places. More ideas to teach recycling skills and awareness to children.
3. Help kids become nature smart
Nature is so foreign to some kids that they are afraid of going for hikes or to the forest. Before going on field trips, help the kids become nature smart by introducing the topic with friendly books like Maisy's Nature Walk by Lucy Cousins.
 Free printable pages for Maisy's Nature Walk:
Go to Candlewick Press and click on "download an activity kit" on the left hand side for free printable pages to go with the story.
Make the dramatic play centre a nature play environment to get children excited about being naturalists.
- Put up posters of the forest, of animals and plants.
- Add naturalist toy belts with binoculars, clipboards, and magnifying glasses attached
- Add toy telescopes, recording clipboards, measuring equipment, a couple of pairs of gumboots, fisher-man type vests with lots of pockets, toy stuffed animals, etc.
4. Review the 4Ls of living things on nature walks
Before actually going on a nature walk, help the students become green kids by reviewing the 4 Ls of living things. Role play carefully lifting a rock to see what is underneath and then gently returning it to the same spot. Model observing and recording observations on a clipboard.
When you do take the kids outside give each one a clipboard to carry. Encourage them to record some of their observations.
To make simple to carry clipboards: Place two thick elastic bands around a piece of card. Tuck a piece of paper inside on the front and back of the card and tape a string with a pencil to each one (a parent made me a classroom set). Take a few clear plastic bags to bring some items back to the classroom to study, then emphasize returning the items to the same places you found them.
5. Use reusable products rather than disposable.
Reduce the amount of items that go into the trash by teaching lessons on packaging. Choose products with less packaging when you shop for classroom supplies and show the children. Make the kids aware of how they are helping the earth by bringing yoghurt in a reusable containers rather than a pre-packaged ones. Supply real cups (labelled) rather than throw away plastic or foam ones and use real cloth rags rather than paper towels to clean up paint on tables. When kids make green choices bring it to the attention of the other children.
6. Pick up trash
Provide gloves and garbage bags and have children help pick up trash from around the playground.
7. Save electricity
It makes a nice change to turn the lights out during snack, lunch times and even centre times if your environment has enough natural lighting. It alters the mood and saves power too. The special helper of the day can be responsible for this job.
8. Teach children to respect nature
Your enthusiasm concerning interesting bits of moss, leaves or shells that the children bring into the room is contagious. Have a special place in the room to show off these items.
Recycling
Teaching recycling for kids need not be complicated, instead take advantage of daily classroom routines when planning activities.
Each day at snack or lunch time, set up a classification area on one table in your classroom. This was one of my special helper's jobs. The children then sort their garbage into three categories, recycling, compost, and landfill garbage.
They are very enthusiastic to do this and quickly learn what can be recycled, what goes in the compost and what ends up in the landfill.
Teach young children about recycling
Each day the children classify the garbage from their lunch or snack into the following three containers:
- a plastic ice cream bucket with a lid for the compost
- a photocopy paper box lid for items that go in the garbage
- a photocopy paper box lid for items that can be re-cycled
The size of the photocopy paper box lid allows the items to be spread out for easy counting.
Keep it Simple
To keep recycling for kids simple, have the special help-er weigh the compost (with help) and then point to each piece of recycling and garbage in the lids as the whole class counts along.
The same student records the observations on a chart similar to the sample on the right. The teacher records the date as the students suggest letters and assists the student when necessary.
Do not worry too much about accuracy when weighing the compost. Use a spring scale and record to the closest one hundred grams. I also ignored the weight of the bucket.
The children benefited from the extra practice counting the recycling and garbage items and recording or watching the numbers be recorded under the correct pictures on the chart.
Each day use the chart as a teaching tool, reinforcing the children's knowledge of numbers, letters and letter sounds. In the school I worked at, an older students picked up the compost after lunch, the recycling went into the blue box and the garbage into the waste basket. Next, have the students record their classroom activities.
A Recycling for Kids theme offers many opportunities for young children to record their experiences. After spending a week sorting, counting and weighing classroom compost, recycling and trash, students complete the following kindergarten-lessons.com handouts (also suitable for younger children).
The first activity requires the children to find and then cut and glue the items that can go into the compost pile. The second activity has the students sort items that can be recycled and items that must go in the landfill.
Why should we recycle
- Recycling uses less energy than making items from scratch
Resources area
Download a pdf to observe worms
Download a pdf to create your own worm house
Download a pdf to create your own compost flap
Download a pdf to create your own compost bin
Download a pdf sort out the recycling
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