March 2005
March is here, reminding us that spring is around the corner, as is Earth Day. As you begin preparations for festivities on April 22 and to ponder outdoor activities for your class, remember to take advantage of all the Learning Site’s resources, from schoolyard activities and wildlife profiles to complete lesson plans that are easy to incorporate into your curriculum.
Who Am I?
 What animal does this belong to? |
The upper-side of my wings is bright blue, but I can blend into my environment by displaying the brown underside of my wings. I use a long, straw-like tube called a proboscis to draw nutrients from fruit, flowers, fungi and mud. When I was younger, I crawled about chewing on leaves, but now I can fly high into the rainforest canopy. Who am I? To find out, click here.
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Gearing Up For Earth Day
The Rainforest Alliance Learning Site is filled with activities that can be used during your Earth Day celebrations. Check out this activity from our first grade curriculum – it offers outside fun for your class and helps to instill a sense of place in younger students.
Challenge
Students capture the essence of the landscape surrounding their school on a map that identifies sensory and landscape information.
Materials
- 8.5”x11” outline/map of the area around the school (1 per student; prepared by teacher)
- One larger replica of school area map
- Art supplies
Procedure
1. Students are handed a rough outline of the area around their school. Discussions of personal experiences that various students have had walking or playing in those spaces will help orient them to the map.
2. Students carry the maps outside and add descriptive information to the rough outline. These observations should include plants (drawings), rocks, dirt areas, random items in the landscape, smells, sounds and temperature changes. Each child fills in what they think is important.
3. Inside the classroom on a large replica of the schoolyard map, the teacher collects and transfers the observations using symbols for common landscape elements, drawings cut from maps and words to describe sensory elements. The class decorates this map so that it represents their school landscape.
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Instill a sense of place in your students with these hands-on schoolyard activites.
Bringing your students outdoors is the perfect way to connect them to their local environment. |
For the complete lesson, click here or view the entire first grade curriculum. Use our newest species profile to supplement these units!
Radical Renovation: School Edition Contest
 How can you make your school
more eco-friendly?
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Ford Motor Company and the National Geographic Foundation are sponsoring a nationwide contest for kindergarten through sixth grade students. Teachers are invited to submit their students' vision of a sustainable, eco-friendly school. This competition challenges students to create a strategy for making their school and campus more environmentally responsible, and provides a wonderful opportunity for applying hands-on problem solving skills. The application deadline is April 7, 2005. The winning class will receive $100,000 to implement their plan. For details and rules visit: plasma.nationalgeographic.com/gogreen/ ford/rules.html.
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Stay tuned for the next issue of Eco-Education Matters, which will be packed with Earth Day ideas and activities! Mark your calendars for Earth Day on April 22nd.
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