In high school, Earth Day and Arbor Day can sometimes be overlooked. April is definitely crunch time, so it can be challenging to find time for themed activities.
That’s why I wanted to put together these 7 activities and text pairings to make Earth Day an easy but meaningful celebration in your classroom!
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Writing Activities
Even though Earth Day and Arbor Day are often forgotten holidays, they inspire several visual writing prompts for my students. Especially if you’re short on time for incorporating these holidays in your instruction, visual writing prompts can be a quick option for bell work.
For a more extensive writing activity, students can research issues related to the environment. Some popular topics for my students include endangered species, climate change, and environmental tourism. To help students structure their research, I often use these free scaffolded notes or these research task cards. With these resources, teachers can work with students at different levels. Teachers can challenge students to work at varying depths of research, too.
Poems for Earth Day
Since April is also National Poetry Month, poetry is a perfect choice for celebrating Earth Day and Arbor Day with your students. These poetry selections are a complement to a successful National Poetry Month!
“The Planting of the Apple-Tree” by William Cullen Bryant is the first poem I thought of when I started putting this collection together. This is a longer poem, but Earth Day is close to the end of the year, so it’s a good time for students to level up. Bryant’s poem is literally about a tree, so this is an ideal text pairing for Arbor Day! Read it here.
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree ” by W. B. Yeats focuses less on one aspect of nature and instead provides a snapshot of a location. This is a shorter but no less rich poem. If students are going to write their own Earth Day poems, this is a good exemplar text. Read it here.
Finally, concrete poems are a good activity for Earth Day and Arbor Day. Students can take inspiration from the natural world to design their poems. If the weather is agreeable, students can take a nature walk around the school or draft their poetry outside. Then, a classroom gallery walk can be a complementary activity to share student work.
Short Works for Earth Day
Perhaps the most obvious text for Earth Day is “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In fact, the Transcendentalists were on my mind as soon as I sat down to write this post. “Nature” is complex enough that it also touches on a variety of analytical skills. A close reading of this text is also good test prep. Read it here.
If fiction is what you’re looking for, “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett is an excellent choice for Earth Day. A traditional reading of this text focuses on Sophie’s loss of innocence. However, this is also a text that can be read critically with an environmentalist lens. The hunter, the tree Sophie climbs, the farm where she lives, and the animals that populate the text can all be treated with an environmentalist lens. Under this light, the text becomes a good vehicle for discussing environmental justice. Read it here.
Finally, the myth of Icarus and Daedalus may seem like an unusual choice for Earth Day. Typically, this myth focuses on Icarus’ hubris. However, it can also be interpreted as a study in underestimating the power of nature. All my resources for teaching the story of Icarus are in this bundle.
