Week of April 18, 2022 | All Grades | Celebrating Earth Week
Earth Day is an annual observance, held on April 22, to increase awareness of environmental issues. Millions of people worldwide gather to clean up litter, to protest threats to the environment, and to celebrate progress in reducing pollution. In 1969, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson suggested that a day of environmental education be held on college campuses. The following year, the lawyer and environmentalist Denis Hayes (then a recent graduate of Stanford University) led hundreds of students in organizing the observance of Earth Day on April 22, 1970. About 20 million people participated in this celebration. The event helped to alert people to the dangers of pollution and fostered a new environmental movement. Also in 1970, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency to set and enforce pollution standards, and passed the Clean Air Act which limits the amount of air pollution that cars, utilities, and industries could release. Other environmental laws soon followed. (Hayes, Denis. "Earth Day." World Book Student. World Book, 2016. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.)
The effort continues with Grades of Green, a grassroots organization that teaches kids about environmental stewardship that got its start at Grand View Elementary School in 2009.
Video ABC7 Eyewitness News Manhattan Beach Students are Pros at Saving the Planet
The effort continues with Grades of Green, a grassroots organization that teaches kids about environmental stewardship that got its start at Grand View Elementary School in 2009.
Video ABC7 Eyewitness News Manhattan Beach Students are Pros at Saving the Planet
Week of April 18, 2022 | TK and Kindergarten | Earth Week
Natural Resources
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The Earth Book, by Todd Parr
Students learn simple ways to take care of the planet.
Video Paired with the animated Think Earth which shows the impact humans have on the environment and how to minimize it for a healthier planet. Define and discuss natural resources: paper, metal, glass, oil.
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
Students learn simple ways to take care of the planet.
Video Paired with the animated Think Earth which shows the impact humans have on the environment and how to minimize it for a healthier planet. Define and discuss natural resources: paper, metal, glass, oil.
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
Week of April 18, 2022 | First Grade | Earth Week
The Four Rs + Repurpose and Refuse
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Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years, by Stacy McAnulty
A simple story that joyfully introduces readers to key moments in the planet's life, from its formation over four billion years ago to the present and ends on a reflective note to encourage sharing, playing nice, and cleaning up.
Video Paired with the animated Recycle Rex Rex and friends learn about recycling firsthand when the field where they play is in jeopardy of being turned into a landfill. Define and discuss the Six Rs and how excessive packaging contributes to waste.
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
A simple story that joyfully introduces readers to key moments in the planet's life, from its formation over four billion years ago to the present and ends on a reflective note to encourage sharing, playing nice, and cleaning up.
Video Paired with the animated Recycle Rex Rex and friends learn about recycling firsthand when the field where they play is in jeopardy of being turned into a landfill. Define and discuss the Six Rs and how excessive packaging contributes to waste.
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
Week of April 18, 2022 | Second Grade | Earth Week
Out of Sight, Out of Mind. Where Does Trash Go?
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Clean Your Room, Harvey Moon! by Pat Cummings When Harvey cleans his room by stuffing everything under the rug he learns that though out of sight may be out of mind, it is not good enough when it comes to finding a place for his things. Discuss over-consumption and how landfills are filling to capacity.
Video clip Toys All Gone
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
Video clip Toys All Gone
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
Week of April 18, 2022 | Third Grade | Earth Week
Making Land Use Decisions for the Seventh Generation | Wetlands
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Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, by Oliver Jeffers
An uplifting, sweetly humorous observation about the importance of kindness, tolerance, and sharing.
Curriculum connection Ballona Wetlands field trip. Opening with a visit to a wetlands preserve, and invoking "7th generation" wisdom, Common Ground, the Water, Earth and Air We Share imparts the message of conservation and responsibility for our shared natural resources and respect for the environment.
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
An uplifting, sweetly humorous observation about the importance of kindness, tolerance, and sharing.
