Oak Hollow Elementary

Pair & Share Topic: Earth Day  -  grades 3 - 6

Earth Day - Hooray! By Murphy

The Great Kapok Tree by Cherry

Earth Explained by Taylor

Earth Day by Marx

Hoot by Hiaasan

 

We pulled general information off the internet.  Earth Day has been celebrated officially – world wide since 1970.  Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin founded this celebration following a trip to Santa Barbara ,CA to where an oil spill had recently occurred destroying miles of coastline & habitat for birds, fish and marine creatures.  He was so outraged by what he saw in California that he went back to Washington and passed a bill designating April 22^nd as a national day to celebrate Earth.  More importantly - to inspire awareness & appreciation for our planet’s environment.  20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day.  Over time each year the awareness has grown to include more than 500 million people in over 175 countries!

• Earth Day is the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths, and nationalities.

 

We ask the students what kinds of activities take place on Earth Day?

Recycling, turning off lights, carpooling, bicycling instead of driving cars, and planting trees are some of the responses we hear. 

 

If there is time we “skim read” Dr. Seuss’s book The Lorax as an example of how the movement inspired this author to write about what happens when people take more than they return to the environment. He published this story  in 1970 the same year that Earth Day celebrations began!

 

With older classes (grade 4 – 6) we talk about the terms:

 “Sustainable”  where we harvest or collect no more of a material or species than can be replaced to maintain a healthy balance in the environment.  Examples are seen in the fishing industry where small fish must be thrown back to carry on the species and also in the Paper industry where trees are planted to replace those that are cut down.

“Ecology” which is the study of the relationships between living things and their environment.