Teaching elementary age children is a rewarding experience, but as educators and parents, finding the time and resources to create engaging lessons can be a challenge.

That's where this podcast comes in. Welcome to Naturally Teaching Elementary. I'm Victoria Zablocki, a certified elementary teacher turned outdoor educator.

With over a decade of experience coaching teachers on effective teaching methods, I'm passionate about teaching the whole child with authentic and place-based experiences in school and home settings. Join me as we explore strategies for teaching with practical teaching tips, insightful interviews, picture book reviews, and more. So let's grow together.

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast. My name is Victoria Zablocki and I'm your host. So Earth Day is coming up and it's a fantastic opportunity to expose your learners to stewardship opportunities and empower them to make change. It's also a great way to connect your science curriculum to a holiday and get in those service projects your social studies standards call for.

[1:04]

But before we get into our Earth Day projects, I want to start with a teaching tip. So today's teaching tip is about making sure whatever projects you select for your learners are there to encourage actions that are attainable for your learners and their age.

Earth Day opportunities that I've seen in the past have been kind of dependent on parents or adult help, but you want to make sure that you choose something that is a reduce, a reuse, or a recycle opportunity that are within the scope of what children can do. So it may sound simple to ask your learners to bring reusable containers for their lunches instead of Ziploc bags, but maybe their caregiver is the one that packs their lunches, and they don't have reusable containers in their home. It may also sound simple to suggest that your learners recycle plastic and aluminum while they're away from school, but what if they don't have access to a recycle bin, and their caregiver believes that's just a bunch of hippie nonsense?

So instead, try to focus on actions that they can do while they're in your care or things that they can reasonably do while outside of school. So things like turning off the lights when they leave a room, and turning off the faucet while they brush their teeth, those are attainable goals for learners in their own space. They can actually be in control of those actions.

Save more elaborate projects and actions for when you and your learners are together, and you can give them the space and materials required for more extensive practices. For those homeschool families out there listening, the world is your oyster, and you have amazing opportunities to foster stewardship values around Earth Day. So in this episode, I'm going to describe unique Earth Day projects for grades K through five because I find with Earth Day, most projects are just the same thing over and over and over again, suggested by different people.

So I'm going to try to give you some unique ideas here. So for each project, I'll share the Next Generation Science Standard that inspired that project, as well as the way that it relates to Earth Day. Make sure you listen through to the end of the episode because even though I paired these projects to particular standards, you may find yourself inspired to use a similar concept for your curriculum or even use the same project for a different grade.

Also, if you're new to taking your students outside for learning, check out Episode 6: 5 Outdoor Education Safety Tips for Teaching Outside, for suggestions to make teaching outside easier. Now let's get into these Earth Day projects.

[3:34]

For kindergarten, the Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled was K-ESS3-3: Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and or other living things in the local environment.

So how does this relate to Earth Day? This standard speaks directly to the sentiment of Earth Day. This holiday is all about finding ways for humans to take better care of the environment and reduce their impact on it, and now you can harness that sentiment to help you with your science curriculum.

So start this conversation by reading the book, The Day the Trash Came Out to Play by David M. Beadle, illustrated by Laurie A. Faust or The Mess That We Made by Michelle Lord, illustrated by Julia Blattman.

These two picture books provide an age appropriate view into what happens when people litter. So I know, I know, I said I was going to suggest unique projects. Bear with me, I've got a unique twist on this.

It's a very common suggestion for an Earth Day activity to do trash pickups with children, since that's an activity they can do on their own. However, my qualm with setting kids loose to pick up trash wherever they go, is that there's a lot of trash out there that they shouldn't be touching. So things like cigarette butts, vape cartridges, contraceptives, band-aids, broken glass, beer cans, the list goes on.

It's really hard to tell a kindergartner to go out and pick up trash to help the environment, but wait, don't touch all of these things. Instead, you can take some time to share with them that the best way to fight litter is to not be a litterer themselves. Start with the preventative.

But since there is so much litter out there that we shouldn't be touching it with our hands, what could we do instead? Encourage your kindergarten engineers to design a way that they can pick up litter without touching it.

For each grade level, I'm going to encourage you to treat your learners like engineers to get them excited. All of these projects have some sort of design engineer element, and to call them Earth Day engineers is kind of a fun thing for the holiday. So embrace it.

It'll be great. So if you want to give them an active way of getting inspired since they're young, and this might start as an abstract concept, you can gather a variety of materials like kitchen utensils, craft materials, recyclables, rubber bands, and more. Put them in a basket or a pile outside.

