Magicalms.com ~ Magical Moments

In honor of the 40th Earth Day Celebration, this Thursday, April 22nd, it would be timely to begin a unit on our earth’s precious water and land. Books to include within the unit are:

• “Margaret the Magnificent Visits the Everglades”, Mavrides
• “Be a Friend to a Tree”, Berger
• “The Giving Tree”, Silverstein
• “The Little Cloud”, Carle
• “Who Lives in a Tree?”, Berger
• “The Sun”, Asch
• “Trashy town”, “Zimmerman and Clemesha
• “The Earth and I”, Asch
• “Where Does All The Garbage G?” Berger
• “Kokopelli”, Sterns

In order to illustrate the difference between a lovely, clean world with one that is polluted and dirty, I would try the following exercise and follow up discussion with your children. Of course, the amount of detail and conversation will be determined by the developmental levels of your particular group of boys and girls.

Show the children two pictures of outdoor scenes. In one of the pictures, have the trees, water, flowers, etc. be colored with vibrant hues and in the other, paint over the picture with watered down black paint.  In order to exaggerate the difference in the two scenes, add trash and litter to both the land and the water in the polluted picture. Ask the boys and girls to tell you what they see and how the two scenes are alike and different. Ask the children where they would prefer to live and play. You may introduce the term “POLLUTION” as you listen to their ideas.

In order to reinforce the concept of clean vs. polluted, I would suggest doing the following experiment with your class. Begin by having two jars filled with clear water. Have the children toss flowers, shells, pebbles, foamie fish, etc. into each of the jars. After the objects are in the jars, add blue food coloring into one of the jars and black paint and small pieces of trash into the other. Have the children shake the jars and observe.  Continue your discussion on where the flowers, fish, etc, will be happier as you reinforce the concept of keeping our world clean and beautiful so that it remains pretty and healthy for all living creatures.

To end the discussion/circle time, it would be apropos to play the song “Take the Piece of Paper”.  After following the directives in the song, the children will take their crumbled paper to the art table where they can use it in lieu of a paint brush to create an earth friendly creation.  Have the boys and girls paint on newspaper with their unique paint (crushed paper) utensils.

Additional Earth Day activities:

• Have the children gather bottles, paper, etc. that have been scattered in the classroom into recycle containers.
• Have the children create “earths” by painting balloons in blues and greens or by using paper Mache on balloons.
• Have the children collage water bottles to make vases or fish.
• Have the children create earth friendly collages by utilizing recyclables.
• Plant a collective garden within an old tire.
• Have the children play with soil and water.
• Have the children decorate round cookies or crackers with blue and green icing.
• If the weather permits, it would be lovely to enjoy an outdoor snack or lunch.

Happy Earth Day to All!!
Let’s Preserve our Planet!!!!!

Magical Educating!

Donna Mavrides
Magical Moments
www.magicalms.com