Environmental Education Activities
What environmental education skills do I teach?
To teach environmental education activities in BC Canada where I live, teachers are encouraged to use the acronym CARE.
CARE stands for "Complexity, Aesthetics, Responsibility & Ethics".
Complexity - There are natural and human system that are all connected. As teachers and students, how do we interact with and affect those systems? 
Aesthetics - Help your students develop an appreciation for the natural world that will encourage them to learn about and protect the environment.
Responsibility - Provide opportunities for your students to take responsible actions and explore the environmental impact of what they do.
Ethics - As your students' understanding of environmental issues develop from participating in environmental education activities, they form an environmental ethic of their own.
Skills Lists
Environmental education activities can be integrated into all subject areas. Listed below are suggested learning outcomes for young students.
Science
Students are working towards...
- sharing ways to rethink, refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle
- describing features of local plants and animals
- comparing local plants & animals
- describing attributes of their immediate environment (playground)
Social Studies
Students are working towards...
- showing an awareness of the concept of change
- identifying groups and places that are part of their lives
- identifying characteristics of different local environments
- showing responsible behavior in caring for their immediate environment
Language Arts & Math
- integrate the above classifying, comparing and counting activities into language arts or math lessons by making booklets, charts or class books (see activity at bottom of page)
Health & Career Planning
Students are working towards...
- identifying opportunities to make choices
- identify practices that contribute to health, including healthy eating, regular physical activity, emotional health practices, and disease prevention practices
Physical Education
Students are working towards...
- Using the outdoors as not only as a place to get physical exercise, but to learn about how to care for the environment
- participating daily (e.g., five times a week) in moderate to vigorous physical activities
- identifying physical activities they enjoy doing
Drama & Music & Visual Arts
Students are working towards...
- expressing ideas or concerns about an environmental issue with drama, and songs
- showing their knowledge of and responding to environmental issues with 2-D and 3-D images
Ten Things I Can Do to Help My World
Student Book Activity:
After teaching a unit on environmental education, have students make a class book based on Walsh's book to display their new knowledge.
- Change the title to fit your class. E.G. "18 Things We Can Do to Change Our World"
- Focus the children's attention on their immediate environment, the school, their homes and nearby parks
- Have each child illustrate a page on heavy duty paper
- Start each page with, "I can..." and have the student draw a picture with a dark felt, then color in with crayon to avoid covering up the words
- Help students sound out their sentence
- Put a hole through each page and insert a ring
- Have fun reading
Wolf Island
Environmental education pages:
Environmental education activities skills list
Environmental science
Free science worksheets
Green kids and Earth Day
What is Earth Day about?
Leaf rubbing planet Earth - art activity
Pressed plants art activity
Easter Science Activity
Outdoor ed. degree
Recycling for kids - Part 1
Recyling for kids - Part 2
Science books for children
Tree Seedling Experiments
Year long environmental activity ideas
Earth Day toys and resources
In Social Studies Section:
The Food Chain
Shopping