Then spread out “trash”, so like paper, aluminum cans, plastic containers, and whatnot in a space near your pile, and let them use the materials you provided to try to collect the trash without touching it. This trial and error will be a valuable way for your engineers to experiment with different objects and make and change plans. Once they've had a certain amount of time to try to pick up the trash with their makeshift grabbers, give them some graph paper, pencils, and clipboards, and have them draw their prototype.

Celebrate their engineering by putting up their 2D models, aka their graph paper, on a bulletin board in the hallway, or by having them create 3D models that they can test out with a trash pick up obstacle course on Earth Day. When all is said and done, remind them to only pick up trash while they're with an adult, so they can make sure that the child is safe while helping the environment.

[6:54]

The Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled for first grade was 1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.

So how does this relate to Earth Day? Animals have a variety of characteristics and adaptations that help them in the wild, including ways to keep warm when it's cold outside, and those adaptations can inform solutions for human problems.

So for this project, you're going to give your first grade engineers a problem that they're going to draw inspiration from those animal adaptations to solve. One human problem that can be witnessed at a lot of schools is parents waiting in line to pick up students and leaving their cars running that whole time they wait. The gases emitted from the cars as the parents wait add to the greenhouse gases and the air pollution around us.

So encourage your first grade engineers to put themselves in the role of the parents and consider why they might be leaving their cars running during that time. Is it to stay warm or is there another reason they may be keeping their cars on? Have your engineers decide why they think that parents are leaving their cars on and then look to animals to try to find a solution to the problem.

If they think it's because parents don't want to get cold, what do animals do to keep themselves warm when it's cold outside? Some grow extra feathers for the cold. Some animals eat a lot of food and put on an extra layer of fat. Some animals hide under the snow blanket to stay warm. And many, many other adaptations.

This project could be a good opportunity for collaboration, so let your first graders work in partners to be able to design a solution for the problem of parents possibly getting cold in their cars while they wait for their students to be let out of school.

Give your pairs of engineers a piece of graph paper and let them draw a picture of how they could help parents stay warm, thinking about how animals keep themselves warm. To celebrate their ideas, print out pictures of adult people and cars for each set of partners, and then have them color the car and adult and add their solution to the paper adult. Then, you can take their creations and decorate a bulletin board in the classroom or in the hallway where people can see your learner's solution for staying warm in your car without leaving it running.

[9:07]

The Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled for second grade was K-2-ETS1-1 (it’s an engineering standard): Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

So how does this relate to Earth Day? Clean water is a valuable resource that many people are struggling to come by. Between pollution, drought, and distance, there's a major water crisis around the world. And if you use the Next Generation Science Standards, you've likely talked about where water can be found on Earth for second grade and that it can come in solid and liquid forms.

Now we can expand on those ideas and talk about our fresh water and how valuable of a resource it is. So for this project, you're going to have your second-grade engineers work on designing a tool that cleans polluted water or a way to transport water long distances. Since your second graders likely don't have a lot of background on how water can be cleaned, you may need to do some research altogether on how the water near you is treated.

Many cities try to be as transparent as possible about how their water is cleaned and will have links to the water treatment plants on their website. But that's not true for everyone. So if you can't find your local water treatment plant’s information, you can always look on YouTube for a common way that water is treated.

Once your learners have a better idea of some of the ways that water is currently being treated, provide them with graph paper and time for their imagination to soar, and encourage them to design a way to clean water for people, animals, and plants to use for survival. You can also look for a video that shares the problem of people that are too far away from water, and have them try to design a solution to get water transported long distances to reach those individuals. This project also could be a great opportunity for collaboration, so consider having it be a partner or small group opportunity.

If you want to take this Earth Day project one step further, you could provide your learners with clean recyclables and craft materials to build a model to share with their classmates. To celebrate their hard work, you could have your learners share their solutions with the class while eating a celebratory snack, or you could put them on display somewhere like the library.

If you're loving this idea, consider checking out my Earth Day Engineers Water Mini Unit for Second Grade. It includes this activity alongside others such as an informational reading with questions, a water changes vocabulary matching sheet, a local watershed mapping opportunity, a research project on your local water source, an informational writing about their invention, and a recording sheet for both their invention's plan and final product. All of these are made for you. They take about five days, so a mini unit, and includes science and ELA activities.

[11:53]

The Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled for third grade was 3-LS4-4: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.

How does this relate to Earth Day? You may have heard me offhandedly mention the decline in natural wetlands when I talked about migration activities last fall. This is not because it's a little issue, it's because we were focused on the obstacles that birds face when migrating in the fall and spring.

