I wanted to share an Earth Day activity with you. One thing I miss terribly about being a classroom teacher is that I don't get to do these types of activities much anymore.. I like this one so much that I had to borrow a classroom for about an hour!
Have you ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? I was shocked to read about it. I can't believe I hadn't heard about it before. If you want to know more about it, check out this 2008 video done by Good Morning America.
We have Leveled Literacy Intervention in our district, which has a wide variety of short texts for students. One of them, They Voyage of the Plastiki by Myka-Lynne Sokoloff focuses on one environmentalist's voyage to raise awareness about the Great Garbage Patch.
For those of you who have LLI, it's in the red kit (book #137). If you don't have access to this book, here are some other resources I found on the topic:
Here's what we did:
We watched the GMA video as our introduction. The kids were SO engaged and had very strong opinions (we did a turn and talk after so they could get it all out!)
I read The Voyage of the Plastiki aloud to the class. After reading (with lots of turn and talks) I broke the class into groups of four. Each group was given questions to answer on a large chart paper and a different colored marker to hold students accountable for contributing to the group work.
Questions:
The groups couldn't wait to share out their ideas!
Need more? Keep reading for FREE Earth Day fun!
I've blogged about Wonderopolis before, but I’m obsessed. It’s SO engaging! I was looking through and found 5 wonders that are perfect for Earth Day! Check them out below:
Have you ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? I was shocked to read about it. I can't believe I hadn't heard about it before. If you want to know more about it, check out this 2008 video done by Good Morning America.
We have Leveled Literacy Intervention in our district, which has a wide variety of short texts for students. One of them, They Voyage of the Plastiki by Myka-Lynne Sokoloff focuses on one environmentalist's voyage to raise awareness about the Great Garbage Patch.
For those of you who have LLI, it's in the red kit (book #137). If you don't have access to this book, here are some other resources I found on the topic:
- The Plastiki's Official Website
- National Geographic Article
- San Francisco Environmental Fact Sheet
- DOGO News
Here's what we did:
We watched the GMA video as our introduction. The kids were SO engaged and had very strong opinions (we did a turn and talk after so they could get it all out!)
I read The Voyage of the Plastiki aloud to the class. After reading (with lots of turn and talks) I broke the class into groups of four. Each group was given questions to answer on a large chart paper and a different colored marker to hold students accountable for contributing to the group work.
Questions:
- Write 3-5 facts you learned:
- What text features are included? How did they help you? (We're working on identifying and using text features, so this was a perfect review.)
- Why did David and his crew take the voyage? Was the voyage of the Plastiki worth it? Explain.
- How can you help solve the problem of plastic pollution.
The groups couldn't wait to share out their ideas!
Need more? Keep reading for FREE Earth Day fun!
- ReadWorks.org Earth Day passages and questions
- Celebrate Earth Day with Scholastic
- Time for Kids Earth Day
I've blogged about Wonderopolis before, but I’m obsessed. It’s SO engaging! I was looking through and found 5 wonders that are perfect for Earth Day! Check them out below:
- What’s so great about going green?
- How big is your carbon footprint?
- Where do recycled items go?
- Where is the world’s largest pile of trash?
- How is glass recycled?
- What is compost?
What are you doing in your classroom for Earth Day? I'd love to hear other ideas!
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