Earth Day Activities for First & Second Grade (and a Freebie!)

I always love teaching my class about Earth Day.  I am a little embarrassed to say that before I began teaching I was not at all "green".

I have always been involved in a lot of different charities and service organizations.  I have donated and participated in fundraising events for St. Jude's and the Shriners for years.  I am always an enthusiastic participant in toy drives and food drives.  I have helped my own children create service projects to benefit the NICU unit at our local children's hospital and my favorite project of the year is having my class collect candy for overseas soldiers.  When I was in college I was even volunteered as a "cuddler" at the university's medical hospital.  (That was a GREAT gig!  I got to go from one unit to another and just hold babies for 3 hours every Tuesday night... I was in HEAVEN!  I wish I could do that full time!)  

The point is I care.  I care a lot.  Caring is kind of my thing. ...

But in my "I care about everything" way of living... I kind of left the environment out... UNTIL I started teaching!  It's funny how these little people change us, isn't it? 

My first year teaching I hardly knew what Earth Day was but now it is a holiday (and a full instructional unit) that I look forward to all year long!  So, I thought I would share some of my favorite Earth Day "tried and true" activities and some of the new things we are going to try out this year!

I usually start by front loading some vocabulary that will will be using this month.  I go right ahead and teach the "big words" to my students.  (I have taught these "big" vocabulary words to kindergarten, first & second grade classes.)  I find that they are very capable of learning the real vocabulary when it is taught in a fun, developmentally appropriate way.  So, to introduce the vocabulary, I have a poster for each word that I hang up for the entire month.  I like to use vocabulary posters that have big, clear photographs and simple explanations.  The picture support is especially important for young students and English language learners.  Whenever I teach the kids new vocabulary I make a big deal about telling them their parents are going to think they went to college today instead of second grade when they come home and say they learned about _____.  (They love it.)  Then, we clear our throats and say the word in a very over-exaggerated "college voice".  (It is kind of ridiculous but it works.  I promise.  They LOVE to use the "big words"!  AND if you leave the posters up they will start to use them in their writing too!  I have had kindergarten students writing about recycling and landfills because it was easy to find the words they were looking for on the posters!)

There are so many great books that we are enjoying this month!  Teaching second grade, I found some new books this year.  They go more in depth than the kindergarten books that I've used the past few years- so, I thought I would share a few of my favorites!

Why Should I Recycle?,  Why Should I Save Water? and Why Should I Save Energy? This series will work for any primary classroom.  The stories are easy to understand and the illustrations are cute and clear.  My students really liked these books and have gone back to read them many times.

 Recycle: A Handbook for Kids is fabulous.  This is the book that we have used the most.  It is packed with information, just like all Gail Gibbons books.  You can use it to teach a lesson on text features or informational text.  It is also great to use as a mentor text for informational writing.  (I have 3 copies of this book and they are all always being used!)

Michael Recycle is such a cute book!  It's about a little superhero whose superpower is teaching people about recycling.  The kids loved it.  It led to a cute class discussion about how we cold be earth superheroes too!

George Saves the World by Lunchtime is another really cute book!  This one is about a little boy who decides he wants to "save the world".  At first he isn't sure quite how he is going to do it... but soon he realizes what a big difference he can make by recycling and creating less trash.  It was another great "We can be superheroes too" kind of book... very cute.

We are going to begin learning about composting next week.  I haven't gone deep into composting with a class before...  I have always just quickly mentioned it- but this year we are going to go more in depth... we are going to start by reading Composting- Nature's Recyclers  and Compost Stew.

We are also going to try to learn more about composting by watching it happen with this compost kit. I have never tried this before... I really hope it works!

Last week we also made "Recycled Robots".  I need to hunt down more photos... but how cute is that little guy?

Okay, here are a few more quick things I want to share with you!  First, some of my favorite Earth Day songs... 

"Going Green" is our favorite.  (Warning:  You won't be able to stop singing it.)

"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" is a very simple song about the recycling loop.

"If You're A Kid..." is another one of our favorite songs.  My kids LOVE this one by Harry Kindergarten.

This is my all time favorite hallway display.  I wrote more about it here.  This is part of my Earth Day  Bundle and my Earth Day Close Reading packet or you can grab just this writing/art project HERE.

I wanted to share a recycling FREEBIE with you as well!

This mini-unit is perfect for grades 1-3. It includes and article that explains recycling written on 3 different levels of text and vocabulary complexity... so the differentiation is done for you!  It also includes text dependent questions and some recycling posters.

I always use Earth Day as an excuse to sneak my Butterfly and Sea Turtle units into centers as well.  I LOVE these units.  They are so much fun to teach- the kids love them!  (The Sea Turtle unit is actually a part of the Earth Day Bundle- which is a great deal if you are looking for some materials!)

So... that's where we are in our Earth Day preparations... we are going to be planting seeds today (which is for our science fair project... but fits nicely in with Earth Day)!  What do you have going on for Earth Day?  I would love some new ideas!

(F.Y.I- This post contains affiliate links to books & products that I love & use in my classroom.)