Using the Going Green Song (Animated Music Video), students learn all about ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle and so much more through a catchy video!
Using the Going Green Song (MP3), students learn all about ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle and so much more through a catchy song!
Using Characters, Settings, and Big Events Worksheet, students draw pictures and write a sentence for each to tell about the story elements in a book.
Hug a tree, plant a seed
Arbor Day is a special day for planting and caring for trees, celebrated in the U.S. on the last Friday in April. Preschoolers learn that trees give us shade, homes for birds and squirrels, apples to eat and fresh air to breathe. They learn the simple parts of a tree (roots, trunk, branches, leaves) and that a tiny seed can grow into something huge. The sweet "aha" is when kids realize they can help, just by watering a plant or picking up litter.
Preschoolers learn by touching, singing and doing. These moves make Arbor Day feel like an adventure.
Start the day with a going-green song and add easy motions: arms up for tall trees, wiggly fingers for falling rain. Sing it again at cleanup time. Little ones connect "caring for Earth" with something they do every day.
Why it works: a catchy, repeating tune gives the brain a hook to hang words on, so sung text is remembered better (Wallace, 1994).
Try it withGoing Green Song (Animated Music Video)SongsOpen it →Give each child a trunk cut-out and let them glue on branches and leaves. As they build, name each part out loud: roots drink water, the trunk holds it up, leaves catch sunshine. Hang them together for a classroom forest.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
Try it withTree Cut OutsActivitiesOpen it →Read a favorite tree story aloud and stop to look at the pictures. Ask "How is the tree helping?" and "How could we help the tree?" Pointing to the pictures keeps every child in the conversation.
Why it works: pairing a picture with each word gives kids two ways to remember it, a well-tested principle of how people learn (Mayer, 2009).
Try it withCharacters The Giving Tree WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Get outside and get your hands a little dirty!
Teacher favorites right now: Going Green Song (Animated Music Video), Going Green Song (MP3) and Characters The Giving Tree Worksheet.
National Arbor Day in the United States is the last Friday in April. Some states celebrate on a different date that fits their best tree-planting season.
Tell them it's a day to say thank you to trees by planting and caring for them. Talk about what trees give us, like shade, fruit, and homes for animals.
Plant seeds in cups, make leaf rubbings, build a paper tree, go on a nature walk, or sing a going-green song. Short, hands-on activities work best.
Trees help animals, give us fresh air and food, and make our neighborhoods cooler and greener. Learning to care for them is an easy first step in caring for the Earth.
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