

Students can use a carbon footprint calculator (this calculator from the EPA and this calculator from 8 Billion Trees are free but each does require some pretty specific details parents would have to supply, while ) to determine approximately how much carbon their lifestyle emits in a year. Print a free plant growth chart to help students track their seedlings! In addition to the chance to connect with the environment and teach students sustainable agriculture practices, studies show gardening with students helps improve their achievement in science classes, and kids involved in school gardening projects have been found to have an increased preference for fruits and veggies when it comes to snacking. Whether you’re growing bean sprouts in snack bags with wet paper towels or setting up a full-fledged school garden, there are myriad benefits for students that come from incorporating the physical act of planting seeds into your lessons. Let’s face it, one of the most obvious environmental education activities you can do with your students is one that’s pretty simple and tied directly to science standards: Planting physical plants. What better way to connect students to nature than by connecting to the weather going on outside every day? Another environmental activity for kids that helps the wide world of science, collecting weather data for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network draws on those data and analysis skills again, while helping students to make predictions and see real-world connections to the work they’re doing in math class. Studies have found that kids who feel “connected” to nature act in more sustainable ways because of it. So how do you get kids thinking sustainably?ĭownload a free “Why Plant a Tree” poster for your classroom! Environmental Education Activities for Elementary School 1. This often includes practices such as reducing carbon emissions, conserving natural resources and promoting social equity. On a more technical level, sustainability represents a holistic approach to addressing environmental, social, and economic challenges in a way that supports long-term well-being and resilience. Here’s a kid-friendly definition we like to use: Sustainability is the ability to meet someone’s current needs without hurting the ability of people in the future to meet their own needs. But explaining this concept to kids can be tricky. Whether you’re celebrating Earth Day, writing sustainability lessons for your science class, or just looking for ways to stress the importance of being kind to Mother Earth in the classroom, read on for some must-save ideas to add to your teacher toolkit! What Is Sustainability?Įlementary school is an important time to begin talking to students about sustainability as we can instill these practices early and make them into lifelong habits.
#Environmental activity audit plus#
Sustainability - and helping teachers - are jointly entwined in our core mission, and we are here to lend a hand. The teachers who create all the printable worksheets, digital activities, and other teaching resources on the Teach Starter website hail from all around the US, and they’ve put together some of the best environmental activities for students plus ways to help the environment right in your classroom. As a teacher, you’re making an important impact on our future too. The future of our planet will soon be in their hands. The students learning about nature, climate change, and sustainability in your classroom today will be the stewards of the environment in 10 or 20 years. The saying “children are our future” is used so often that it can begin to sound cliched, but let’s face it: Truer words are rarely spoken. If you’ve caught even one news story about the environment lately, you know just how important environmental activities for students can be.
