Lesson Plans that Teach About Earth Day

The Importance of Teaching about Conservation and Recycling

Dec 12, 2008

Earth Day is a celebration in which teachers have the opportunity to teach their students how to be good stewards of the natural resources around them.

Rachel Carlson, writer, naturalist, and author of the groundbreaking environmental book, Silent Spring [Houghton Mifflin Co., 1962] once said, "if a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in." Celebrating Earth Day in your classroom is one way to come along side your students, sharing and rediscovering the world we live in.

Gaylord Nelson came up with an Earth Day celebration in order to use education to change attitudes about the environment. The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. Today, people all across the world celebrate Earth Day as a chance to appreciate nature and learn ideas about how to fix problems like pollution. You can do your part to teach students about Earth Day with these tips to go green at your school.

One activity students love participating in is that of making recycled paper. Keep a box of scrap paper in your classroom, instead of having your students throw away paper, and use this supply to make recycled paper. This is a great activity to teach about recycling, even though it does get a little messy.

Teach your students more about recycling by bringing in a variety of objects and have them come up with unique toys made from these recycled objects. You can reuse your old socks as beanbag dolls, decorated and filled with dry beans, and scrap cloth can cover the outside of an empty vegetable can to hold pencils. Be creative and encourage your students to come up with more uses for every day items that we generally throw away.

At Earth Day Wilderness, there are detailed lesson plan ideas for students of all ages from Pre-k through high school. There is also a link to ideas that other teachers have used with their classes. Taking a few minutes to look through these ideas will give you some quick tips on how to teach your students about Earth Day, and how to take care of the world we live in. Remind your students that no one is too young to make a difference. It just takes one person to have an idea to make a difference, just as Gaylord Nelson did.

Aldo Leopold, author of A Sand Country Almanac [Oxford University Press,1949], and considered by some to be the father of wildlife ecology said "we abuse land because we view it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." This is the purpose of Earth Day - to teach students how to use the land upon which they live with love and respect. Encouraging students to make changes to their lives throughout the year and not just on one day will help to make a difference in the world.

The copyright of the article Lesson Plans that Teach About Earth Day in Lesson Plans & Materials is owned by Jennifer Wagaman. Permission to republish Lesson Plans that Teach About Earth Day in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.