Earth Day, Every Day! Learning About Caring For Our Planet!

Enjoy Nature--plant a garden!

  We 've started a little garden behind our classroom. This week we've worked hard to make sure it is watered properly and even planted a new plant someone gave us. 

We have a little blue skink that lives in our garden! I think it may be the same one from last year. He is getting a little bolder and sticking around a little longer so we can get a better look at him!

Enjoy Nature--Climb a tree!

We've talked and read a lot about how trees are vital to our environment. We've also talked about ways to enjoy trees around us. This is a small tree on our playground that we enjoy hanging out in!

Enjoy Nature--Ride Your Bike
We've talked about how riding bikes or walking instead of driving can help our environment. All that talk of bikes prompted a little bike race!

Make art using recycled materials
 Instead of giving my students a precise craft to replicate, often I give them some materials and a few instructions and let them explore their creativity. For this project, I gave the kids the box of recycled art materials and asked them to create something. They were allowed to use any other materials available, as long as they used items from the box. I was so tickled to see the creativity some of them expressed!

This is a little tree. There are actually layers I couldn't capture with the camera that has sequins as owls in the nest on the tree!

A few of them were exploring with the tape and started making disguises! These few pieces of tape provided TONS of giggles!!!

The 3 year old class made these adorable robots using cereal boxes and toilet paper tubes!

Here's another activity the 3's did for Earth week.

Earth Collage
We pulled some blue, green and white paper from the recycled art box and tore it into small pieces, then used them to make a collage of the Earth. (I do this every year and each year they turn out a little different!) 

Trash Collage
This trash collage was made in the 3 year old class. They simply glued some trash onto a garbage can shape.

Painting the Earth
A couple of the friends painted the earth on paper.

Twist Art Earths
I saw this on Teach Preschool (Earth Day Blog Hop:Give The World A Little Spin) and HAD to try it! It was perfect and foolproof, as well as a lot of fun! All the designs were beautiful and unique!

The Water Pollution Experiment
I asked my students to bring in some relatively "clean" garbage the day before. I took a large clear plastic container and asked the kids to find plastic animals around the classroom that might live in ponds or oceans. After we gave all the animals a "home", I make up a little scenario of how each piece of trash might find its way into the water and they take turns "polluting" the water. "As Hannah was walking, she dropped her wrapper and it fell. The wind blew it into the water." By the time each child has had the chance to "accidentally" drop one piece of litter, the container is pretty full. We talk about how the animals are crowded and have to navigate around the trash. The next day, the water has turned color and any dirt particles clinging to the garbage have made the water murky. We go back to the container and take out the trash and talk about how dirty the water is, even with the trash removed. This really helps the kids envision "pollution" in a concrete way!

Repurpose! 
 The afterschoolers have a new art craze this week. they've been making hair bows from colored duck tape! It only takes a little bit, so it's perfect for that last little bit of tape at the end of a roll! We LOVE DuckTape! They also have several crafts on their site.

This is my BIG "little illumination"! We've had a terrible time with glue bottles this year. Some years, the groups doesn't have any trouble opening and closing the glue bottles, but this year, our glue is always open and clogged. My solution was to use refillable condiment bottles, but the ones we ended up getting had removable tops that were tiny and soon lost. More clogged glue. As I was brushing my teeth, I had an epiphany. I had a little stash of toothpaste bottles that I was saving that would be perfect! The tops flip open and shut, they are small and easily squeezed by small hands. 

Reading About Recycling
Of course, we've read lots of good books about recycling and taking care of our planet. Here are a few of our favorite books about recycling:





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