Each year on April 22nd we celebrate Earth Day to help raise awareness about the importance of being good stewards of our planet and how integral nature is in all our lives. It’s a great opportunity to learn how to reduce pollution, mitigate climate change, and to participate in programs like recycling, planting trees, neighborhood clean ups and so much more!
Earth Day got its start in 1970 when Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed a day to acknowledge the state of our planet and try to make it a healthier place for us all to live. In its first year, over 20 million people nationwide rallied for Nelson’s cause! Since 1990, Earth Day has been celebrated worldwide with people around the globe conserving, protecting, and caring for our planet.
Keep scrolling for some thought-provoking videos, interactives, crafts and games to celebrate Earth Day. Then, check out the Learn Along Bingo sheets below, full of printable activities and everyday learning ideas for grades Pre-K to 2, and our line up of Watch & Wonder programs for Planet Protectors in grades 6-12.
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Earth Day & Environmentalism
Check out these articles and videos to learn more about Earth Day, environmental stewardship, and how technology can play a part in protecting our planet!
How to Raise Environmentally Responsible Kids
Grades PreK-3
Talking with your child about the environment and ways to help take care of our planet can help your child establish eco-friendly habits that make a difference!
Human Impact on the Environment Collection
Grades K-12
Small steps make a big difference! Explore how humans impact our world — and how young people can take action to help the environment with this collection of videos, lessons, and interactives!
Earth Day: A View from Above | STEM in 30
Grades 3-8
The people of Earth didn’t see a photo of our planet until the late 1960s. Photos of Earth changed the way we think about our planet. In this webcast we look at the beginnings of Earth Day and how a better understanding of our place in the universe has evolved through photographic discoveries.
Renewable Energy: Clean Tech Solutions | Exploring Energy
Grades 6-12
Renewable energy sources count on the fact that there will always be water, wind, waves, and sunshine to gather energy. Learn what kinds of renewable energy technologies are out there and how we can store the energy they produce.
Environmental Careers | Future Jobs
Grades 6-12
Have your students ever considered a career as an environmental scientist or soil and water conservationist? Learn about jobs in these growing fields using the videos and accompanying Discussion Guides in this Media Gallery.
The Resilient Ones: A Generation Takes on Climate Change Collection
Grades 6-12
The Resilient Ones: A Generation Takes on Climate Change highlights the effects of climate change in the Adirondack region of upstate New York. In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, three high school students embark on a journey to meet local leaders and climate innovators in search of short-term adaptive strategies to extreme weather and long-term solutions to reduce carbon emissions. Explore this collection of resources that promote climate change education by inspiring students to make real-world connections within their own communities.
Activities, Games, & More
Make a Composter
Grades PreK-3
What happens to a pile of old leaves outside when you add a dash of time, maybe some worms, and a healthy splash of moisture? Make soil perfect for a garden just like Daisy’s from Nature Cat! Try making your own compost with this DIY experiment using everyday items.
Super Cleaner Upper
Grades K-2
Cat is pitching in to keep the community clean! In this game from The Cat in the Hat, your child can hunt and classify items to recycle or compost.
Jungle Jeopardy: An Ecosystem Game | Plum Landing
Grades K-5
Players strive to create a balanced rainforest ecosystem in which each animal has enough food to survive over a period of 12 days, in this interactive game from Plum Landing. Players see how the different species of plants and animals in a rainforest depend on one another. They also experiment with how changing the amount of one resource affects the whole ecosystem.
Biome in a Baggie
Grades K-8
A biome is an ecological community like a rainforest, desert, or prairie. Create your own biome in this activity from Zoom.
Taking Action for a Clean Environment
Grades 9-12
In this media-rich, self-paced lesson, explore activism—taking action to bring about change—including some causes that activists espouse and the tactics that they use to end harmful practices or reshape policies. The lesson contains videos that feature some successful youth activists, and identifies some of the personal characteristics that many activists possess. Finish up by either planning and executing an activist campaign, or by interviewing an activist in their own community.
Local Ecological & Conservation Organizations
Take stewardship into your own hands! Help conserve the environment and protect wildlife with the help of these local organizations.
Lake Champlain Basin Program
The Lake Champlain Basin Program coordinates and funds efforts that benefit the Lake Champlain Basin’s water quality, fisheries, wetlands, wildlife, recreation, and cultural resources, in partnership with government agencies, private organizations, local communities, and individuals.
The Wild Center
The Wild Center is a natural history center in Tupper Lake, New York, near the center of New York State’s Adirondack Park. The experiences, exhibits and programs at The Wild Center are designed to open new ways to look into the latest discoveries made by natural scientists and their educational programming serves to engage learners of all ages in an exploration of the natural world.
AdkAction
AdkAction’s mission is to create innovative projects that address unmet needs, promote vibrant communities, and preserve the natural beauty of the Adirondacks for all. Get involved with some of their initiatives like The Adirondack Pollinator Project, which helps promote the health of pollinators in our ecosystem and provides resources to become a pollinator advocate, and the Adirondack Compost for Good program, helping our communities turn food and other organic “wastes” into high quality compost.
