Today's Classroom Activities :

Saving the Planet

Earth Day Picnic
Environmental Science To celebrate Earth Day and to reinforce lessons on recycling, reusing and reducing, have a school-wide picnic. Encourage students to pack their lunches so that there is a minimum of garbage. After lunch, reward the class that created the least amount of garbage and the student with the most creative idea for reducing trash.

Our Own Rap
Poetry/Science Learn and recite this Earth Day rap to present to other classes and community groups during Earth Day celebrations. Have students experiment with adding lyrics to the rap, incorporating movement and performing it with various instruments made from recycled materials. As the end of the rap indicates, students may form a trash-collecting "conga line" and act out motions such as throwing items into a recycling can, encouraging other kids to join the line.

Our Earth Day Rap

by Susan Lynn Taylor

Our earth is worth
the world to you.
So listen to our rap
to tell you what to do!>

Please recycle plastic,
papers and cans
and be our environment's
greatest fans!

Don't pollute our waters.
Don't litter our land
Now is the time
to take a stand.

Our resources
may run out.
We need to conserve
It's no doubt.

Be good to the Earth
and it will be good to you.
So follow us
and do what we do!

Junk Mail Overload!
Students track the amount of junk mail received at their homes in one week and use the collected data to estimate how much junk mail would accumulate in a year. Then they explore ways to solve the junk mail problem.

History of Earth Day
Students will summarize and place key events on a timeline about Earth Day from various articles and internet sites in a journal.

Earth Day Every Day
This lesson demonstrates how classroom and community projects can improve the local environment and benefit communities beyond one's own. Students will discuss environmental concerns, analyze these concerns, and offer practical remedies. Students will conclude by devising a project to implement the remedies and share the results with classrooms around the world.

Protecting Our Precious Planet: Sharing the Message of Earth Day
Your students will learn to think globally and act locally by participating in the Internet-based Earth Day Groceries Project. Students look at the work of children around the world and talk about what environmental messages are important to communicate. They then design paper bags that convey their ideas. The bags are distributed at local grocery stores on April 22nd, Earth Day. When the project is complete, students can share their work online. Although this lesson is intended for students in kindergarten through second grade, it can easily be adapted and makes an excellent school- or district-wide project.