PreSchool Storytime: Earth Day

 

 

Earth Day: incorporates story and song, sign-language, non-fiction, sequences and kinesthetic learning in a storytime designed to build empathy and environmental awareness

Ages 2-6

 

Music when entering: Tom Chapin’s This Pretty Planet (start with track 1 –“Come Blow Your Horn”)  (or can use CD accompanying Joe Raposo’s book Sing)

Read: The Earth and I by Frank Asch (beautiful pictures, child’s eye view thanking the earth and making a difference)

Sing (with signs): “Walk the World Now Children” –  (track 8 of Some Assembly Required by Tom Chapin)  Used signs: walk, world, children, now, me, love(ingly), forever, day, drink, water, breathe, air, work, soil/land) (scanned, in sign language folder)

 

Read: I Love our Earth by Billl Martin Jr. (525 MAR -- non-fiction, multicultural, great pix, seasons)

Flannel: The Seed Story  (cumulative story, sequencing –storytelling pre-reading skill): “This is our garden, this is the seed that grew in our garden, …roots from seed, …rain that will fall, …sun that will shine, …stem that will grow, …bud that will form, …flower that will bloom

Action Song: “Digging Digging this is how we dig the soil, in our garden” (Raffi)

 

Interactive Book: Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson

Interactive Book (older groups): Earth dance ( 811.54 RYD Ryder) (acted this out as we read it -- kinesthetic) or Singable Book: What a Wonderful World – George David Weiss & Bob Thiele (several good illustrated versions of this song made famous by Louis Armstrong). Alt: Earthsong by Sally Rogers  (musical book -- can act out the motions)

Song/Puppets: “We’ve Got the Whole World in Our hands”… (passed around Earth ball and animal puppets as we sang -- suit verses to puppets e.g. “We’ve got the lions in the plains,  …the kangaroos and their joeys,… the birds in the air,…the monkeys in the trees,  the whales in the seas, …the squirrels in our gardens, etc.)

Video:  Reading Rainbow: On the Day You Were Born (beginning with baby in hospital nursery through story sequence) – consider starting with this as kids arrive if doing as craft program.

Music/Action/ Parachute (or scarves or colored ribbons):  “This Pretty Planet” track  15 on Tom Chapin’s This Pretty Planet

Hand stamping to "What a Wonderful World" (Louis Armstrong recording – The Fabulous Louis Armstrong 625 ARMS is a good version) and/or “This Pretty Planet”

Alts: no time: All the World – Scanlon, Earthsong – Rogers  (can act out the motions), Mother Earth – Luenn (figurative language), Wangari’s Trees of Peace -JBiog Maathai, The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Feed Families ( J577.698 ROTH),  Picture a Tree – Reid, Inch by Inch: The Garden Song -- Mallet

More earth day songs here: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/04/sing-springhappy-earthday.html, more earth day ideas here: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Earth%20Day%20%26%20Environment
For an "outer space" element and some other ideas, check out:  <!--[endif]-->http://storytimewithmisstara.blogspot.com/search?q=earth+day

Tidy – Emily Gravett (2017) good for K+

If You Plant a Seed – Kadir Nelson
Sidewalk Flowers – JonArno Larson
Mrs. Spitzer's Garden -- Edith Pattou -- beautiful book emphasizing metaphor of young students/garden

 

BWL 4.16 – didn’t do a separate Spring themed program.

http://phpearth.com/easy-earth-day-crafts-for-kids.html
(didn’t do this in 2017, consider for 2018)

http://krazee4kindergarten.blogspot.ca/2013/04/earth-day-freebie-includes-headband.html
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Earth-Day-Freebie-Includes-Writing-Printables-Headband  (made headbands, “hands” (printed on blue) and double-strip (printed on green), along with B&T cardboards cut in 3” strips, markers, gluesticks, scissors, stickers)

4/18/17 BWL with craft above