Earth Day is coming up, and you know what that means? Time for some super cool activities in your upper elementary classroom. Even though it lands towards the end of the year when things can be a little nuts, Earth Day is one of the best days to celebrate. Teachers get to see that “Aha!” moment on their students’ faces when they realize they can make a difference for our planet. So, ditch the test prep for a minute and check out these fun Earth Day activities to turn your class into a team of Earth Day champions!

Celebrating Earth Day in the Classroom

Honestly, it would be amazing if teachers could talk about Earth Day and helping the planet all the time. However, teachers are super busy with standards, testing, and well, just about everything else. Luckily, Earth Day is the perfect chance to set aside class time to do some fun Earth Day activities and teach your upper elementary kids how they can help save the Earth!

Get your classroom ready with a cute Earth Day background banner you can hang up in your classroom to set the scene for eco-friendly learning. Or, grab these Earth Day mini-buttons and bracelets students can wear each day they are learning about our planet.

Celebrating Earth Day can be a blast if you have the right activities! Thankfully, there are so many awesome resources to choose from. Each activity you incorporate plants a seed in students’ minds about how amazing our planet is and how we should care for it. Plus, it’s a great way to show them how much science is all around us, from the way plants grow to the importance of clean water. 

Earth Day Activities

As the year winds down, teachers begin prepping for end of year testing. Reviewing essential skills with students is always a good idea. Although, for students to stay engaged it needs to be fun. Luckily, this Earth Day Activities pack for reading and math is your secret weapon! This resource is a wonderful way to combine reading and math—all with an Earth Day twist.

Reading Skills

Students will feel like Earth Day superstars after digging into these fun Earth Day activities! Specifically, there are seven different reading and ELA activities for teachers to choose from. Students will love reading about how to celebrate Earth Day as they practice identifying main idea and supporting details. 

There is also a hands-on cut-and-paste activity. Students will learn Earth Day vocabulary by cutting and pasting definitions, pictures, and examples while completing a graphic organizer. 

Additionally, students will work on parts of speech with an exciting grammar color-by-code! Honestly, no matter which fun Earth Day activities you choose students will keep their reading skills sharp and become an Earth Day whiz!

Math Skills 

Incorporating math into your lessons while celebrating our planet can be fun and engaging. Students will practice several math standards all wrapped up in an Earth Day theme! 

From converting decimals to fractions and conquering line plots, students will have a blast while soaking up tons of Earth Day knowledge. Plus, they can put those tough multiplication and division skills to the test with an awesome Earth Day coloring activity. Who knew saving the planet could be so colorful and fun?

Earth Day Close Reading

Once students begin learning how to help our planet, they will want to learn more. Thankfully, the Earth Day Close Reading Passages are much more than just words on a page. It is a week-long lesson on caring for the planet. 

Students will dig deep into the text, ‘Caring for Our Planet’ using a four-step close reading model. As students complete the four-step process they will uncover all the cool Earth Day information they otherwise may have skimmed over. Specifically, this resource includes teacher instructions, graphic organizers, differentiated reading passages, and questions. 

Teachers can feel confident knowing their students are hard at work practicing reading comprehension while learning to care for our amazing planet. Check out this blog post for teaching close reading skills in the classroom.

Earth Day Digital Stickers

Teachers know their upper elementary students well. Stickers are like a love language, and digital stickers are even better! Forget hunting for paper stickers that tear or run out—digital stickers live right on their computer!

Learning about Earth Day is extra awesome with these easy Earth Day Digital Stickers. Imagine a happy little Earth getting stuck on Jimmy’s paper for mastering 

Making learning about Earth Day extra awesome is easy with digital stickers! Forget hunting for paper ones that tear or run out – these cuties live right on your computer. Imagine a happy little Earth getting stuck on Jimmy’s paper for awesome protractor skills or a high-five sticker for Sarah rocking her inferencing skills.  

Honestly, they’re a fun way to praise great work and make learning about our planet stick (in a good way!). Plus, the Earth Day sticker set is packed with colorful designs to celebrate our amazing planet. Check them out and watch your students blossom with eco-friendly excitement!

Fun Earth Day Activities 

Students will have a blast keeping their reading and math skills sharp with these resources. However, don’t forget to incorporate other fun Earth Day activities. Here are five activities you can easily add before or after any lesson:

• 3 R’s Song by Jack Johnson – This catchy song will have students thinking about ways they can reduce, reuse, and recycle. 
• Yellowstone Virtual Tour – Join the virtual field trip to show students the true beauty of the Earth and why it is so important to take care of the Earth.  
• Here Comes the Garbage Barge Read Aloud – This true story by Justin Theroux is about garbage that can’t find a home. Challenge students to think about how much garbage we produce and where it all goes. 
• The Ocean Clean Up – Students can see how a boy saw a problem and helped create a concept to help clean up plastic from the ocean! 
• TedEd Video – Dive into what happens to a water bottle when it is disposed of in three ways: thrown away, littered, and then recycled properly. 

Truly, no matter which activities you use, Earth Day is such an engaging topic to explore with your students. Honestly, the most important thing is to show students they can make a difference in saving the planet. Each of the fun resources shared above will help your students practice essential skills, learn standards, and learn all about how to care for our amazing Earth!

Save these fun Earth Day activities!

As always, make sure to save these fun Earth Day activities to your favorite classroom Pinterest board! When Earth Day rolls around, you will be ready to go!