However, wetland decline is actually a really big issue that we're facing in the United States. When wetlands are destroyed, the ecosystem and habitats that they are providing are gone, and the plants and animals that call that wetland home are now without the things they need to survive.

Thankfully, Section 404 of the Clean Water Act from 2008 requires a wetland that's destroyed to be replaced, also known as wetland mitigation. That being said, a lot of the wetlands that are used to replace the destroyed wetlands are not always successful. So for this project, you're going to have your third-grade engineers put together a wetland mitigation model.

So you're going to pose the scenario that a local wetland is being destroyed and there needs to be a mitigation plan to replace the lost wetland. These models can be as elaborate or as simple as you want, either using craft materials and clean recyclables inside or using natural materials outside. Also, keep in mind that the Next Generation Science Standards consider diagrams and other 2D options to be models of thinking as well.

So if you don't have the time and space to do 3D models, you can by all means do 2D models. So for your learners, they will need to think about the three things that make a wetland a wetland. One, first, having water all or almost all year long.

Second, having waterlogged soil. And third, having plants that are adapted to live in wet conditions. Their model should address those three characteristics first and foremost.

Then, they should also include what animals they think would be relocated to the new wetland and what they think those animals would need to survive. Addressing these pieces would be the first steps that someone creating a mitigation proposal would need to consider. You are just letting your engineers think through a model.

This project would also be a great opportunity for collaboration, as many mitigation proposals are worked on by a team, so consider offering this opportunity to be a partner or small group project. To celebrate their hard work, you could either have a gallery walk, or you could put together an Earth Day Expo where caregivers and or learners from other grades could come and visit each model and talk about their proposed plans.

And if you love this idea but aren't sure how to progress from zero to wetland mitigation, check out my Earth Day Engineers Habitat Mini Unit for Third Grade. It includes this activity alongside others, such as a short research project about different kinds of wetlands, an informational reading about wetland mitigation, mapping your local watershed, critically thinking about a wetland mitigation challenge, creating a mitigation report, and a recording sheet for your wetland model. All of these are made for you, take about five days again, and include science and ELA activities.

[15:01]

The Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled for fourth grade is 4-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

So how does this relate to Earth Day? Finding ways to reduce the amount of energy that we use is a prime way to celebrate Earth Day. Once a child learns the difference between renewable and non-renewable resources and how their uses affect the environment, they can be empowered to make different decisions that can become habits throughout their lives. So for this project, I'm going to suggest by starting with a game to illustrate the difference between non-renewable and renewable resources.

So first you're going to share with your learners the play space using natural boundaries and also share your attention getters so they know what to listen for to signal the end of the game. Then you're going to play elimination tag for the first round, simply meaning that whoever is “it” will tag people, and once they get tagged, they're out and have to sit to the side. If you have a large group of learners, it would probably make sense to select a couple of people to be “it”.

And then the second round, you'll play where the “it” status transfers to whoever gets tagged. This round is never ending and will only stop when you use your attention getter to complete it. Once you've played both rounds, talk about which way of tag they enjoyed more. Many of your learners will like the second round where the “it” status got passed since they were able to play as long as you, the adult, let them.

If you've introduced non-renewable and renewable resources before, ask them which round sounds like a non-renewable resource and which one sounds like a renewable resource. The first round represents non-renewable resources since the players that weren't “it” got used up as the “it” player went around and tagged. Whereas the second round represents renewable resources where the players got recycled into the “it” and “non-it” roles.

Now that you've talked about which round represents which kind of resource, it's time to give your fourth grade engineers a project. As I mentioned in the teaching tip, it's important to give your learners projects that empower them, not just projects they have to follow along with and can't make an impact on their own.

So for a non-renewable and renewable resource project, I suggest empowering them by having them decide how they can reduce the use of non-renewable and renewable resources in their everyday lives. You could have them brainstorm in partners, small groups, or as a whole class, or maybe even all three ways. After they've come up with ways that they themselves can reduce their use, work together to create “punch cards” for each of their ideas that they can use the week leading up to Earth Day.

Each day that they complete one of the tasks, they can report back to you and you can punch their card with a hole punch or by writing your initials over the space. For each punch that gets completed, you add a certain number of points to a bank. To illustrate the significance of non-renewable versus renewable resources, you could give double the points for actions that reduce the use of non-renewable items.

And to incentivize your class, once the bank reaches a goal amount, your learners get a fun activity added to their Earth Day celebration. This could be as simple as a special snack or watching the movie Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, whatever would motivate your kids. Either way, it's empowering them to decide what they can do to reduce their use, and then giving them a way to practice those actions.

[18:27]

For fifth grade, the Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled was 5-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment.

