Spring has sprung and along with St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and upcoming end of year activities there is another important day – Earth Day on April 22nd! Earth Day is not only the perfect spring theme for creating lessons around, but it is also a fun day to celebrate with preschoolers.
The topic that most people think of when it comes to Earth Day is recycling. While this is certainly an important lesson to explore with preschoolers it is not the only topic you can cover.
Not only are there other topics you can explore when it comes to Earth Day, but there are also several ways to teach about Earth Day.
If you are ready to explore different Earth Day Activities for preschool then keep reading. We have created several different Earth Day ideas that you can use to celebrate Earth Day with your preschoolers in EVERY subject area!
Preschool Activities for Earth Day
When you think of Earth Day you may think about what science activities you can do with your students. While science is definitely a great subject to connect to Earth Day, it is not the only one.
Earth Day can be explored in all subject areas! Yes, even in math!
We know that trying to come up with ideas to explore Earth Day with your preschool students can take time though. Therefore, we took it upon ourselves to not only think of ways to teach about Earth Day in all subject areas but to also create lesson plans for you.
We created five different preschool activities for Earth Day. These activities cover different subject areas to provide your students with all the core standards they need.
- Earth Day Exploration Stations for Preschoolers
- Earth Day Read Aloud Activities for Preschoolers
- Earth Day Math & Literacy Centers for Preschoolers
- Earth Day PreK STEM Activity
- Earth Day Preschool Circle Time Activities
To make each of these activities even better, they are designed to cover several days of learning. For example, our Earth Day read aloud for preschoolers is designed to be taught over the course of 3 to 5 days.
In addition to the read aloud, our Earth Day math center resource includes ten different activities. That is more than enough math lessons for a week of lesson plans!
With all of the lessons we have created, from literacy to STEM, there are enough lesson plans to cover one to two weeks of classroom instruction. And, with all of the lessons already planned for you – you may just find some extra time to get out in nature and enjoy Earth Day after teaching!
Earth Day Math Activities for Preschoolers
Math may seem like the most difficult subject area to connect with a theme but once you see it done it can be quite easy. To help you see how you can turn any theme into math activities, take a look at the different earth day math activities we created for preschoolers.
- Number Formations: Play Dough numbers
- Counting: Count the recycled bottles
- Graphing: Roll and Graph
- How Tall?: Earth Day Measurement
- Compare and Cover: Same and Different Earth Faces
- Patterns: Earth Day Day Pattern Cards
- Shapes: Find and clip
- Sorting: Recycle the colors
- Clean the ocean: Sensory bin
- Initial Sound Puzzles: Recycling Match
These ten Earth Day math activities for preschoolers cover several different math concepts that are important for preschoolers: one-to-one correspondence, counting, number recognition, graphing, same & different, patterns, 2d shapes, sorting, order by size, and non standard measurement.
As you can see, we took several ideas connected to Earth Day and used them alongside different math standards to create fun and engaging activities to help students explore Earth Day while still covering important math concepts.
These ten math activities are part of our Earth Day Math and Literacy Centers for Preschoolers. In addition, when you purchase this packet (either on its own or as part of our Earth Day for Preschoolers Bundle) you also get ten Earth Day preschool literacy activities.
Earth Day Literacy Activities for Preschoolers
Like the math literacy centers, we have designed ten different activities to use for your preschool literacy centers. These activities cover important literacy concepts covered in preschool.
Beyond covering important literacy concepts for preschoolers, these activities are also engaging and fun. Therefore, when students visit each literacy center they will be focused and engaged in their learning.
These ten centers give students a chance to cover ten different literacy concepts: beginning sounds, name writing, uppercase & lowercase letters, letter identification, syllables, free writing, letter formation, sensory bin, and look and write.
Take a look at how we connected these literacy concepts to Earth Day:
- Initial Sound Puzzles: Recycling Match
- Counting Syllables: Earth Day Syllables
- Letter Identification: Earth Find and Trace
- Look and Write: Earth Day Day Words
- Matching Upper and Lowercase Letters: Feed the Bins
- On My Own Craft: Making an Earth Friend
- Writing Own Name: Recycling Bin
- Free Write: Earth Day Writing Center
- Order by Size: Smallest to Biggest
These ten Earth Day math and ten Earth Day literacy activities will give you enough to create learning for all of earth week. However, we also provided you with 24 additional Earth Day worksheets. These Earth Day worksheets can be used as supplement lessons or extension activities.
While you may choose to use our Earth Day worksheets as additional independent learning, we have provided another activity for literacy development.
One important element to developing literacy skills is to see how everything comes together in a story. Therefore, beyond the individual skills reviewed in these literacy centers we have also created a read aloud as another Earth Day activity.
