There is a special day in April that we should all be taking part in year-round. And no I don’t mean tax day. (Albeit taxes are the bane of my existence). I’m talking about Earth Day. When I first made my Earth Day mini-unit years ago it almost felt a little hypocritical to be making something out of paper that would probably be eventually trashed. However, my hope is that you use whatever is left of my unit for recycling! Have students use the backs of the print pages for scratch paper!
Here are just SOME of the fun math and ELA activities in this unit!
When I think of Earth Day I automatically think of sorting. When you sort your trash between actual trash and recyclables, the same can be done for concepts! This is a great way for covering concepts such as syllables, plural pronouns, and much more.
Earth Day ELA Activities
Have students practice sorting syllables with a fun Earth Day activity! There is a page plus digital slide in my unit, AND it also comes as a complete center with 34 different words to sort!
Another easy way to teach students about Earth Day is with reading comprehension! After reading a short passage about Earth Day, students will answer the questions.
Students can have fun practicing proofreading with Paper Proofreading.
Sorting is even more fun when it involves coloring! With Paper Parts of Speech students will color the recycling bin based on what part of speech the word is.
If you are looking for a fun and engaging way to incorporate Earth Day, this word search is perfect!
Earth Day Math Activities
With Shape Sort, students will read the description of a shape and then find the matching shape!
And personally, for me when I think of Earth Day I also think of solar. This is partly because my husband used to sell solar panels for several years for residential homes. He still talks about it ALL. THE. TIME. So I always have an ear open about what’s going on in the solar world.
Solar spinners is a page available in my unit and also as an entirely separate center! Using a paper clip and pencil students will spin using their makeshift spinner and then add two 3-digit numbers. This is great practice for regrouping and you can have students race to see how many problems they can solve in a certain amount of time for a challenging game.
Now the good thing about my Earth Day unit is that it is also now almost entirely digital! There are some parts that cannot be made digital as easily but I have tried to make my units more environmentally friendly, especially for this unit!
As Earth Day approaches there are many other activities that can be done to celebrate! If you are looking for a fun way to easily celebrate the holiday be sure to check out my Earth Day No Prep and Digital Unit!
If you are looking for another fun hands-on activity for Earth Day, consider doing a Rain Gutter Regatta! I was today years old when I learned this fun all-day event we did in the fifth grade is actually done by Boy Scouts all the time! To explain it simply, students go through items in their homes that can be recycled and craft a boat out of them! Then they race their boats down rain gutters to see which materials float the best. This was such a fun activity and I still remember it to this day! You will definitely create a long-lasting memory if you choose to do this activity! To read more check out THIS BLOG POST!
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