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At-home and at school learning resources from Learning for a Sustainable Future
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This week's LIO is all about Earth Day - which is coming up on April 22nd! Since 1970, Earth Day has been organized around the world to support projects and initiatives that address the many important environmental issues around us. The theme for 2021 is 'Restore our Earth', which focuses on natural processes, emerging green technologies, and innovative thinking that can restore the world’s ecosystems! To learn more about why we celebrate Earth Day, be sure to check out this month's Hot Topic page!
The activities below introduce students to different aspects of global warming and climate action, and shares some ideas on how we can all get creative when celebrating Earth Day this year!
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Celebrate Earth Day with these short and fun videos for all ages that will demonstrate the importance of global celebration and show students how they can make a difference!
Activities
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What did you think of Earth Day Videos?
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This set of activity cards provides an effective and engaging tool to help connect our youngest learners to the natural world. Each activity allows students to experience a different aspect of nature unfolding in their immediate surroundings. The resource also offers several entertaining games to support the activity cards.
Activities
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Get outside and complete one activity for each day of the week
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Connect seasonal changes in nature to the schoolyard. Provide students with outlets to learn about phenology and how climate change impacts their schoolyard by creating a connection to the community and a desire to look for solutions
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Use apps like Nature Companion to connect your students to citizen science and see how the movement of birds, mammals and plants has changed over time
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Get outside and participate in an Earth Week Bingo or Earth Week Scavenger Hunt
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Try My Climate Actions to discover the actions you can take, based on your habits
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Challenge your students to an Earth Day challenge, spend a day without using a car or computer or television
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What did you think of Stay Connected to Nature?
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This storybook recounts the adventures of Anita and her friends, Simon and Denis, as they learn about climate change. From their home to Greenland and Maldives, the children learn of the impact of climate change on Earth with Anita’s dad, a scientist and his friends. This book explains the concepts related to climate change in easy-to-understand terms.
Activities
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Read What in the World is Happening to our Climate to learn how climate change affects the whole world
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Get outside and play Maple Trees and Marmots; this activity explores the effects of climate change on animals and plants through role-playing games
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To coincide with Earth Day complete the We’re All Part of the Solution activity to help students understand how humans are contributing to climate change and how we can take action to solve this challenge
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Organize a schoolyard clean up. By connecting with the Earth in a tangible way through cleanups, students experience firsthand the extent of our single-use plastic problem, and begin to recognize how systemic our pollution and waste challenges are
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Watch this video and discuss how we can help solve climate change by reducing our carbon footprint. Write a list of small steps you can take to reduce your ecological footprint. Trace your foot and draw your footprint-reducing solutions
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Engage your students Earth Day with these fun and interactive lessons
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What did you think of What in the World is Happening to our Climate?
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This video portrays Alec Loorz, a remarkable teenager who crusades against global warming. His many accomplishments include his ingenious iMatter campaign and other environmental education initiatives designed to appeal to youth. He has also successfully galvanized his community to be more concerned about pollution by teaching citizens about sustainable practices such as recycling. Alec exemplifies how youth can make a difference, and watching this video will inspire and motivate students to become more involved in caring for our planet.
Activities
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Before viewing the video, discuss with students "What is your understanding of climate change?"
- After viewing the video, analyze and assess the action projects initiated and carried out by the role models in the video
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Brainstorm a list of actions students can do to encourage their community to reduce CO2 emissions. Learn more about students who are taking action and more ideas to help get you started.
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Learn how to develop an action plan and put it into action or participate in an Earth Day event and join the movement by taking action
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Download a variety of Earth Day lesson plans for Earth Day 2021 Restore our Earth.
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Get outside and organize a climate change scavenger hunt
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What did you think of Kids vs Global Warming?
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This guide will provide educators with a blend of quality content resources, websites, books, videos and ideas and exemplary pedagogy to guide students through an inquiry-driven approach to climate change learning. It draws upon seven key strategies that transform learning as described in LSF’s Connecting the Dots
Activities
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Take your class outside on a neighbourhood walk to identify natural, human, and built systems that impact climate change. Have students document their observations through photos, sketches and notes
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After the walk, invite students to reflect on their observations and discuss how their everyday actions can impact climate change. Have them complete the Personal Climate Change Audit sheet on page four
- Have students research a community agency, non-profit or government organization working to reduce the impact of climate change. Describe the actions that the organization does to mitigate the impacts of climate change
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As part of the 2021 Earth Day campaign, under the theme of Take Care of the Planet, Earth Day Canada hopes to raise awareness among Canadians about the urgency of taking action for the environment and encouraging them to take concrete action to take care of the planet daily. Get involved at Earth Day Canada
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Download a variety of Earth Day lesson plans for Earth Day 2021 Restore our Earth. The lesson plans include direct climate action opportunities for high school students
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What did you think of Empowering Learners in a Warming World?
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About Learning Inside Out
Above you will find a selection of activities, broken down by various grade levels. These guides will be released weekly and archived on our Learning Inside Out page, so you can always access the full catalogue.
All activities have been modified from resources on our R4R database, simplified and adapted for both outdoor learning in the school yard or at-home as needed. The activity descriptions above should contain all the information and links that you need!
If you'd like to view the full original resource on R4R, including curriculum connections for every province/territory, click the activity title.
We want this guide to work for you, so your feedback is invaluable to us.
Use the feedback button at the bottom of this Guide, or email us at info@LSF-LST.ca. We would also love to see photos of students engaging in the activities, please e-mail us any pictures or videos you have!
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Let us know how this helped your learning and teaching from home or at school indoors and (hopefully) outdoors and what you'd like to see more of by filling out our brief feedback form! |
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Follow us on social media for continued weekly highlights & other exciting opportunities through the school year! |
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Please share widely with any parents and teachers in your life! |
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Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) is a Canadian charity with over 25 years of experience working within the education system. Our Resources for Rethinking (R4R) database is an award-winning collection of resources that are peer-reviewed by certified teachers and connected to curriculum in all provinces and territories. R4R is recommended on many Ministry of Education websites. |
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Learning for a Sustainable Future
343 York Lanes, York University
4700 Keele St
North York, ON • M3J 1P3
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