Some gifted classes are pull-outs with a few hours, some are daily thirty minute sessions. Marking the importance of Earth Day can be tricky when time and space are limited.
Worksheets for Inside Fun and Learning
School and Family has a tested and proven collection of PDFworksheets that can be downloaded and printed (on recycled paper ... it is for Earth Day!). Students will enjoy the challenges, and since many of them fall into the categories of "fun sheets", they can be used as an emergency plan for substitutes or an unexpectedly rainy Earth Day.
Earth Day at School and Family
The School and Family file cabinet is always full of good ideas that stretch across the curriculum, and their Earth Day library includes:
- Earth Day Color by Numbers
- Earth Day Word Search Worksheet
- Earth Day Connect the Dots Worksheets
- Earth Day Coloring Page: Recycling
- Earth Day Writing Prompt: What Can You Do?
- Earth Day Missing Letters Worksheet
- Earth Day Coloring Page: Earth as Hot Air Balloon
- Earth Day Word Scramble
- Earth Day Acrostic Poem
Additional Earth Day Worksheet Resources
Teachers can also find great worksheets and ideas at Canada's Eco Kids website. More information about the Eco Kids teacher library (which is free with registration) are detailed in the Suite101 article Online Games and Reading for Earth Day 2009.
FREE, the U.S. government's website for teachers, has a huge collection of lesson plans and worksheets for Earth Day (and every other subject), and every gifted ed teacher should bookmark the site because it helps plan lessons for almost every imaginable student choice, from NASA photos to historical archives. The section of the site focusing on climate change is particularly appropriate for Earth Day, and has worksheets and other printables.
Games to Play on Earth Day
Celebrating Earth Day by having fun is a good way to help students grow up looking forward to a day that focuses on caring about the Earth. Getting outside and enjoying the outdoors is fun and enjoyable for students, and it helps build a sense of classroom community, which is important in gifted education.
Earth Day Scavenger Hunt
Supplies:
- bags
- gloves
- hand sanitizer/sink to wash hands
- list of suggested items
Of course, for an Earth Day Scavenger Hunt, students should search for items that should not be in nature. The list students should find should be things that can be reused (possibly for an Earth Day bowling game), things that can be recycled, and things that should be thrown away.
Rhea Seymour's Outdoor Game Suggestions
Rhea Seymour has several games in her online article "Play! Seven Backyard Games and Activities". Teachers can take some games that are designed for summer fun and adapt them to Earth Day activities for classes.
Seymour's suggestion for bowling could easily come from the Earth Day scavenger hunt and be supplemented by teachers. Supplies needed would be:
- "household items that will tumble over easily, such as empty cereal boxes, empty soda cans and small stuffed toys and align them in a row like bowling pins"
- balls to roll and knock down the "pins"
- score sheets (or chalk on the ground to save paper)
Gifted classes would enjoy bowling and playing together.
Other games from Seymour's list that students will enjoy:
- creating an outdoor canvas (this reuses old sheets, recycled paper, and uses natural supplies)
- mini-Olympics (which can be impromptu suggestions from students, but teachers should have some ideas in mind)
- bug races (which will not require picking up bugs at all)
Beach Ball Games for Indoor and Outdoor Use
Teachers can also use a beach ball for games. Students have to give an Earth Day suggestion every time they catch the ball; if they drop the ball or fail to have a suggestion on hand when they catch it, they are out. This encourages rapid fire thinking and requires physical and mental focus. Earth Balls are beach balls that look like the Earth, and it will make Earth Day even more special. Earth Balls and similar balls are sold at Amazon, Celestial Products, and other stores. Search Google for "inflatable Earth ball" to shop online.
Beach Balls can also have questions or fill-in-the-blank statements taped to the ball. If student's hand is on the taped statement, question, or trivia question when he or she catches the ball, the statement must be completed and the question must be answered before the ball is thrown, or the student is out.
Earth Day is a great day for gifted classes to work together and bond, because programs that do not meet frequently need to have time together to build as a community. Gifted students tend to stay together over the years, and Earth Day is a great time to build gifted class memories. Perhaps students will work inside on worksheets and share some Earth Day fun with writing prompts and word searches, perhaps they will play outside and have a scavenger hunt or a bug race, or perhaps they will get to toss around a beach ball and focus on Earth Day. Teachers have options to make the day fun without going beyond the classroom's established personality and boundaries.
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