Help students learn to appreciate the environment around them and learn new vocabulary. Here are some ideas for celebrating Earth Day with ELLs. These are also great activities to get students outdoors and/or learning about the world around them.

Go Outside

Look for ways to take lessons outside. Going outside is great for student engagement. A recent study described in Psychology Today describes the benefits of outdoor learning. Here are some activities to try outside.

• • Go on a scavenger hunt
  • Read books outside
  • Use adjectives and the 5 senses to make observations. Here is a free
    5 senses graphic organizer.

Use Recycled & Found Materials

Use materials from nature or recycles materials to create a picture. You can also challenge students to use recycles materials to create a structure (building) or toy (car, house).  You can have students talk and write about what they make. This is a fun way to integrate STEM and language.

Recycled Materials

toilet paper rolls, cardboard boxes, egg cartons, junk mail, milk caps

Materials from Nature

twigs, flowers, pebbles, bark, leaves

Read books about Conservation

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Thank You Earth uses photographs and simple sentences to describe animals and natural resources.

Ten things I can do to help my world gives simple steps that kids can take to help the earth along with basic facts and colorful pictures.

Speak and Write about Conservation

Have students speak and/or write about ways they can conserve resources and recycle materials. I have a set of Help the Earth picture task cards to support ELLs.

Use Earth Day Illustrated Vocabulary Sheets to help students talk about activities to help the earth and to learn about parts of speech. There is also a set of Earth Day color by code sheets that uses the same vocabulary.

Use Videos

Take part in Earth Day with ELLs with videos. There are many videos of songs and short explanations of ways that kids can help the earth. Including visuals will help make this content more accessible to ELLs. Songs are also fun ways for ELLs to learn new vocabulary words.