Curriculum connection Ballona Wetlands field trip. Opening with a visit to a wetlands preserve, and invoking "7th generation" wisdom, Common Ground, the Water, Earth and Air We Share imparts the message of conservation and responsibility for our shared natural resources and respect for the environment.
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
Week of April 18, 2022 | Fourth Grade | Earth Week
Toxic Waste Disposal
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Someday a Tree, by Eve Bunting
A young girl, her parents, and their neighbors try to save an oak tree that has been poisoned by illegal hazardous waste dumping.
Video Big Yellow Taxi sung by Joni Mitchell.
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
A young girl, her parents, and their neighbors try to save an oak tree that has been poisoned by illegal hazardous waste dumping.
Video Big Yellow Taxi sung by Joni Mitchell.
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
Week of April 18, 2022 | Fifth Grade | Earth Week
Making Promises and Taking Action | The Power of One
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Earth Day, by Linda Lowery
Tells the story of Earth Day 1970 and 1990 in the United States and the special activities planned to call global attention to the problems of pollution, environmental destruction, and waste of natural resources.
The effort continues with Grades of Green, a grassroots organization that teaches kids about environmental stewardship that got its start at Grand View Elementary School in 2009.
Video ABC7 Eyewitness News Manhattan Beach Students are Pros at Saving the Planet
Wangari's Trees of Peace, by Jeanette Winter
The story of Wangari Maathai, a Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist who, shocked to see entire forests being cut down in her native country of Kenya, decided to take action beginning with the planting of nine seedlings in her own backyard.
Pedal Power, by Allan Drummond
The story of the people in Amsterdam in the 1970s who led protests against crowded, unsafe streets and took over a vehicles-only tunnel on their bikes, showing what a little pedal power could do.
The World's Poorest President Speaks Out, by Jose Mujica, President of Uruguay (2010-2015)
In 2012, the United Nations brought governments, international institutions, and major groups together to agree on a range of measures that would bring about sustainable and fair use of resources. When it came time for the president of Uruguay to speak, Jose Mujica presented the problem of sustainability and climate change differently from previous speakers. Mujica posited that the real problem is not climate change but "how we have come to live our lives" in a vicious cycle "where we sell things to make money, which we use to buy whatever we want, and then buy some more." He challenged listeners to consider whether "we were born to pursue economic growth and progress [or rather] to live in such a way as to find happiness on this planet."
Video The World's Poorest President (aired on Kenyan Citizen TV, 2013)
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
Tells the story of Earth Day 1970 and 1990 in the United States and the special activities planned to call global attention to the problems of pollution, environmental destruction, and waste of natural resources.
The effort continues with Grades of Green, a grassroots organization that teaches kids about environmental stewardship that got its start at Grand View Elementary School in 2009.
Video ABC7 Eyewitness News Manhattan Beach Students are Pros at Saving the Planet
Wangari's Trees of Peace, by Jeanette Winter
The story of Wangari Maathai, a Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist who, shocked to see entire forests being cut down in her native country of Kenya, decided to take action beginning with the planting of nine seedlings in her own backyard.
Pedal Power, by Allan Drummond
The story of the people in Amsterdam in the 1970s who led protests against crowded, unsafe streets and took over a vehicles-only tunnel on their bikes, showing what a little pedal power could do.
The World's Poorest President Speaks Out, by Jose Mujica, President of Uruguay (2010-2015)
In 2012, the United Nations brought governments, international institutions, and major groups together to agree on a range of measures that would bring about sustainable and fair use of resources. When it came time for the president of Uruguay to speak, Jose Mujica presented the problem of sustainability and climate change differently from previous speakers. Mujica posited that the real problem is not climate change but "how we have come to live our lives" in a vicious cycle "where we sell things to make money, which we use to buy whatever we want, and then buy some more." He challenged listeners to consider whether "we were born to pursue economic growth and progress [or rather] to live in such a way as to find happiness on this planet."
Video The World's Poorest President (aired on Kenyan Citizen TV, 2013)
Coloring sheets
Composting... Life in the Slow Lane!
Clean Storm Drains = Healthy Oceans!
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