How to Explain Earth Day to Kindergarteners

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I was asked to do something for my sons' Montessori class for Earth Day.  After a bit of thought, the following is what I did:

I kicked things off by lending the school our boxed set of BBC's Planet Earth DVDs.  These DVDs have mesmerized my five year old, particularly the one about the oceans.

Next, I got the kids thinking about conservation by reading to them The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. This story is as relevant today as it was when it was first published almost 40 years ago.  I then had them discuss the book using questions I found at the Seussville website.

The next day, I gave an interactive presentation followed with an activity/coloring book I found on the EPA's website (which I printed double-sided, natch).

I brought props (recyclable items) and three posters:

Poster #1 explains Earth Day and present facts about waste and recycling. 

• Poster #2 explains how Earth supports life. 
• Poster #3 explains how the students can help keep the planet healthy. 

WHAT IS EARTH DAY? (Poster #1)

It's a day each year when we remind ourselves how important the earth is and that we need to keep it clean and healthy.  Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (following two photos courtesy of www.nelsonearthday.net) in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year.   

Senator Nelson said that the earth was getting very dirty.

Factories belched black smoke into the air, making our air dirty, which made people and animals sick (the free photos of pollution, below, can be found here).

People were dumping lots of chemicals into rivers that made the water undrinkable and killed fish.

People dumped garbage in places they shouldn't, which made animals and fish sick, made the environment ugly, and made our water dirty.

And people were very wasteful with water, electricity and trees.

People needed to understand that they have to help keep the earth healthy and clean.  As a result of that first Earth Day, in December 1970, Congress authorized the creation of a new federal agency to tackle environmental issues, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Through the EPA, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts were passed into Law by Congress to help clean up our air, land and water.  But it's still not enough.  There is still so much waste and pollution going on in the world.

Here are some facts about what we throw away (much of this is courtesy http://www.environmentalistseveryday.org):

• About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 33%. (Environmental Protection Agency)
• The total volume of solid waste produced in the U.S. each year is equal to the weight of more than 247,000 space shuttles. (Beck)
• The average American discards 7 1/2 pounds of garbage every day. (National Recycling Coalition)
• An average kitchen-size bag of trash contains enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for more than 24 hours. (Covanta)
• If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees—or about 26 million trees per year. (California Department of Conservation)
• Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for 3 hours. (Eco-Cycle) 
• Once an aluminum can is recycled, it's back on the grocery shelf as another aluminum can in 60 days. (www.aluminum.org)
• More than 20 million Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of aluminum foil.  All that foil is recyclable.  (http://www.dosomething.org)
• Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of