Earth Day - making kids aware of our world's problems (and how we can fix them)

Its Earth Day this week so I'm dedicating it to raising awareness of the problems we all face. Bringing our kids up to be aware of the consequences of their actions and choices on others and the world around them is so important.

Today is Part 1 of a two day sensory box lesson that I've planned. Today covers deforestation and the state of our oceans. Since this is aimed at small kids, I won't go into the details too deeply. It really is only meant to be a five minute lesson and then they can play in the sensory boxes afterwards as they wish.

Woodland sensory box

We start with grassy pastures and a cow. To the side are piles of chopped down trees. I'll explain what deforestation is and that before we created farmlands and places for animals to graze there were often forests. We will then re-create a forest and talk about what sort of animals might live there. I'll then give a choice of a few animals to go into the box. I have bears and a fox. Of course, any woodland animal would be great.

Our Oceans

Here, we start with the ocean in it. There are no animals. Just trash. We will talk about how the oceans are filled with trash and how this affects sea life. I will tell the kids how even dropped litter on land can end up in the sea and so they should never drop litter. The kids will then get a chance to clear up the ocean. Then they can put the animals in. Again, I will give them a choice of sea and land animals and see if they can correctly identify which animals are sea creatures.

For part two of the Earth Day Sensory Boxes - please click here

#savetheplanet #earthday2018 #saveouroceans #deforestation #environmentallyfriendly #teachingkidsathome #homeschooling