Teachers- earth Day activities?

Any ideas? I am looking for something cute to do w/ my 1st grade class. Thanks!

Re: Teachers- earth Day activities?

Last year, we went to the local supermarkets and asked for paper bags. The kids then decorated them with an earth day theme, then we dropped them back off at the supermarkets, and they used them to bag groceries all day on earth day.

Re: Teachers- earth Day activities?

Every year we save all of our construction paper scraps in a "scrap box" and then on earth day week we do a weeklong project where we sort the scraps, tear them into small pieces, soak them in water overnight, blend them into paper pump and then make homemade paper.

it comes out more like cardstock -- very thick -- but the kdis love it and we make bookmarks out of it.

we also fingerpaint globes and the kids write one thing they can do to help our wonderful world on a sentence strip that gets displayed with the globes.

also in NYC they gave each class a recycling kit so this year we are also doing some of those ideas -- we are making our own "compost piles" in soda bottles so they can see how everything works inside. they will do observations weekly and write thier observations in thier science diaries.

we are also getting rubber gloves from the custodian and going to clean up the school yard. then (with a lot of monitoring for things they should NOT be touching) we are going to sort the garbage into appropriate recycling bins.

i have a few other ideas. let me know what you decide on! i love earth day!!

Re: Teachers- earth Day activities?

Wow, thanks, great ideas!, I heard about the grocery bag idea and actually emailed my principal about it the other day. I hope I can find a store thats willing ot help out, I know its short notice.

I also love the idea of making paper, do you just soak it and then the next day squeeze it out and lay it out flat to dry? I'd love to try it out, if you can let me know the details, i'd really appreciate it.

Since we are still doing poetry for poetry month I was going to have the kids write poems for earth day and then make frames with leftover scraps & other "garbage". They love writing poetry so I thought this would be fun. I'd love to hear any other suggestions =)

Re: Teachers- earth Day activities?

For the homemade paper I first have the kids sort the scraps into color piles. One pile is all the pinkish colors -- red, orange, purple, pink and the other pile is the blues -- blue, green, yellow...

then we tear them into 1" or smaller pieces and soak them in plastic bins at least overnight.

then you put small amounts at a time into a blender to mash it all up. you ha ve to use a lot of water so it doesn't clog the blender to make "paper pulp."

then i use old small window screens and put them over the sink and we pour the pulp on and squeeze out all the extra water.
when it is relatively not watery we layer it in newspaper and dry it out for a few days.

if you want thinner paper they sell kits in the craft stores where it's a smaller screen on a wood frame and you actually dip it in the paper pulp mixture and just a small thin layer clings to the screen but i like making it thick enough for bookmarks.

i hope this is clear or makes sense. there are also a lot of online tutorials available.

Re: Teachers- earth Day activities?

Not a teacher, but in 1st or 2nd grade we grew some kind of seed in wet paper towels that were put in ziplock bags and taped to the window. We would re-wet the towels every so often and then the sprouts grew. It was something we could eat, I think watercress, because I remember bugging my mom to make me a sandwich with it. I was so excited about it.

Re: Teachers- earth Day activities?

I just remembered that I also plant flowers with the kids every year and then we take care of them until mothers day when i buy little small clay pots for them that we paint and then give them to the moms for mother's day.

Re: Teachers- earth Day activities?

Thank you so much, I'm definitely going to make the recycled paper! We are also doing the bean in a ziploc, i do thqat every year, we're starting planting next week. We also plant flowers in mugs that the kids use paint markers on for Mother's Day. Thanks again for the ideas!