Preschool: Earth Day

Here in the midwest, we are anxiously awaiting spring and cannot wait to get outside and enjoy our beautiful Earth. This week was all about recycling, planting, and mother nature with our Preschool Earth Day theme

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  Here were our plans for our Earth Day theme:

And here are the details for each activity:

Earth Day Comprehension:

Our first Earth Day book was Earth Day Every Day! by Lisa Bullard. After reading, we talked about the ways that people do not take good care of our Earth.  I asked Madelynn: “What is one thing people do that hurts our planet?” She said “they use too much lights.” Then she drew a picture to show her answer.

Earth Day Comprehension:

Our next read aloud was a beautiful interactive book called Touch the Earth by Julian Lennon. After reading, we talked about ways to help our Earth.  Then I asked Madelynn: “What can you do to help the Earth?” She said “don’t throw trash in the ocean because the fish can’t live there if it’s dirty.” Then she drew a picture to show her answer.

Earth Day Predictions:

Our next story was Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals. Before reading, we practiced making predictions.

I asked “After looking at the cover, what do you think this story will be about?”  Madelynn: “The girl is going to make a special soup for the animals.” Then I asked: “What do you think the word compost means” Madelynn: “I don’t know, maybe some kind of animal food?” This led into a great conversation about composting and building new vocabulary.

Earth Day Comprehension:

Our last read aloud was The Earth Book by Todd Parr. After reading, we talked about the things that make Earth special and wonderful.  I asked Madelynn: “What do you love about the Earth?” She said “we have lots of pretty flowers and grass on Earth” Then she drew a picture to show her answer.

Tracking Print:

Our last book was this letter R for Recycle alphabet reader. Madelynn identified the picture then pointed to each word as she read. Since we switched to the more difficult version she is working on learning new sight words each week. Afterwards she colored all of the pictures in.

Earth Day Letter Writing Tray:

Our first literacy activity this week was an earth day themed letter writing tray. To make this fun sensory activity I filled our tray with green and blue sand. Madelynn used recycle bin letter cards as a model and chose which ones she wanted to practice. Then she used sticks and/or her finger to write letters in the sand.

Recycle Sound Stamp:

Next, for more letter practice we used our dot stampers. We started out stamping inside the letter to make an R. Then Madelynn had to find the upper and lowercase r’s in the recycle symbol, stamp them and make the “R” sound each time. Then she stamped the other letters different colors and tried to make the sounds for each one.

Earth Day Rhyme Time:

Our second literacy focus this week was producing rhyming words. I print Earth Day rhyme labels and glued them onto a large sheet of chart paper.  Madelynn used sticky notes (because they make everything more fun!)  to draw pictures that rhyme with each Earth Day word (tree, can, box, and bin). Then she stuck each picture under the word it rhymes with.

Earth Day Name Craft:

For this week’s name craft we created a personalized Earth.  First, Madelynn cut the earth pieces out. Then she wrote the letters in her name on hearts and cut those out as well. After she finished writing, she glued the Earth together and added the hearts in order to spell her name.

Earth Day Journaling:

For our journal this week Madelynn chose to draw how she can help the Earth. She said “I can help the Earth by not using too much lights.” So I drew lines for each word, then we worked on writing the sounds together.

Color by Shape Earth:

We worked on identifying 3D shapes this week for our color by the code activity. Madelynn worked on identifying and naming 5 different 3D shapes: sphere, cone, cube, cylinder, and pyramid. I told her the color for each shape and she had to search and color each one in the picture.

Recycle Color Sort:

Our second math focus this week was sorting. We started with this simple recycle color sort. I printed, laminated and cut out colored recycle bins and recyclables.  Madelynn sorted each recyclable into the correct bin by color. Easy Peasy!

Recycle Compost Sort:

Next, after reading Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals and talking about composting vs. recycling, we did a compost sort. I printed the recycle/compost sort activity. Madelynn cut out the trash at the bottom of the page, then sorted each piece into the recycle bin or compost pile.

Sorting Collage Earth:

Our next sorting activity was part math, part craft.  I printed an earth outline. Madelynn cut up small scraps of blue and green paper. Then she sorted the paper by color and glued the green pieces to the land and blue pieces to the water to create a mosaic.

Shape Earth Sorting:

For a bit more challenge our last sorting activity involved sorting 2 different ways. Madelynn used shape earth cards in various sizes to first sort by shape.  Then she sorted the same cards in a different way, this time by size.

Recycled Trees:

I don’t know about you but we go through food pouches in this house like crazy! Which means tons of those little circle tops everywhere!! I came up with this recycled tree project for a fun way to use a few of them up. First, I cut up pieces of cardboard box into various sizes for Madelynn to use for the tree. I gave her the cardboard pieces and the green pouch tops and asked her to arrange them to make a tree. She used white glue to stick the tree pieces to a large piece of blue card stock. I used a dot of hot glue to stick the “leaves” in place after she decided where she wanted them.

Earth Play Dough Mats:

In this sensory bin: play dough and laminated Earth outline

Pollution Clean Up:

In this sensory bin: water, bits of trash (coffee filters, banana peels, plastic, paper, etc.) slotted spoons,, strainers

Recycle Sort Sensory Bin:

In this bin:  black beans, recyclable printables, trash and recycling labels, small bowls

Drip Color Earth:

Our last craft this week was a fun drip color Earth.  I cut circle shapes from cardstock ahead of time.  Madelynn used watercolor markers to draw and color in the circle to look like Earth.  Then she used an eye dropper to drip rubbing alcohol (you could also use water, but the alcohol made a cool effect since it dried faster and didn’t run all the colors together too quickly) on the paper to make the colors bleed together. Allow paper to dry.

Want all of this week’s Earth Day activities for preschool?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Earth Day Plans & Printables On TpT: Earth Day Plans & Printables

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Preschool Bundle On TpT here: Preschool Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 45+ themes on the Preschool Curriculum Main Page.