Earth Day Activities for Your Virtual and In-Person Classroom

Earth Day Activities for Your Virtual and In-Person Classroom

Although we may not always get the chance to hug each other, we can still encourage our students to get out and hug our world this Earth Day. April 22 will mark 51 years of Earth Day; a celebration that began on April 22, 1970, when Americans unified in protest against the many environmental abuses threatening our world at that time. Organized by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, the first Earth Day brought together rallies in cities like New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. An environmental movement followed, resulting in landmark environmental laws finding success locally, across the country, and around the world. Some of the major changes to the law included the Clean Air Act, Water Quality Improvement Act, Endangered Species Act. The rise of the environment movement also resulted in the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As a result of these efforts, our world IS open. Our earth IS healing, and the resilient are pushing on to welcome each and every day. Many of our classroom doors are open, and thankfully, we can celebrate Earth Day together. Maybe now more than ever, the world cries out for change, protection, and healing. We can take time to notice the world around us—the sunrises, birds, squirrels, and the stars at dusk. Many of us have seen the Earth flourish and change, and we can encourage students to continue practices that help improve the planet. Here are some ideas to fill your Earth Day lesson plans:

Online Activities:

• The National Aquarium’s 48 Days of Blue campaign provides a series of environmental challenges for kids, which can be used for Earth Day ideas and beyond. Check them out!
• Check out the PBS movie,  Earth Days, for a full history of Earth Day.
• Look into participating in one of Discovery’s virtual field trips

Outside Activities for Online and Virtual Classrooms:

• With parental consent, have the kids do a garbage sweepof their school or home area using gloves and document what they find. You can have them lead an online discussion of what they found, or complete math percentages of the garbage collected.
• Create a school garden or ask students to plant their own gardenand take a picture to share online with the class.
• Have students create a mapof their school or neighborhood, including the grass, tree areas, sidewalks, blacktop, and storm drains. After, lead an online discussion about what water can and cannot do in those areas.
• Keep it simple and ask students to take a walkor hike and enjoy the beauty that is our Earth. Have them draw or paint a picture from their travels. This can be done in school or as a homework assignment.
• Create aschoolyard or neighborhood nature scavenger hunt. You can focus this on flora and fauna and have them find different trees, plants, and flowers, or have them focus on environmental issues like garbage accumulation. Lead a discussion about what the students found online or in class.
• Ask students to write positive Earth Day messages on school sidewalks or their own sidewalks and driveways, which they can share pictures of.  If students do not have chalk at home, have them make paint by using 1 cup of water, 1 cup of cornstarch, with food coloring).

At-Home Activities:

• Recycle – Ask students to find out how their family and community handles recycling. Challenge them to come up with a better system for their home or community collections.
• Repurpose – Ask students to recycle things that would otherwise be thrown out or are no longer used in their home. Have them think about what kind of inventions or alternate uses for these items can they come up with.
• Clean up– Encourage students to do some spring cleaning and donate or sell any of the items they choose to discard.
• Journal – Have students record their or their family’s daily use of water. Have the class consider and discuss if they think they are using too much water, and then come up with some conservation ideas together.
• Offline – Challenge students to have a weekend “No TV/Video Games/Electronics Day.” Discuss how electricity gets to us and possible energy sources used today.

Arts and Crafts Activities:

• Make a homemade bird feeder from recycled items, such as milk cartons, toilet paper rolls or empty water bottles. Have students hang it in their yards and take a picture to share online.
• Ask students to make a nature collage. Send them on a nature walk to collect items like pinecones, leaves, sticks, rocks, flowers, etc. Have them make a collage on construction paper, take a picture, and share it with the class.