Celebrate Earth Day with FableVision Learning

The following blog post is by Tyler Stott.

Held every year on April 22, Earth Day is an opportunity for people around the world to celebrate our beautiful Earth.

Earth Day is a reminder that we must protect our planet if we want it to remain beautiful for generations to come. We can do this in small ways by recycling, conserving electricity, and not littering. We can also do this in bigger ways by supporting global efforts to reduce harm and increase protection of our natural resources. We only have one Earth! 

Looking for a way to begin celebrating Earth Day? Explore these classroom activities:

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Animation-Ish Earth Day Activity

One way to celebrate Earth Day is by creating an animated message. 

Here are a few Earth Day animations made in Animation-ish to inspire you.

Earth Day ROCKS!

Begin by reading “Rose’s Garden” by Peter H. Reynolds. This book explores the beauty of nature and the power of imagination. “Rose’s Garden” also shows how nature can make our world a much more colorful place. 

For this activity, break students into small groups but allow each student to have their own rock. Give your students some time to paint their rock with an inspiring message tied to nature or kindness. Have students share their rock designs and messages with their small group. Once you have given them some time to finish, instruct them to return to their groups and share what they have made! Invite everyone to go around and say one nice thing about someone else's rock. Once the sharing is complete, have your students go outside and place the rocks next to something like a tree or a garden! 

When your students are done with this project, we encourage you to do a reflection time. Ask your students: What did you decide to paint and why? When else during the week do you get the chance to be creative? What is your favorite thing about nature?

Click here to download the Earth Day Challenge Card: Earth Day Rocks! 

Trash vs. Recycling:

Begin by reading “Sydney and Simon: Go Green!” by Paul and Peter H. Reynolds, a book about the dangers of pollution and the power of recycling. In this book, Sydney and Simon meet a sea turtle who has been harmed by garbage due to littering. This book will help show students the implications of littering and why it is necessary to start recycling.

For this activity, you will need to prepare kits for each group in your classroom. Each group will need a kit of different materials. These items could include: a plastic water bottle, a plastic straw, a plastic grocery bag, a glass bottle, a paper towel, a newspaper, and a piece of wrapping paper. Feel free to switch out for any items that you might not have, these are just some suggestions. 

Working in teams, students will sort the items by what can go in a recycling bin. The team in the end who gets the most items correct is the winner. 1 point for each item in the correct spot! If you have enough different types of items, you can rotate them between groups. 

Answer Key:

• Plastic Water Bottle - recyclable 

• Plastic Straw- non-recyclable

• Plastic grocery bag- recyclable-ish (Can be returned to grocery store for recycling)  

• Glass Bottle- recyclable

• Paper Towel - non-recyclable

• Newspaper- recyclable

• Wrapping paper - non-recyclable

At the end of the activity we encourage you to do a reflection. Ask your students: What made this activity difficult? Were there any items you debated whether to recycle vs. throw out? Do your families recycle at home? At home do you ever struggle to know what to recycle vs. what to throw out? 

Click here to download the Earth Day Challenge Card: Trash Vs. Recycling.

FabMaker Studio: Animal Masks

Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My! - This Earth Day create a classroom zoo using FabMaker Studio. Students can explore the 2D ready-made masks from within the program to fabricate and create their own animal masks. Encourage each student to create their own unique animal and research a bit about that creature and where they live.

There are so many different types of animals on our beautiful Earth! However, we must continue to protect our planet if we want to keep it this way. Scientists declared 22 species extinct in the year 2021 alone.

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How will you celebrate Earth Day? Share your animations, rock gardens, and classroom zoos with us on social media. Use #EarthDay and #InvestInOurPlanet and tag us @FableLearn.

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Creative Ways to Celebrate Earth Day

A spinning globe, a 3D Turtle, and a story of your world - there are many ways you and your students can celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day with FableVision Learning’s Creativity Maker Suite of online tools. 

When Earth Day was started on April 22, 1970, the impact of the movement saw 20 million participants. This day is important to help raise awareness to show how much of an impact we really do have on the environment by every little move we make. 

This year, as many of us are marking the day from in our homes, we compiled a few activities to get your little ones thinking about the environment around them.

Animation-ish

Animation-ish, is an easy-to-use online animation tool - that helps students show what they know! Weave Animation-ish into your distance learning activities with a few ideas:

Animate Different Cycles:

Encourage your students to animate as a way to explore different cycles. Using the tracing feature, students can easily animate the slow transitions that lead into new phases in any of these cycles. Whether it’s showing night shift to day or animating the parts of the water cycle, check out these examples below 

What are some other natural earth cycles that your class has studied? We want to hear from you about YOUR favorite Earth Day animations.

FabMaker Studio

FabMaker Studio, is our digital design and fabrication tool created to get students prototyping with paper. For more tips and tricks on how to use a printer and a pair of scissors, click here.  

Go Green with Greenie the Turtle! 

This FabMaker Studio activity is inspired by the book “Go Green!” from the Sydney & Simon series (Paul Reynolds and Peter H. Reynolds, Charlesbridge Publishing) and is a great way to explore ocean wildlife. 

In the book, Sydney and Simon learn about a turtle named Greenie who got sick from too much plastic in the ocean. This discovery leads them to find ways to reduce their waste and be more eco-conscious. 

In FabMaker Studio, encourage your students to weld together shapes to create a turtle. For an added challenge - limit the creation to two shapes. Want to do deeper? In the FabMaker Studio Ready-Made projects, students can print a 3D turtle project to design and modify. This project provides an opportunity for you to talk to your students about turtles and other wildlife while also exploring the STEM skills of fabrication.

BONUS IDEAS: 

1. Using the scraps of paper leftover from the project, create lily pads, or leaves for your paper turtle. 

2. Explore the shapes in FabMaker Studio to create fish friends for your turtles (or print them out using our 2D ready-mades)

Do your students learn about recycling? What other oceanic creatures has your class studied? Greenie would love to have more fabricated friends, let us know if your students create any other animals in FabMaker Studio, we’d love to check them out.

How will you be celebrating Earth Day? Share it with the FableVision Learning team via Twitter @FableLearn, or via email: info@fablevisionlearning.com