These fun Earth Day resources include a language arts word wall, writing worksheets, coloring and art activities, and math and language packets for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.
They provide ready-to-use materials that are interdisciplinary, engaging, and inform students about the meaning of Earth Day.
Teaching Tips
Positives
These resources can all be downloaded, printed, and easily shared.
They provide materials at a variety of levels to best meet all students' needs within the K-2 band.
Additional Prerequisites
Some resources require additional materials, such as glue and scissors, and may require very limited prep work for younger students, depending on motor skills.
Preview the word wall vocabulary resources to ensure that these words provide appropriate supports for students, adding additional vocabulary that may be beneficial.
Differentiation
Before using the coloring sheets in the art pack, consider talking to students about how art is used to convey a message, showing them Sea Walls murals or other environmental artwork.
Consider using these resources in small groups to provide an opportunity for students to work collaboratively and to discuss Earth Day concepts.
Make a display in your classroom or school with a combination of the art sheets and other student artwork with messages about conservation and protecting our planet.
Be sure to teach a lesson about the meaning of Earth Day before using the Earth Day No Prep Pack to ensure that students are learning the concepts in context.
Consider creating an Earth Day word bank or sentence stems with students prior to writing in order to support vocabulary and language.
Put the word wall up in the classroom in a place that is accessible to students and allow them to use it as a support when writing or discussing Earth Day.
Scientist Notes
This resource from SubjectToClimate features a series of Earth Day classroom resources for grades K-2. Earth Day is presented through every subject area from art to language to mathematics to writing. There are worksheets tailored for each specific grade level. The writing worksheets, for example, provide fewer lines for younger students’ responses. The worksheets also take into account resource availability at different schools, as word wall sheets are included in color and grayscale. This resource presents Earth Day to students in a way that can cover classroom activities throughout the day. This resource is attractive, informative, and is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
K-ESS3-3 Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Foundational Skills (K-5)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
Writing (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Common Core Math Standards (CCSS.MATH)
Counting & Cardinality (K)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.5 Count to answer "how many?" questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle, or as many as 10 things in a scattered configuration; given a number from 1-20, count out that many objects.
Number & Operations in Base Ten (K-5)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.C.4 Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.
Operations & Algebraic Thinking (K-5)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.D.8 Determine the unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation relating three whole numbers. For example, determine the unknown number that makes the equation true in each of the equations 8 + ? = 11, 5 = _ - 3, 6 + 6 = _.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.OA.A.1 Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.
National Core Arts Standards
Visual Arts: Standard 11 - Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
