For Teachers

Ideas for How to Use Earth Day Carol in the Classroom:

  • Read the story to your class while projecting it on a screen.
  • Use the story as a jumping off point to discuss Reduce, Reuse, Recycle:
  • Have students make a play out of the story and act it out.
  • Do a recycling art project like Elizabeth Fram
  • Have students make their own Plastic Bottle Scrooge and add factoids onto the back (see Caroline Rondeau’s activity below.)
  • Read the story and write Greenkus: Haikus for Earth Day

Here’s a Greenku example:

the plastic fork says: (5 syllables)
“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (7 syllables)
for the planet—Please!” (5 syllables)
                 —Torran

 

How Did you Use Earth Day Carol in the classroom?

5th Grade Teacher, Lucy Bigelow, at Lourdes Catholic School in Nogales, AZ gave her students the following assignment:

Art/Science Project: Earth Day Art
Create an Art Project using recycled items that you would normally throw away. The themes are: “Earth Day Carol,” “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” or “What the Earth means to me.” We will submit pictures of the art work to the Earth Day Carol website. You can watch the Earth Day Carol on YouTube or download the free app: Earth Day Carol. And remember to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

Here’s an example of one of her student’s recycled art:

Earth Day Carol by Juan Carlos Ruiz 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Earth Day Carol by Juan Carlos Ruiz 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to Caroline Rondeau at Lulu Walker Elementary for sharing her great Earth Day art project with us. Caroline is a special education teacher who read Earth Day Carol with her 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. After reading the story she shared some of the factoids about plastic and recycling with her students. Then the students made their own Scrooge bottles from old water bottles–they made a face on it and included three or four factoids.

Here’s how they turned out:

Scrooge Bottles 001

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scrooge Bottles 002

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scrooge Bottles 005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let us know how you used Earth Day Carol with students: info@earthdaycarol.org

 

Earth Day Resources:

Environmental Education Exchange free recycling curriculum:

Too Good to Throw Away!
(Grades 1-2 and 3-5)
http://www.outreach-scheduling.org/toogoodtothrowaway.php

Talking Trash in Tucson
(Middle School)
http://www.outreach-scheduling.org/talkingtrash.php

National Environmental Education Week
The National Environmental Education Foundation, EE Week is the nation’s largest celebration of environmental education held each year the week before Earth Day and inspires environmental learning and stewardship among K-12 students.
www.eeweek.org

Earth Day Network
This comprehensive site has a free Educators Network with information and resources.
http://edu.earthday.org/

The Alameda County Office of Education runs a program called the Service-Learning Waste Reduction Project that has tons of online resources to help teachers and students reduce waste at school, at home and in the community. (Thanks–Nate Ivy)

A great article about Earth Day and ways to celebrate it with links to additional resources. (Thanks–Kim Norman)

http://www.treeremoval.com/plant-a-tree-and-celebrate-earth-day/#.UjRxaS_n-M8

 Electronic Recycling

This program helps the environment by providing a safe way to dispose of unwanted electronic devices. (Thanks-Joanne Peters)

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/splash/electronicdevicerecycling.jsp

Being environmentally friendly on Black Friday

Check out these links for more helpful hints on eco-friendly shopping. (Thanks–Cindy Powell and your Girl Scout troop) 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/black-friday-news/environmentally-friendly-black-friday/pcmcat1478900815338.c?id=pcmcat1478900815338

Send additional Earth Day Resources to: info@earthdaycarol.org