Heal the Earth

Language Arts Activities

A    B    C    D    E A clean world is the place for me. F    G    H    I    J That's the way we want it to stay. K    L    M    N     O Make it dirty?  NO!  NO!  NO! P   Q   R   S    T Pick up all the trash you see. U   V   W    X    Y   Z Keep it clean for you and me!

No job is too big, No action too small, For the care of this earth, Is the task of us all.

I teach children this pledge and then make a banner allowing space at the bottom for them to sign their names.  After children can recite the pledge, I give them an earth badge.  I use mini message pads shaped like the world.  The children also sign the banner.

To make a rebus sentence, I provide the children with patterns of an eye, a heart, and a world.  They color and cut out the patterns and glue them on  paper.  They then read "I LOVE the EARTH."  Some of the children print the word "the" if they are ready for that step.

We make a class book entitled OH NO!  I give each child the opportunity to draw a picure and write or dictate a sentence about something they do not like seeing happen to our earth.  Each page ends with OH NO!  Example...I see people littering.  OH NO!  (They love the repetition of OH NO!)    The last page of the book is done by me.  It says, But we are learning to take care of the earth.  OH YES!  Then I glue xeroxed pictures of the kids to this page.  I surprise the class with the last page when I read them the finished book.

Math Activities

To begin the unit, I place a small globe in a box and play 20 questions.  This leads to a discussion about the earth, how paople damage it, and how we can take care of it etc. I have the children complete a Nature Snack Graph using popcorn, raisins, sunflower seeds, and peanuts. I give the children a 2 day homework assignment about saving water.  On Day 1, the children take a bath and measure the amount of water they use in inches.  On Day 2, they take a shower and plug the drain and measure (again in inches) how much water they use.  They bring in the results and we make a tally graph to see which used more water.  You need a lot of space for the tallys. Using parent helpers, we held a popcorn sale to raise money so we could adopt an endangered animal at the zoo.  In the spring, we take a field trip to visit "our" animal. Children bring in aluminum cans on assigned dates. (If you don't assign dates, you will have cans all over all the time getting messy!)  Parent volunteers take in the cans and return the money.  I ahve the children count the monay and sort it into groups.  With that money, we bought an acre of endangered rainforest in Belize.  I had children estimate the distance around a globe   I used an inflatable one.  Each child cuts a piece of string the length that they think will fit around the middle of the globe.  Graph the answers by hanging their string under appropriate words...TOO LONG...TOO SHORT...JUST RIGHT. The calendar for this month had a heart/earth pattern  I used small message pads from the teacher store.

Science/Social Studies Activities

Share a piece of the earth by having children bring in a piece of the earth that is special to them.   (A shell, pine cone, plant etc.)  Along with an explanation of this show and tell activity, I also sent home the following questions.                                       1.  What is it?                                       2.  Where did you get it?                                       3.  Why is it special to you? The pieces of earth were all displayed on a table with a banner above it that said SHARE A PIECE OF THE EARTH.  The earth had a pie shaped piece cut out of it and there were also hearts scattered around the banner. Children cut out a blue circle and add green land.  They glue this earth in the left hand corner of a paper and place a real band-aid on the earth.  Children print Heal The Earth.  On the bottom half of the paper, they draw and dictate how they would heal the earth.  These were displayed in the hall and then turned into a class book.

A fun art activity that the kids loved was making paint blob earths.  Cut 2 large circles out of heavy paper.  Drop blobs of blue, green and brown tempera paint on ONE circle.  Use more blue, since blue represents water.  Place other circle over paint and gently rub circles together.  Lift top carefully to reveal 2 beautiful earths.  Keep one for display and one to send home.

Each child brought in a white sweatshirt or tee-shirt to creat this earth shirt. First, I traced an earth pattern on the shirt with a dull pencil.  Child painted land section green.  Next day, the water was painted blue.  Third day found us putting the child's handprints at the bottom of the shirt.  I printed the words-The Care of the Earth is in our... I used acrylic paint for the earth and hands, and fabric paint for the words.