Earth Day Activities

I absolutely love Earth Day!  We're pretty big on recycling, reusing, composting, and reducing waste all year round.  But when April rolls around, I can't wait to really focus on ways that we can all help take care of our precious planet.  The future of our planet is in the hands of our kiddos, so why not give them the tools to help take care of it!

Here are some of the ways we learn about the Earth and what we can do to make a difference.

We are lucky enough to have a school site subscription to BrainPop, Jr.  There are so many fantastic videos with kid friendly language.  During our Earth Day unit, I like to use two of the videos with my Kindergarteners.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Natural Resources

There are also some great songs on YouTube all about Earth Day.  Some of our favorites are from Harry Kindergarten and Jack Hartmann.

I am obsessed with collecting great children's books (what teacher isn't!?!).  My Earth Day collection has certainly grown over the years.  More recently I've found some great reads to share with my kiddos.  Here are a few of my favorites.  You can click on the books to find them on Amazon.

  

We learn all about recycling and sorting our items into different categories.  This interactive crown is always a crowd pleaser.  Students cut out the pictures and glue them on the correct label to make the crown.

We also create these fun Natural Resources Mobiles.  The students learn about renewable and nonrenewable resources and ways to conserve.  We also talk about alternatives to using traditional natural resources such as electric cars vs. gas.

These Language Arts Centers are all about the Earth!  Our Write the Room activity is full of Earth Day words for students to find.  It's such a great activity to get the kids up and moving.  Earth Day Scrambled Sentences are great for emergent readers.  We do many versions of write the room and scrambled sentences throughout the year so they are very familiar activities for the students.  Our Earth Day sort is also a great independent activity!

We do a lot of writing about the Earth throughout our unit!  I have lots of different options both with and without lines to meet the needs of my students. (And I forgot to take a picture of our final writing products, ugh!)  "Our Earth Day Family Plan" is a fun option to send home for homework or to make the home-school connection and to get families thinking about how they can help protect the planet.  

You can find all of these activities in my Celebrate Earth Day Unit on Teachers Pay Teachers.

What are some of your favorite Earth Day activities?  Comment below!

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon.  By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase, at no extra cost to you.  This helps to support the blog so I can keep it up and running and share ideas with you.  The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.

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Hands On Pumpkin Science

It's pumpkin time!  I absolutely love this time of year.  Routines and procedures have been established and my kindergarteners are ready to dive head first into our science units.  Our pumpkin theme is spread out over two weeks in October but it could easily be done in just one.  The prep is minimal.  All you need are a few different pumpkins (many grocery stores will donate the funnier looking pumpkins to teachers!), a tub of water, something to measure with (we use linker cubes), and some carving tools.

Week 1

Investigating the Outside of the Pumpkin

We begin the unit by observing the outside of the pumpkin and talking about what we notice.  Students discuss size, shape, color, texture, temperature, similarities and differences, etc.

As all good scientists do, we record our observations and investigation results in our Pumpkin Journals.

We also count the ribs (lines) on the outside of the pumpkin and measure the height using linker cubes.

  

Then comes the real fun!  Will the pumpkin sink or float?  We always make a prediction before testing it out.

  

We also learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  I love these's Read and Find Out" books for science topics.

Week 2
Investigating the Inside of the Pumpkin

Students love to get their hands on their learning.  They can't wait to get inside the pumpkin to find out what's in there!  Estimating the number of seeds is always a ton of fun.  It's great for counting to 10 and skip counting.  We use counting mats to help us keep track.

  

It's amazing just how many seeds can be inside a pumpkin!

Last, we work on labeling the parts of the pumpkin that we find.

After 2 weeks of pumpkin fun, we celebrate by roasting pumpkin seeds!

You can find all of the activities and journal pages in my Pumpkin Science unit.

What are your favorite pumpkin activities?

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase.

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Snow Science: Giveaway & A Sale!

Teaching about the seasons in Northern California is a bit of a challenge!  Our leaves don't really change into vibrant colors in the fall, we don't get cold enough for snow, and we loving call summer weather "June Gloom."  Ha!  Luckily, the snow is just a few short hours away and most of my students have experienced it at least once or twice.  But for those who haven't, and even for those who have, I love to bring the elements into the classroom.  The best way to do this is through hands on science investigations!  

So why not bring a little snow into the classroom this winter?!

This unit includes 5 hands on science activities and differentiated journal pages for each one!  All you need is to add a few household items and you're good to go!

There are half-sheet and full-sheet page options.

Here are the activities that are included:

How'd you like to win a copy!?!  Enter the rafflecopter below!

Congratulations Deborah!  Check your email!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't want to wait for the giveaway?  Snow Science is 20% off December 31st - January 2nd!

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Pumpkin Science at The Primary Punchbowl

Happy Friday!  I'm just stopping by to let you know that I'm sharing all about our Pumpkin Science unit over on The Primary Punchbowl blog today!  I hope you'll stop by and check it out.  

Have a fantastic weekend!

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Five For Friday

Yay!  It's Friday! And it's a three day weekend.  We have Monday off for Indigenous Peoples Day (aka Columbus Day).  I'm really looking forward to the long weekend.  I'm excited to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday for the first time in a while.

We use FOSS kits for science in our district and this week was all about Trees!  We were busy observing trees, painting trees, learning about the parts of trees and what trees need to live.  I'd say my little scientists are now tree experts!

This week has also been all about writing numbers 0-9.  I absolutely LOVE these Number Construction sets from Learning Resources.  You can find them on Amazon here.

It's Fleet Week and our school is up high on a hill.  The Blue Angels fly right over the school during their practice runs.  The moment my Kinders hear the jets, all else stops.  So we headed outside to watch.  The giggles and shrieks of joy are so worth it.

We are getting ready for pumpkin week!  It's one of my favorite units to teach.  We will head to the pumpkin patch, explore pumpkins, eat pumpkin treats.  I might be more excited than the kids!  :)  We will be using the activities in my Pumpkin Science Unit that you can find on TpT here.

I am super excited to announce the launch of a new collaborative blog, The Primary Punchbowl!  Check back this Sunday for an exciting Fall Blog Hop where you can pick up some great freebies and enter exciting giveaways! 

Will you join us?

Head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and see what everyone else has been up to this week.

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