Increasing awareness about the use of grocery sacks?!?
"Our school often contacts local grocery stores and has them donate grocery sacks to be decorated and then returned to the stores for use. The kids love going to the store and seeing their art work on bags being used. It's a good community P.R. thing too. It's free and easy. We really enjoy it." -Heather

A similar activity is organized on a national level at http://www.earthdaybags.org. But it doesn't take nationwide organizing to do something like this at the local level. Simply contact a nearby grocery store and offer to have your students decorate a hundred or two paper bags with a simple Earth Day design. Then make a large poster to put up in the store to identify your class, and perhaps offer a small tabletop Earth Day display.

A book to check out:What on Earth You Can Do With Kids; A Good Apple Earth-Related Activity Book for Grades 1-5, by Robyn Freedman Spizman and Marianne Daniels Garber, Ph.D. This book contains ideas for each month of the year, but they can be adapted to other months. -Bonita

1. Here are a few modified examples from What on Earth You Can Do With Kids:
2. Create a bulletin board with the earth as the background. Have students write poems based on themes such as "I Love the Earth."
3. Draw pictures of all the things that the sun's energy helps.
4. Observe nature and organize activities centered around it.
5. You are the author of a new book all about helping planet Earth - design a book cover for it.
6. Make a wish list for things the Earth might need.
7. Give A Hand to Mother Earth: Each student has a copy of a large hand. Everyone likes a compliment. Mother Earth likes to be appreciated also. Another way we pay a compliment to Mother Earth is by taking care of her. On each finger, write one thing you should remember to do to take care of Mother Earth.
8. Some Bunny Loves the Earth!: A petition is a formally drawn up and submitted to an authority soliciting a favor or request for your cause. Decide what you think needs to be done to help the earth. Write a statement of your request. Ask your friends and neighbors to support you by signing their names to show they agree.
9. You-nique! There's only one you. There is only one earth. It is special. How is the earth different from all the other planets? How is the earth like the other planets?
10. Planter Pizzazz: Many containers can be recycled and made into beautiful planters for growing seeds or repotting plants. Students can collect milk cartons, old pots, and a variety of containers.

Party! Be sure and sing "Happy Earth Day to You" as if you were having a party for "The Earth." I think substituting "Earth Day" for "Birthday" in that song would be a cute idea ... just a thought! Anyway, it would be a great excuse for some refreshments! HA! -Jonna

Hands-on: A couple years ago for Earth Day we had the students trace and cut out their hand print. On each of the fingers and the thumb they had to write how they would celebrate Earth Day, such as, conserve energy or water, recycle, etc. We placed these on a bulletin board around a big picture of the earth. -Stephanie in KS

Ecosystem in a bottle: I use Native American Literature to teach respect for Mother Earth. We are making terrariums and planting. I was lucky enough to secure an Ames grant for $280. You can make simpler ones with soda bottles. It really shows the water cycle and the interdependence of our environment. -Joan

I began this week talking about recycling. Yesterday we looked around our room for any item that had the recycle symbol on it. For homework the children had to look in their homes for the symbol and bring something in to share. Today we recycled coke cans into a fun learning game. Each student got five cans. They also received five numbers 2" x 4" (vertical) They colored their numbers, cut them out and pasted them on different colored constuction paper 4" x 10". These pieces of paper were then glued on the coke can. I partnered the students and they had to add the numbers on their blue cans, then their orange cans, etc. Then one of my third graders would pick on of his/her numbers and find two of the first or second graders cans that added up to the number they chose. Finally we set up 10 of the cans and bowled. They had to add the numbers on the knocked down cans for score. This was a fun way of reinforcing addition and could be used I'm sure for many other math activites. The students took their cans home to play with brothers and sisters. -Retta

A few more links you might try:

• Event Ideas from EarthDay.org
• Kid's Domain offers more project ideas and a great list of links to more Earth Day sites
• The Plastic Bag Association has a free Grime Fighters Earth Day poster just for teachers that can be ordered online. When you're done there, hop on over to their lesson plans for a great Earth Day Quiz and the opportunity to request their free educator's kits: "Don't Let a Good Thing Go to Waste" or "An Ounce of Prevention." This site's full of good stuff!

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