Earth Day Every Day Read Aloud Activities
The book we selected for this preschool read aloud is Earth Day Every Day, by Lisa Bullard. This adorable story teaches kids how to reduce, reuse, and recycle with the help of Trina and Tyler.
As mentioned above, this Earth Day read aloud for preschoolers is designed to be taught over several days. Therefore, providing you as the teacher with ready-to-teach lesson plans for an entire week of reading.
Spreading these literacy activities out over several days not only benefits you as the teacher but also your students. This format gives kids the opportunity to revisit the story several times.
By revisiting the story, your kids will learn the importance of returning to a text together with textual evidence. Moreover, it gives every preschool student more opportunities to develop their love of reading!
Here is a quick overview of the different types of preschool earth day activities that your students will engage with while reading throughout the week. Each of these activities is tailored to the book.
- Detailed lesson plans
- Comprehension questions
- Whole group response to text activities
- Response to text worksheets
- Writing pages
- Vocabulary cards and worksheets
- Quiz
- Craftivity template
As with all of our learning resources, these can be used digitally or as printables.
Earth Day Craft Activities for Preschoolers
While we always want to return to academics when teaching preschoolers there is also plenty of room for creativity. Therefore, we have provided several opportunities for your students to explore Earth Day in creative ways.
As you can see in our outline for our Earth Day Every Day read aloud above, one of the reading activities is an Earth Day craft. This craft activity comes at the end of the week’s lessons and provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate their learning in a creative way.
In addition to the Earth Day craft included in the read aloud there are additional creative ways for students to explore Earth Day. One of these Earth Day activities for preschoolers is our PreK STEM Earth Day activity.
Earth Day PreK STEM Activity
Although our Earth Day STEM lesson includes a craft activity it is also focused on core academic skills. Moreover, it is designed to help your Pre students learn more about how the world works.
Throughout this April STEM lesson your young learners will explore, plan, and create using common, everyday materials to solve an everyday problem. To connect with Earth Day, students will create something useful for the classroom for recycled materials.
Before your preschool kids craft their design, they will first go through several steps of exploration. These steps are part of what we call the Engineering Design Process.
As part of the Engineering Design Process, your kids will Explore Vocabulary related to recycling. They will also build background knowledge by exploring more about what recycling is.
After they prepare with vocabulary and research, your students will plan and craft their project. In addition, they will follow up with a reflection.
All of these pieces allow students to dive deeper into the world of recycling and make connections to how reclying in the classroom can help them participate in Earth Day every day!
Earth Day Preschool Circle Time Activities
Since circle time is an essential part of a preschool day we couldn’t create an Earth Day PreK Bundle without including circle time activities.
In this Earth Day Circle Time packet you will find everything you need to help your PreK kids get excited about Earth Day. Moreover, to help extend your Earth Day activities throughout the week.
As with any circle time resource, this packet includes several activities to use during circle time:
- 2 reread/review the text activities
- 3 responding to text activities
- song lyrics with a familiar tune + 2 corresponding activities
- pocket chart poem + 2 corresponding activities
- 3 game-style whole class activities
- 5 corresponding independent worksheets
- 1 emergent reader
These activities are all aligned with the Earth Day Theme to help create continuity in your Earth Day lessons from the first moment of class. They can be used as digital resources or as Earth Day printables.
Beyond the activities you will complete with your students we have also included everything you need as a teacher to prepare for these activities:
- teacher overview
- detailed circle time lesson plans
- print or projectable text
With this resource you have a lesson plan for every day of the week. Therefore, providing you with everything you need for an easy to implement week’s worth of lessons.
How to Teach Preschoolers About Earth Day
To make teaching preschoolers about Earth Day easy you can download all of the activities above in our PreK Earth Day Bundle. This bundle includes all of the resources described above.
Every resource includes detailed lesson plans for each activity. Moreover, each resource can be used digitally or printed. Therefore, providing you with a variety of ways to implement each activity in your classroom.
With the bundle of resources, you have enough activities to cover a full week’s worth (or more) of learning. However, if you do not need that many days worth of activities, you can simply choose what lessons you need.
If you already have an Earth Day science lesson, you may only want to focus on Earth Day math and literacy activities. On the other hand, if you already have a favorite Earth book to read with your PreK kids then you may want to get our Earth Day STEM and Circle Time activities.
In addition, if you already have your favorite Earth Day preschool activities, such as fun outdoor activities you like to use, you can mix and match your favorite Earth Day preschool activities with some new ones from above.
Whether you choose to use the whole bundle or pick and choose the Earth Day PreK activities that work best for your classroom, everything is ready for you to teach. Therefore, you can simply read the directions to know exactly how to teach your preschool students about Earth Day and then enjoy connecting with your students and the earth!
Happy Earth Day!
