April 22, Earth Day is a wonderful time to teach about care of our school grounds, communities, resources, water, air, land, and animals. Here are a number of ways to teach our students and celebrate both Spring and Earth Day!

•    Organize a clean up day for your school grounds or for a local
     community area that needs loving care. Have plenty of bags,
     gloves, and a truck for large items.
•    Have class projects to plant a butterfly bush, flowers, or
     vegetable garden at your school or possibly a nature walk
     with signs identifying trees and plants.
•    Teach the web of life using a large ball of string with each child connected
     to another with a card reading an animal, plant, sun, earth, or water that
     would be linked either in the food chain or other ways.
•    Look for newspaper, magazine or internet articles about how people
     are helping to clean up their community or start recycling and reusing.
•    Discuss what can be recycled in your community, and also play the
     reusing. game. Put items such as shoes, plastic or other containers,
     clothes, towels, etc. and discuss how these items can be either reused
     for another purpose or passed to a family member or to a store that sells
     reused items.
•    Ask students to draw a picture of their favorite animal, where it lives,
     what it eats, and what kind of habitat it needs to live. Ask students to
     also draw their own home and habitat as well.
•    Discuss animals such as snakes and spiders and why they are so
     important to us. Also discuss other animals that are not generally liked
     and why we need them as well, what they eat, where they live, and
     how to identify them. Discuss forest, ocean, river, and other habitats
     and which animals live there. Also teach about endangered species,
     especially any close to your particular area.
•    Find your water source and draw possible maps or pictures to it. If
     possible visit, and talk about what happens to the water downstream
     from you. Also use articles from papers, or magazines, or internet.
•    Visit a local farm to see how they grow their food, and what it takes.
     Many students just think of food as coming from the store.
•    Ask students what pets they have. Ask them to write down or draw
     all the things that must be done to take care of the pet, and why. If
     possible have a pet show at the end of a week or a day.
•    Have a "Green Revolution" or "Earth Day" celebration day at school
     or join in with your community day and show your projects.
•    Resources: Use songs from "Mother Nature's Animal Magic Show" and
     "The Green Revolution" by Judy Leonard. These Mini Musicals include the
     lyrics, full sing vocal music, and Kareoke sing-along tracks.  They are used
     by many schools and environmental camps and clubs around the U.S. and
     other countries. We love hearing the new ways they are used every year.
•    In doing your musicals, you can also use all the art, drawings, and posters
     your students make and gardens or plants around the school as well.
•    In most communities around the U.S there is a Keep America Beautiful
     chapter and they have many types of literature and teacher lesson plans,
     and many environmental camps or nature centers do also.
• See more of our Earth Day and Environmental Songs.

Listen to a short sample of Recycle from The Green Revolution.