April Events Focus on the Environment

Teachers, nature educators, and students of all ages can celebrate National Environmental Education Week (EE Week) as a time of educational preparation for Earth Day, April 22.

During EE Week, which is coordinated by the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation in cooperation with other environmental education organizations and agencies, educators can use the "to-do" list and tools and links pages from http://www.eeweek.org to conduct environmental education programs. Examples of programs include community service projects, class discussions, and campus ecology projects.

Educators planning to celebrate Earth Day with their students can take advantage of free resources at the following websites:

• The Wilderness Society’s homepage at http://earthday.wilderness.org, has a Teachers Lounge section with lessons developed to teach kids about wilderness and the animals and plants that depend on wilderness habitat for their survival, along with a coloring book that spotlights the wildlife of the Arctic Refuge. The Teachers Lounge also contains curriculum and activities for preK–12 students and links to other Earth Day and environmental websites.
  
• EarthDayNetwork’s Education Program offers tools for integrating environmental issues into core curriculum subjects. Teachers of all grade levels and subject areas are encouraged to register for a free membership in the Teacher’s Network. The website, http://www.earthday.net, features K–12 environmental education lessons that can be used throughout the school year, as well as events and activities for your classroom, school, or community to implement on Earth Day.
  
• Earth Day Online at http://www.earthdayonline.org offers activities for students, an EcoFeud game modeled on the TV game show Family Feud, an online calculator that students can use to see how energy use affects the environment, and links to other environmental and conservation websites.
  
• Earth Day on Your Block at http://www.allspecies.org/neigh/block.htm tells “kids from ages 2 to 122” how to hold an Earth Day block party featuring “displays and information on various environmental issues,” guest speakers, and efforts to plant gardens or trees or pick up trash. The celebration could also include an All-Species Parade to make students aware of an endangered species or local species, as well as plays and demonstrations of energy-saving, composting, or dealing with household hazardous waste.
  
• Kids Domain has an Earth Day page at http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/earthday with online games, downloads, coloring pages, word searches, crafts, activities, stories, poems, and songs. Students can learn about wildlife by “adopting” a rainforest animal.
  
• The Earth Day Groceries Project at http://www.earthdaybags.org is a cost-free environmental awareness project in which students decorate paper grocery bags with environmental messages for Earth Day. One of the oldest and largest educational projects on the Internet, the Earth Day Groceries Project is managed online by Mark Ahlness, a third-grade teacher at Arbor Heights Elementary School in Seattle, Washington.
  
• EcoKids Canada’s section for teachers and parents has a wealth of free resources, each accompanied by an “In the Classroom” link that gives a brief description of the intentions behind each area of the site—http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/index.cfm—and a few ideas for practical classroom applications.
  
• Family Education Network’s Earth Day site at http://familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,1-5882,00.html?ssb offers activities, tips, and ideas for home and school celebrations, as well as quizzes and information about the saving the environment.
  
• Education World’s Activities To Celebrate Earth Day website, http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson174.shtml, provides teachers with two dozen cross-curricular classroom activities for use across the grades.
  
• EnviroLink’s Earth Day 2004 site, http://earthday.envirolink.org, features an extensive calendar of Earth Day activities taking place in the United States and Canada and an Organizer’s Guide.
  
• At Planetpals Greatest Earth Day Pages Ever website, http://www.planetpals.com/earthday.html, you’ll find activities, teaching aids, and Earth science and history resources.
  
• Check the “In the Classroom” section of the U.S. Government’s Earth Day site at http://www.earthday.gov.

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