Let's Celebrate Earth Day! 🌍
- adventureswithalys1
- Apr 11
- 3 min read
Earth Day is a great opportunity to pause and help students connect with the world around them. When I was in grade school we always created a poster that promoted keeping our community clean. Students from all over the county would make them, and they would be displayed in out local library! Earth Day gives us a chance to reinforce important science concepts in a different way. If you’re looking for activities that are both meaningful and fun, I’ve got three classroom favorites that are perfect for this time of year!
Here are some engaging Earth Day resources your students will love:
This one’s always a hit! Each student gets a piece of the poster to color, and when you put it all together, it reveals a surprise Earth Day image. It is made up of 30 pieces, each piece just looks like pixels. This makes it fun watching students color and guess what it might end up being! It’s a fun, low-prep way to build teamwork and create a colorful classroom display. Plus, it’s editable—so if you want, you can add your own questions and answers and tie it into your Earth Day lessons.
♻️ Recycle Sorting Game
Bring in clean recyclables (or use printed pictures), and let students sort them into the right bins: plastic, paper, metal, compost, trash. It’s a great way to spark conversation about reducing waste—and gets them up and moving! If you want to go even further, reuse the objects in a new way! Talk about different ways to use objects that are typically considered trash. Here are some ideas!
Plastic Bottle Greenhouses – Cut the bottom off a 2-liter bottle and use it to cover seedlings like a mini greenhouse.
Egg Carton Flowers – Cut and paint egg carton sections to make cute flowers or bugs.
Recycled Instrument Station – Make shakers from water bottles, drums from cans, and guitars from tissue boxes and rubber bands.
Tin Can Pencil Holders – Clean and decorate cans to hold markers, pencils, or craft supplies.
T-shirt Tote Bags – Turn old T-shirts into reusable bags—no sewing needed with the tie-knot method!
If you’re diving into plants and life cycles this spring, this craft is a great way to bring it all together. Students each complete a piece of the larger poster, reviewing science concepts as they go. It makes a great visual review and a nice tie-in to Earth Day themes like growth and sustainability. This activity reviews the plant life cycle AND provides a visual! So it is the best of both worlds! Talk with your students about why it is so important to take care of plants in their communities. Why should we keep out communities clean? How does litttering harm plants?
🌍 Nature Scavenger Hunt
Take your students outside (or by a window) and have them find items like a leaf, something green, something that smells nice, something rough, etc. You can tie this into senses, observation skills, or science vocabulary. Bonus: have them journal or draw what they find! My students LOVED doing this! If you want to incorporate this into your weekly routine, I have an amazing idea for you! Have your students pick one area outside the school. Each week they observe what their area looks like. How has it changed? What is new? You can have students write or draw about their location. It is an easy and fun activity for them!
💧 Water Cycle Collaborative Poster & Coloring Activity This activity is perfect if you're reviewing the water cycle or talking about water conservation. It’s simple to prep and gives students a hands-on way to reinforce key concepts like evaporation, condensation, and precipitation—plus, the final poster looks amazing when it’s all put together! Water is a BIG part of our earth, therefore it is important that we discuss how to keep it clean for generations to come!
All 5 of these activities are designed to spark conversation, creativity, and collaboration—while giving students a deeper appreciation for our planet. Whether you choose one or mix and match, they’re a great way to make Earth Day meaningful in your classroom.
Happy Earth Day! 💚🌎
Alyssa
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