So how does this relate to Earth Day? Citizen science projects are a great way to get your learners involved in the science community and to learn about the impact their actions can have on helping protect the Earth's resources and environment. So for this project, you're going to work with your learners to participate in the citizen science project iNaturalist. For this project, all you'll need is an iPad or your smartphone and your learners.

You can download the free app iNaturalist or if your students want more immediate gratification, you could download the Seek app. To help you decide which app is best for you, I'll explain some differences. So iNaturalist is the larger project that holds millions of observations from around the world.

The data that has been submitted to the project can help inform what the population of organisms are in your area. There's also a community of scientists, naturalists, and hobbyists that help ID and confirm IDs of organisms that are reported. That being said, if you submit an unknown organism to the app, you'll have to wait for a scientist, naturalist, or hobbyist to identify it for you.

However, if you'd like to know what you found right away, or what you likely found right away, you can download the Seek app, which is powered by iNaturalist. So what that means is that the observations from your area help identify the organisms in real time. Plus, once you've made an observation, you can submit it to iNaturalist through Seek if you make a free account with iNaturalist and then sign in on the Seek app.

Another benefit to the Seek app is that there cannot be any communication from identifiers to your Seek app, keeping your students safe from outside communication. Either way, both apps are free, both apps are wonderful, and both apps help the scientific community.

So, once you've decided on which app you'd like to use, get your technology ready and take your learners outside. You could conduct this project in a few different ways. You could provide your learners with an exploration space using natural boundaries and let them run around and find things. When they find something they want submitted to the scientific community, you could bring your phone or your classroom iPad over, and the students get to take a picture and submit it to iNaturalist, either directly through that app or through Seek.

Alternatively, you could go for a guided hike and walk together around your green space, looking for things to submit, and then everyone stopping when you're ready to make a submission. For either of these methods, you could bring out field guides or other identification materials and give your learners the chance to try to identify what they're looking at before submitting.

This is just one of many citizen science projects you could look into, and the wonderful thing is, if your learners really love doing this, they can work with their caregiver at home and download one of the apps to continue to add observations to the scientific community since this project runs year round. If you're looking for other citizen science projects, check out episode 15: 6 Citizen Science Projects for Elementary Students. In that episode, I describe a citizen science project for each grade level that's connected to a Next Generation Science Standard, including: MPing, eBird, The Great Sunflower Project, Journey North - Monarch Butterflies, S'COOL, and The Great Backyard Bird Count.

And make sure to tune in to next week's episode to learn about another spring-specific citizen science project called Vernal Pool Patrol. My friend Lindsey Harrell joins me to explain all about it.

[22:05]

So in a nutshell, we talked about six unique Earth Day projects for your elementary age learners to get involved with this year. For kindergarten, we talked about designing trash picker uppers. For first grade, we talked about designing a solution for parents while they wait for their students to come out of school. For second grade, we talked about creating a solution for cleaning water or transporting water-long distances.

For third grade, we talked about creating a wetland mitigation model. For fourth grade, we talked about creating non-renewable and renewable resource-saving punch cards. And for fifth grade, we talked about participating in the iNaturalist citizen science project.

So I hope you got some inspiration for Earth Day this year and how to celebrate in a way that can help you move towards your curricular goals. And if you're looking for more Earth Day activities, check out my article, “A List of Earth Day Activities Elementary Students Will Love This Year”. In that article, I talk more about activity ideas as well as ways to incorporate food in your celebration, book ideas, and crafts. And I'll make sure to put a link in the show notes.

And if you're looking for more picture books to read, check out my article, “18 Kids Earth Day Books to Inspire Elementary Students This Year”. And don't forget, if you're interested in those mini units, check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store Naturally Teaching, and look for Earth Day Engineers Water Mini Unit for 2nd Grade, and Earth Day Engineers Habitat Mini Unit for 3rd Grade.

So thanks for taking time to listen today. I know you're super busy, and I truly appreciate the time you take to tune in. If you have any questions, wonderings, or Earth Day projects that you use, get a hold of me on Instagram at naturally.teaching, or you can email me at victoria@naturallyteaching.com

And don't forget to check out the show notes for this episode at naturallyteaching.com/episode45. So thanks again for joining me today. And until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast. I hope you found it informative, inspiring, and full of actionable insights to enhance your teaching journey. Connect with me on social media for more updates, science tidbits, and additional resources. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at naturally.teaching.

Let's continue the conversation and share our passion for teaching elementary-age children together. Don't forget to visit my website at naturallyteaching.com for all the show notes from today's episode. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Your feedback helps me improve and reach more educators like you. Thank you again for listening, and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching.