An Apple For The Teacher: Earth Day Read Alouds

Are you looking for an Earth Day read aloud for your classroom?

There are so many Earth Day topics that you can explore with your students including: animals, plant life, ecosystems, environmental change, and conservation! This list of Earth Day books for kids will help get you started.

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This Class Can Save the Planet

This book shows kids how they can have a BIG impact on protecting the Earth by working together. I really love that this big gives kids real actionable ideas to do more to save the Earth such as using both sides of a paper, recycling paper, packing their lunches with reusable products, composting, and so much more.

Teaching Ideas:

Themes: Caring for the Earth

Grammar:

Nouns - Your students can identify a variety of nouns including: class, students, classroom, planet, oceans, rivers, mountains, beaches, parks, lands, schools, and communities.

Verbs - Challenge your students to write sentences with some of the verbs in the book including: believe, recycle, choose, tossing, compost, donate, and invent.

Writing: This book is written in the format of a persuasive letter and would be a great mentor text for a persuasive writing unit.

If you are a Kindle Unlimited Member, you can get the Kindle version of this book for FREE here!

Zonia's Rain Forest

This book was written by one of my favorite children's authors, Juana Martinez-Neal who also wrote the book Alma and How She Got Her Name.

In the book, Zonia and her family live in the Peruvian Amazon where it is always green and full of life. They are members of the Asháninka which is the largest Indigenous group of that area. Zonia notices a deforested area in her beloved rainforest and she pledges to act to protect her home.

Teaching Ideas:

Themes: Caring for the Earth

Research: The back of the book provides students with additional information about the Asháninka people, the Amazon, animals that live in that area, and Threats to the Amazon.

Any of these topics would lead to great research opportunities!

Penguins Don't Wear Sweaters

Penguins Don't Wear Sweaters Do They? This story tells about well-meaning humans who knit sweaters for penguins to wear after an oil spill near their home. Unfortunately, those sweaters did more harm than good, so this book drives home the importance of protecting our Earth for the animals who live in it.

Teaching Ideas:

Spelling: This book is filled with verbs ending in -ing that would be perfect if you are working on spelling words with that ending. Some examples include: gliding, cuddling, huddling, and waddling.

Science/STEAM: Have students conduct an oil spill clean-up lab demonstration. You can find instructions here.

Thank You Earth: A Love Letter to Our Planet

This book has some of the most incredible photographs and beautiful poetic words as the author pens a thank you letter to our Earth for all of the beautiful parts of it. A thank you for all the Earth provides: shelter, food, oxygen, and more.

Teaching Ideas:

Writing: The author provides an author's note at the end of the book where she suggests that students write their own thank you notes to the Earth. You could have students write these, or thank you notes to other things in the environment.

If students have access to cameras, phones, or iPads, you might have them take photos during a photo walk to go with their thank you notes.

Earth Day Coloring Pages

If you are looking for other Earth Day activities to use in your classroom, I have a variety of Earth Day Color By Number Worksheets. I currently have 3 versions available:

Number Recognition

Addition

Multiplication