How to Teach Environmental Education to Children
Teaching children to protect the environment and "live green" starts at home. However, like most lifelong lessons, giving children a good grounding in the environmental concerns we all have and teaching them how to treat the earth as gently as possible, can also be effectively incorporated into the classroom and organized after-school activities.
With a little creativity and imagination, the following suggestions should provide the proper "compost" to encourage the growth of environmentally friendly activities in the classroom.
Instructions
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Plan lots of field trips. There is a saying making the rounds of the "green" community: "You cannot love what you do not know." Children will never learn to appreciate nature and the environment unless they know them intimately. Plan field trips to zoos, parks, nature conservancies and wildlife rescue organizations. The kids will learn far more in a hands-on environment than they will in the classroom.
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Adopt a park. It may be unsafe for kids---especially the little ones---to clean up trash along the side of a highway or busy road, but even five-year-olds can help clean up a park close to home or close to the school. You can tell park service or city hall employees in advance---or not. Either way, they'll be happy to get the help. Seeing how others trash the earth with waste paper and garbage will help kids understand how to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
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Recycle. Have a recycling bin in the classroom, and recycle as many school papers, leftover art paper, lunch trash and the like as possible. Try to take the kids along when you take the recycling materials to the recycling center. Discuss how kids can recycle more of their home trash.
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Read environmentally conscious stories. Even classics like "Winnie the Pooh" can be used to help teach kids environmental awareness---what if the Hundred Acre Wood were cut down? Encourage kids of all age levels to write their own stories about the earth and the heroes who are needed to save it.
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Plant a garden. Check with school administration and see if there is somewhere your students can plant a butterfly or hummingbird garden on school grounds. They will appreciate the hands-on experience and learn about planting to help other beings at the same time.
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Watch films. High schoolers are certainly old enough to understand Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." If presented in context, younger kids will appreciate the environmental message in Disney films such as "Bambi" and "The Jungle Book," and everyone loves "movie day."
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