Earth Day 2012

I love spending time in nature. Growing up my family would frequently visit the beach, go camping, and visit national parks. We were raised to recycle, clean up after ourselves, and respect the Earth. Last week my husband and I went to a movie and we saw the preview for the new Disney Chimpanzee movie. A loud group of teenage girls behind us giggled and awed through the whole preview. Imagine my surprise when the trailer said in theaters Earth Day and not one of them knew when it was. Shocked face.

I love that as a teacher I get to share knowledge with children. I get to help them see the beauty in the world around them and the effect that they have. While this post is a little late for this year, I wanted to share some resources for Earth Day. You can always save it to your computer and use it next year.  Enjoy!

Here is a simple writing prompt for your students to use. You can get a copy by clicking on the link here or any of the pictures below. This prompt can be used to create a class book, an individual book, or a bulletin board. I kept it basic to have more emphasis on the writing and to save on ink. (I don't know about you but my printer ink always seems to be low this time of year.) The clipart featured is by Nikki of Melonheadz Illustrating. Stop by her blog here.

A teacher at my school made the cutest bulletin board with her class. I'm sorry I missed taking a picture of it. It was simple and done in a short amount of time.  Click here or on the picture for detailed directions on how to create your own Earth Bulletin Board.

I love to share books all month long. Some of my favorites are listed below:

Arthur Turns Green 
Just a Dream
Human Footprint: Everything You Will Eat, Use, Wear, Buy, and Throw Out in Your Lifetime (National Geographic Kids)
The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest
The Lorax

What are some of your favorite books to read around Earth Day? Leave me a comment and I will be sure to add them to my list.