Why and how do we celebrate Earth Day? Are there creative ways that schools can teach children about Earth Day? This post answers both of those questions and more! Below you will find the best upper elementary Earth Day activities.
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How Can We Teach Children About Earth Day?
As a tree-hugger, I delight in teaching my students how to be environmentally-friendly.
When I was teaching in-person, we would find ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle in the classroom all year long.
Now that I teach online full-time, I still want to practice the spirit of Earth Day by teaching students to take care of the Earth outside of school.
Obviously, the best way to honor the Earth is to eliminate as many paper activities as possible, which is easier now that I teach virtually.
But, I also realize that it’s not always possible to avoid printing things.
So this post shares printable and digital Earth Day activities you can use with your upper elementary students.
Let’s dive in to these ideas now!
“Ways to Heal Our Earth” Activity
You can’t change what you won’t confront. So, there’s no point in talking about changing how we do things if we don’t confront the fact that the Earth is basically sick.
That’s why I recommend starting with an activity that gives a visual that the Earth is not well. (More on this visual later in the post.)
Then encourage students to brainstorm ways to be more Earth-friendly. We write these ideas on band-aids that are glued on a picture of the Earth.
Click HERE for the digital version.
I even challenge students to think of Earth Day activities they can do at home. And even though we say the phrase “Earth Day activities,” the goal is to help students realize they can do these things all the time–not just on Earth Day!
In my previous brick-and-mortar classroom, I used this activity to create a beautiful Earth Day bulletin board display, which also served as a reminder to keep these ideas going after April 22nd.
Learn About the History of Earth Day through Videos and Books
Another way to incorporate upper elementary Earth Day activities is to introduce them to the history of it with videos and books.
This ties in with teaching the truth about the current state of our planet.
Videos that show what’s happening with the climate, environment, our ecosystems, etc. reinforce why we are learning about Earth Day in the classroom.
Once we watch different videos and enjoy our read-alouds, I review the material with this digital informational text activity through Google Slides:
Earth Day Videos
Here are some free Earth Day videos from YouTube that you can use to show visuals of how sick Earth is becoming:
- Global Warming for Kids
- 8 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day
- Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye
- Plastic Pollution: How Humans are Turning the World into Plastic
If your school does not allow YouTube, maybe you can use Safe Share, which is an ad-free way to show videos to kids in school.
It’s one of the sites I highlighted in my remote teaching resources post because it is forever free for teachers. There’s no need to sign up for any trials. (Not an affiliate)
Earth Day Read-Alouds
If you’ve spent any time on this site, you know how much I love using read alouds for upper elementary students!
So, it’s no surprise that I have my favorite Earth Day books to share in-person and virtually:
Each of these book ideas from Amazon also come in a Kindle format, which allows you to share them virtually with students online.
I’ve been using Kindle Unlimited in my classroom for years because I pay $9.99 a month to check out 10 e-books. Then I share my screen with students so they can see the e-book during our read-aloud time.
This affiliate link lets you freely try Kindle Unlimited for a month. Then you can use the trial to test out these Earth Day read-alouds.
You could also use this option in the classroom by getting the e-book and showing it to your students on your classroom projector.
Either of these is a great way to share books with students about Earth Day!
Once you use the video and book ideas, then you can have students complete a recycling activity to reinforce the lesson.
Earth Day Poetry Activity
Another fun upper elementary Earth Day activity combines the holiday celebration with poetry.
This is perfect since April is also National Poetry Month!
One type of poem I teach is acrostic poetry. It’s where the letters of a certain word become the start of each line in the poem.
If you have students who struggle to come up with ideas during writing, acrostic poems aren’t intimidating to them.
These poems allow students to express their creativity well.
Speaking of poetry and writing, if you want more general ideas on either topic, these posts have tons of ideas:
- Engaging Digital Poetry Ideas
- Poetry Activities for Upper Elementary Students
- 8 Clever Ways to Get Your Students Writing More
As students write poems about taking care of the Earth, remind them that these actions apply at school and at home.
Read Biographies of Earth Day Activists
The final meaningful way to teach your students about Earth Day is to expose them to people who are climate change activists.
I especially like this idea for upper elementary because I want students to take climate change seriously.
One biography we read is Greta Thunberg’s.
Not only does this help students see a passionate young person advocating for change, but it also reinforces the idea that they can also be change agents!
To introduce your students to more Earth advocates, I recommend the book Earth Squad: 50 People Who Are Saving the Planet.
Hopefully, all these upper elementary Earth Day activities give you some fresh ideas. 🌎
