If you are teaching younger kids, you may want to create a lesson plan around animal habitats. For example, teaching your kindergarten or first-grade class about polar bears and how global warming affects these types of animals will help them understand the effects of pollution on the world.
No matter what grade you teach, a good way to raise awareness for problems in the Earth's environment is to create a lesson plan around recycling. The kids in your classroom may already know the basics of why recycle is important, but it's helpful to go into details on how recycling works, from the collection process (when recycles are collected) to the manufacturing process (when the recyclable items are sorted, cleaned and made into new products).
After teaching children about recycling, put what you've taught into practice. Encourage students to recycle. Make sure there are recycling bins in your classroom for paper, aluminum cans and other recyclable products.
Earth Day lesson plans should not always focus on the negative elements of the natural world. Instead, you might focus your lesson on teaching children to appreciate the natural elements of the planet. Teaching children, especially elementary-aged children, about the rainforest is a great Earth Day lesson.
When discussing the layers of the rainforest, you can easily turn this into a science or math lesson. There are four layers of the rainforest. At each level, you may want to talk about how tall or short the plants are. You should discuss the different animals that live in each layer. Depending on the age group of your children, you can also briefly discuss the disappearing rainforests and the reasons for it.
Another lesson plan idea for Earth Day is to discuss national parks with your classroom. Talk about why the national parks are important. You should discuss how the national parks protect endangered animals by creating a permanent habitat. A fun activity for children to learn about the national parks is to ask them to create a brochure, highlighting the important aspects of a specific site. For example, you may want to focus your lesson plan on a natural park in your geographical area.