Top 5 Activities and Songs for World Environment Day
Increasing environmental awareness at your primary school
The future of the planet is in the hands of our children. It is vital that they are aware of the issues at stake from an early age to ensure a safe, happy and healthy future for them. World Environment Day offers a great opportunity to highlight some of these issues, in the hope of inspiring children to be more environmentally conscious in the long run. I’ve put together this top 5 World Environment Day activities and songs to help you make it fun, easy and memorable for elementary school kids.
Activities and Songs for World Environment Day
- Incorporate it into story time. Storytelling is a great way to get kids thinking about important issues, and there is no shortage of children’s fiction that addresses environmental issues. in particular I recommend George saves the world at lunchtime by Dr. Jo Readman, which contains a powerful message about the big difference small lifestyle changes can make. Read the chosen book to the class at the beginning of the week so that the children have the topics fresh in their minds.
- Try the ‘green challenge’. The evening before, ask each child to set themselves a small challenge. For example, take the bus instead of an elevator to school, make sure all the lights are off when you leave the house. Explain how even such small things can make a big difference, and encourage them to continue living life with this mindset long after World Environment Day.
- Get creative with recycling. Ask the children to put away bottles, cans, paper, waste materials, etc. in the days leading up to World Environment Day and have them recycled. For example, you can make rainsticks out of Pringle cans, mobiles out of egg cartons, bird feeders out of milk jugs – use your imagination and encourage your class to do the same. Paint everything with bright colors and decorate with what you find, showing that everyday waste can be turned into useful and beautiful items.
- Start. There are some wonderful works for children that incorporate important moral messages about the environment. It’s up to you whether you prepare the play in the weeks leading up to World Environment Day, work on the script and songs in class, or simply use individual songs to support particular themes. I recommend Eddie the penguin saves the world! Y much more garbageboth written by Niki Davies.
- have a song Speaking of songs, if you don’t want a full play script, there are also several elementary school songbooks that contain just one or two songs for World Environment Day. For example, Here comes summer! from Out of the Ark offers a selection of songs for the summer term, including Recycle Me and Walk to School. Other titles cover everything from warm weather to Father’s Day, making this songbook useful throughout the rest of term, too.
Best of luck with your activities and songs for World Environment Day. I hope my suggestions have been useful to you!
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