E - Environment

Ee Environment

Letter E

Number 5

Shape Diamond

Color Green

It is never to early to teach young children about their environment and how to protect it. This packet will help you do so with many fun hands on activities. There are activities for the letter E, number 5, diamond shape and color green. The child will learn what the environment is and how they can make a difference by going on an environment walk, looking for different animals environments, making recycled paper, learning to reduce, recycle and reuse, learning what to throw away and what to recycle, doing a look - learn - leave it alone activity, completing an Earth Day activity, learning about toxics and clean water, a litter activity, a treasure hunt and more.

Some of the activities either do not need or have a pattern provided. Unlike some of the other theme units, this Environment Unit has less work sheets to work from. The suggested activities are more seeing and doing right in your surrounding outdoor area.

Although some of the activities seem more geared for children a few years older, they can be scaled down to meet the needs of the younger children. These make for great activities for parent and child to complete on a one on one basis.

Letter and Number Activities:
Using the provided letter E outline, do one of the following:
Color the letter E green.
Paste items from magazines that begin with the letter E inside the outline.
Use an eye dropper to paint the letter E.
Use a small letter E sponge to sponge paint the letter E outline.
Make several letter E’s inside the outline with a green marker.

Fill a bowl with many small pom poms, have the child seperate the pom poms into piles of 5 assorted colors or in piles of 5 alike colors.

Have the child cut five strips of paper the same length, make a 5 link chain and hang up for decoration.

If you have magnetic numbers, find the number 5, trace the number 5 on paper.

Look through a calendar, how many number 5’s can you find.

Glue 5 objects in the provided number 5 outline.

Color and Shape Activities:
Cut several shades of green tissue paper in diamond shapes. Dip them, one at a time in a mixture of 1/2 water 1/2 school glue, place them on a baby food jar being sure to overlap them. Allow to dry, place a green votive candle inside and give to someone special for a gift.

Go on a green walk, how many green things can you spot.

Wear something green tomorrow, lay it out tonight so you don’t forget.

Cut a large diamond shape out of construction paper or poster board. Cut several diamond shapes from magazines, paste them on the large diamond to make a picture. Name the picture

Look through magazines and fine diamond shaped items, cut them out and make a collage on construction paper.

Using diamond shaped beads make a bracelet or necklace.

On a clean white t-shirt sponge paint green diamonds using fabric paint. You can make a necklace design around the neck or paint them on randomly.

What Is Environment?:
Learn what environment is. The environment is what is all around us. It is the air we breath, the trees we see, the animals we like, the water we swim in and the water we drink, the land we walk and live on. We need to protect the environment and keep it clean. Animals have an environment also, they live in our environment.

Go to the library and read some books about environment.

Rent a video about wildlife, nature, or the environment.

Physical Activities:

Environment Walk:
Go for a walk in a park or wilderness area. Look for the many ways that nature provides a home for our insect friends (bugs, bees, etc.), flying friends (birds, butterflies, etc.) and wilderness friends (squirrels, turtles, frogs, etc.). What kind of environment do they live in? A crowded one, a clean one? One that is in danger of being destroyed by it’s surroundings? After the walk, make a picture book of what you found. Talk about ways you might help preserve our little friends environments.

How is their environment different than ours?

Is there something you can do to help protect their environment? Clean up around it, remove trash, etc.

Make Recycled Paper:
Tear newspapers into small pieces and place in a bucket. Add enough water to wet the paper thoroughly, allow to sit for several hours. Beat the mixture with a whisk until it is a creamy pulp. Dissolve three tablespoons of cornstarch in one cup of water, add to the pulp and mix well. Take a piece of screen and push it down through the pulp and pull it back up. Keep doing this until the pulp is about 1/8" thick. Spread out newspaper, lay the screen with the pulp on the paper and cover with plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin to press out excess water and remove the plastic wrap. Prop the screen up so air can circulate around it so it can dry. When pulp is dry gently peel it off the screen. Use your recycled paper for something special.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle:
In your home you can do many things to reduce, reuse and recycle. Here a few can you name more? Identify what each action is: reduce, reuse, or recycle.

In Your Bedroom - Give away toys you no longer play with, turn off the lights when you go out.

In Your Bathroom - Turn off the water while brushing your teeth, use the shower instead of the bath.

In Your Kitchen - Don't put cans, glass, plastic in the trash, take them to a recycle drop off.

In Your Yard - Pick up leaves and make a compost pile, grow a garden, grow marigolds to keep bugs away.

With Your Family - Separate garbage for recycling, pick up litter.

In Your Neighborhood - Don't litter, organize a bottle pick up, don't disturb nature.

At Your School - Use a lunch box instead of bags, use reusable containers for your food.

Additional ways to reduce, reuse, recycle - use old clothes for rags, buy refillable pens, wash jars for reuse, use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins, use old fabric to make a quilt, use newspaper to make paper mache'.

Have you done something today that would be considered recycling? If so, what? If not, do one now.

