Earth Day

Last week in school we focused on Earth Week which was a celebration of Earth Day which was on Sunday April 22. This was an amazing week full of reducing, reusing, and recycling. In our class in particular I asked if I could teach a lesson on this topic because I am very passionate about the Earth and preserving nature. My initial thought was to play a you tube video about reducing, reusing, and recycling to give the students some visuals on what our effect really is on the environment, however to actually convert and use a you tube video is a lengthy process and instead of trying to do that i decided that my group would do a round of World Cafe and demonstrate their respect for earth through a hands on activity  This lesson had two parts: half the class began with doing three rounds of world cafe which is where you give them a question or prompt and they rotate around and respond in writing on a poster that has the prompt stated on it. The other half of the class traced their hand onto recycled paper, cut it out, and pasted a globe on it that said: "This hand reduces, reuses, and recycles!" When both groups were done I had them switch and they got the opportunity to complete the other activity. At the end of the lesson we concluded with brainstorming ways we ourselves can reduce, reuse, and recycle. The lesson could not have gone any better~ I was very pleased with their hand prints, their responses, as well as the level of discussion we had going on in the classroom. This lesson and these students made it an amazing Earth Day celebration.