Activities to Celebrate Earth Day in Every Subject
Earth Day is just around the corner. While the holiday lends itself well to science class, it can truly be celebrated in any subject. We’ve gathered activities and resources across all subjects and grades, so you can explore the importance of protecting our planet with your students all day!
Earth Day in Science Class
Science and STEM of course offer plenty of opportunities for celebration and learning. Here are a few science Earth Day activities for every grade.
Elementary
Watch animations about space. These videos featuring talking planets help young learners consider the importance of recycling, the impact of trees, and the complexities of climate change.
Explore careers that help the earth. As part of our Inspire Science program, the Career Kids invite students to explore careers they could pursue later in life using the knowledge they obtain from science class. These animations give students a fun look into exciting STEM careers. For Earth Day, try introducing students to Hiro, an ocean engineer, Maya, a geologist, and Poppy, a park ranger. Have students brainstorm other jobs that help or study the Earth and discuss what they would need to learn in school to have those jobs when they grow up.
For your future astronauts, check out these fantastic resources from NASA, including striking before and after images depicting the Earth’s changes via satellite.
Middle and High School
Design a rooftop garden. In this project from Inspire Biology, students learn about the benefits of rooftop gardens for native plants and animals and the environment. Then, they research, design, and present a rooftop garden of their own by following an engineering design process. Download the free activity here:
Earth Day in English Language Arts
Earth Day is a natural fit for the English Language Arts block when incorporated as subject matter for practicing reading and writing skills. Here are a few activities by grade range.
Elementary
Read about the Earth. Read about plants with this free leveled reader. Part of our Inspire Science program, this free, printable leveled reader about plants contains important academic language and prompts students to answer comprehension questions. It also contains a paired genre read, a corresponding fiction story about a little girl who gardens. Or check out this list of Earth Day stories for a class-wide read-aloud.
Middle and High School
Write about the Earth. For older students, try working Earth Day into some writing exercises. Here are a few prompts:
- Authentic Persuasive Essay: Write a letter to a person of influence, such as your local government or your school principal, with an argument on why they should implement a new environmentally-friendly program of your choice.
- Creative Observational Fiction: Go outside and sit quietly in nature for five minutes. Observe everything around you. Find one natural item — a leaf, a rock, etc. — and write a short story in which that item is central to the plot.
- Personification Poetry: Write a poem from the perspective of the Earth, imagining the Earth as a person with thoughts and feelings.
- Phenology Reflection: Created by educator Skylar Primm, this free printable exercise involves phenology, or the study of seasonal changes. Use it with your students as a starting point for journaling or reflective writing:
Earth Day in Social Studies
Earth Day provides fantastic content and skill-building opportunities in social studies and civics. Each of these activities can be adapted for any age, so we’ve listed them together.
All Grades
Study famous climate activists and Earth scientists. Highlight famous voices in climate activism and Earth sciences throughout history and in current events. Even better, showcase youth climate activists to demonstrate to your students how their voices — however young! — can have an impact. Here are a few more lists to work from: famous women environmentalists, Black environmentalists, Latina environmentalists, and LGBTQ environmentalists.
Make an impact. Organize a class-wide or school-wide effort to make an impact through civic action. Weave in ELA through the letter-writing activity above, or explore the plethora of resources in this Climate Civics Toolkit for educators created by EarthDay.org, which includes lessons and activities.
If you’re looking for a specific cause, consider the Kind Coins for Our Earth Campaign hosted by Kids for Peace, creators of one of our favorite events, The Great Kindness Challenge. Kind Coins for Our Earth aims to raise $50,000 to clean up our oceans and “propel the ultimate goal of ending the ocean plastic crisis.” Learn more here:
Read about current events. Our social studies blog designed for students, IMPACT NEWS, has a special collection of news articles themed around Earth Day, including Spanish translations. Actively Learn, our digital ELA, science, and social studies curriculum platform, also has a special collection of free resources for Earth Day, filterable by grade and Lexile level.
Earth Day in Math
Elementary
Find math patterns in nature. Challenge your students with activities exploring Fibonacci numbers. This resource from Mensa for Kids outlines a basic set of lessons, including an introduction to Fibonacci numbers and an outdoor activity to find Fibonacci numbers in nature. Celebrate Earth Day by getting outside and exploring the mathematical side of our planet!
Middle and High School
Solve Earth-themed word problems. Try a few Earth Day-themed word problems and brain teasers! Here’s one from the McGraw Hill Math Academic Design team:
Imagine that a piece of rope is wrapped snuggly around the equator of the Earth. (And assume the Earth is perfectly spherical with no mountains.) Now, the rope is lengthened so that it hovers 1 foot above the Earth at all locations. By how much was the rope lengthened?
The surprising answer is that the rope only needed to be lengthened by 2π, or approximately 6.28, feet. In fact, this is the answer regardless of whether you wrap the rope around the Earth, Mars, Venus, or any sphere — even a volleyball!
Don’t miss:
Finally, be sure to share this animation about plastic pollution — as told by Earth — and a corresponding coloring page with your younger learners.
Happy Earth Day!