Recycle or Throw Away:
Using the "Recycle" and Throw Away work sheets, have the child look through magazines for items that we most likely would throw away when no longer need or use them. Cut the items out and paste them to the Throw Away page. Do the same for the "Recycle" page. Talk about why we might throw away some items and recycle others. What uses are there for the items we may recycle or reuse. Were there any other uses for the items we throw away?

Look - Learn - Leave It Alone
Take a hike around your yard or a local park. While enjoying the natural surroundings LOOK for beautiful things in nature - LEARN about what you found - LEAVE IT ALONE so others can also enjoy the natural beauty.

Earth Day:
Earth day is celebrated in April, it is in honor of our planet. Each year on Earth Day, trees are planted, beaches are cleaned, people all over join together to become more aware of our environment and it's future. Create your own activity for Earth Day.

Checking For Toxics:
Take into consideration the age of the child prior to continuing with this activity. With an adult look inside cupboards for toxic substances: bleach, ammonia, cleansers, floor wax, etc. read the warning label on each one, find a place to store these products so they are not in reach of small children. Discuss the proper way to dispose of toxic substances. You may even make labels to attach to each item to show they are hazardous to small children. Talk about what you can use instead of these toxic substances that would be considered nontoxic alternatives using substances such as salt, baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar, etc. Create a cleaning product, name it, bottle it and put it through a test. Did it do what you had planned? Create a brochure or label for your product.

Looking For Litter:
Litter takes away from the beauty of our environment. How much litter can you find. Make a chart and write down how many pieces of each type of litter you find in your yard and then in your neighborhood: bottles - cans - paper wrappers - fast food wrappers - plastic items - other.

Is Your Water Clean:
Water can be clean or impure, but you cannot see by looking at it or tasting it. Do this simple test to see how clean your water is. In four small baby food jars collect samples of water from four different sources. Examples: faucet, bottled water, rain water, pond water. Carefully label each jar. In a notebook make one page for each water sample, include where the sample came from, type of rain fall, location of pond and if water was cloudy at sample time. Make note if any samples had an odor, etc. Hold a coffee filter over the opening of the small baby food jar and pour the water into a large jar, do this with each small jar using a new coffee filter for each. Look closely at each coffee filter, what do you see? Make notes about you witnessed for each sample.

Treasure Hunt:
Conduct a cleanup treasure hunt at home, your daycare, or your school. Start with five sturdy boxes and label them GLASS - METAL - PAPER - PLASTIC - ORGANIC. Divide the children in two teams and give them a list of what to find, set a time limit, search for the items, check them off the list, sort them into the appropriate boxes. The team that finds all of the items or most of the items in the allowed time wins. Suggestions of items to find: bottle cap - food wrapper - plastic straw - piece of fabric - a blue object - a red object - something glass - something metal - something paper - something plastic - something organic - something round - something broken. Take into consideration what may be in your immediate environment to find.

Paper Trash Sculpture:
This is a recycling trash project. Collect cardboard tubes, egg cartons, junk mail, magazines, paper cups, paper plates, etc. use staples, tape or glue to put the pieces together to make a sculpture. Give your sculpture a title.

Make a Puppet:
Make a puppet of your favorite endangered species. You can use a paper lunch bag, an old sock, orange juice cans, felt, etc. Glue on buttons, sequins, pipe cleaners, etc. to make your endangered species look as much like the real one as you can. Learn all about your endangered species.

Make A Pretty Environment:
Find a spot in your yard that could use a little color and environment help. Plant a tree or flowers, make a small flower garden for the butterflies.

Environments in a Box:
Use two shoe boxes, one for a good environment one for an environment that needs help. Decorate one box to represent a clean healthy environment. Paint the sky blue, the grass green, place some plastic mini trees, houses, flowers, etc. in the box. Make it look nice, like a place you would like to live. Now make another one identical to the first, except place trash on the ground, smoke in the sky, etc. Compare the two, which one look like your neighborhood? What can be done to help correct the bad environment?

Endangered Species:
Find out what endangered species live in your area and why they are endangered. Then draw a picture of the animal and what threatens its survival. If you need a picture of the species, you can probably find one at the library.

Write a Letter:
Write a letter to your US Senator or Representative. Tell them how you feel about the endangered species and why you want to protect them. To a Senator: the Honorable (name) US Senate, Washington, DC 20510 To a Representative: The Honorable (name) US House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 To get the name (if you do not know it) call your local library.

Songs and Poems:

Songs:

Here Is A Diamond (using a diamond from the shape activities) (tune: Feres Jacques)
Here is a diamond, here is a diamond,
Would you like to see? Would you like to see?
I colored it and cut it out, just look over here and see,
It's a diamond, it's a diamond.

Litter (tune: I’m A Little Tea Pot)
Pick up the litter off the ground,
Here is a piece of trash, let’s bend down,
Pick it up and toss it in a trash can,
Then let’s do it all over again.

Poems:
Litter, Litter
Litter, litter everywhere!
Pick it up and show you care.

I Saw Litter
I stepped on litter that was on the ground,
I saw many more pieces all through my town.
I went home and got my dad,
We picked up the litter, boy was I glad.
Now my town is nice and neat,
No more trash under my feet.

Field Trip Suggestions:
Recycling Station
Recycling Plant
Landfill