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive. Through their work they focus on innovative solutions to climate change, protecting and restoring forest, and helping communities build resilience. The Nature Conservancy has a local chapter in New York State focused on initiatives across the Adirondacks, Central and Western New York, and the New York Metro area.
Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center
The Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center is dedicated to fostering connections with nature for students, local residents, and regional visitors by providing outdoor recreation opportunities, experiential education programs, and year-round art exhibitions. Explore over 25 miles of year-round trails for hiking, nature watching, lean-to camping, and more! Stop in at the center for current trail conditions and day or season passes.
Watch & Wonder Programming
Check out the Mountain Lake PBS Watch & Wonder block, weekdays from 1-3pm! In honor of Earth Day, join us throughout April as we explore, celebrate, and learn about the planet we all call home.
Wednesday,April 19
1 PM: NOVA: Can We Cool the Planet
As global temperatures continue to rise, scientists are wondering if we need solutions beyond reducing emissions. Enter geoengineering. From sucking carbon straight out of the air to physically blocking out sunlight, the options may seem far-fetched. But as time runs out on conventional solutions to climate change, scientists are asking the hard questions: Can geoengineering really work?
- PBS LearningMedia: A Solar Geoengineering Experiment | Can We Cool the Planet?
2 PM: Frozen Obsession
Climate change is a critical scientific and social issue in today’s world. Frozen Obsession follows the 2,000-mile Northwest Passage Project expedition through the extreme Canadian Arctic as the NPP team studies water chemistry, microbiology, birds, mammals, and physical oceanography. Witness the next generation of scientists and decision makers who will surely make a difference in the world.
- PBS LearningMedia: Studying Snow and Ice in the Arctic | Arctic Drift
Thursday,April 20
1 PM: A Wild Idea: The Birth of the APA
New York’s Adirondack Park is larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Grand Canyon, and Great Smokies National Parks combined. It is one of the largest unbroken deciduous forests on earth. It has a thousand of miles of streams and rivers, hundreds of lakes, and lofty peaks. Even more amazing, most of the land within the park is privately owned, and 85 million people live within a day’s drive. Yet the Adirondacks seem entirely undeveloped. How did that happen? The founding of the Adirondack Park Agency, 50 years ago, was truly, A Wild Idea.
- Learning resource: Regulation and Resistance: Adirondack Activism in the Early Years of the APA – Virtual Exhibition | Adirondack Experience
2 PM: Uninvited: The Spread of Invasive Species
Uninvited: The Spread of Invasive Species is an exciting and informative film by Westfield Production Company. The documentary introduces the concept of invasive species and highlights some of the species threatening New York’s environment and economy, while also showing some innovative ways that New York State is combatting these threats. Uninvited features the collaborative work of DEC and its partners including NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets, the eight Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISMs), New York State Invasive Species Research Institute (NYISRI), and more.
- PBS LearningMedia: Plant Ecologist and Civil Engineer | Great Job!
Monday,April 24
1 PM: Changing Planet
In its second year, Changing Planet revisits six of our planet’s most vulnerable ecosystems and catches up with the truly inspiring people introduced in the first season; scientists and local experts fighting to safeguard their communities and wildlife, charting the progress of their game-changing environmental projects.
- PBS LearningMedia: Biomes Interactive Resource
Tuesday,April 25
1 PM: This American Land – 1001
Reporting from the front lines, This American Land brings you compelling stories on critical issues impacting America’s natural landscapes, waters, wildlife and energy resources in a changing climate, informing and engaging television audiences nationwide. Hosted by wildlife conservationist Ed Arnett.
- PBS LearningMedia: Wild West Animal Passages | EcoSense for Living
1:30 PM: American Land – 1002
Reporting from the front lines, This American Land brings you compelling stories on critical issues impacting America’s natural landscapes, waters, wildlife and energy resources in a changing climate, informing and engaging television audiences nationwide. Hosted by wildlife conservationist Ed Arnett.
2 PM: NATURE: Niagara Falls
Embark to Niagara Falls and witness its stunning beauty and a wide variety of wildlife—mammals, birds, and reptiles— that call it home. Through the eyes of passionate scientists, uncover a complex world forged by stone and powered by water.
- PBS LearningMedia: The Fury of the Falls: Geology | Compact Science
Wednesday,April 26
1 PM: Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly
Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly is a 56-minute narrated film that unfolds along the shores of Cape Ann and in the heart of Mexico’s forested volcanic mountains. Every stage of the butterfly’s life cycle is experienced in vibrant close-up, from mating to egg to caterpillar to adult, and set against the backdrop of sea and forest, sun and wind.
- PBS LearningMedia: Citizen Science for Your Classroom: The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project
2 PM: NATURE: My Garden of a Thousand Bees
A story of surprise and revelation. A wildlife filmmaker spends his time during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown filming the bees in his urban garden and discovers the many diverse species and personalities that exist in this insect family.
- PBS LearningMedia: Exploring Wild Bees | My Garden of a Thousand Bees
Learn Along Bingo
With Learn Along Bingo, children can view, explore, and play as they learn alongside their PBS KIDS friends on the PBS KIDS 24/7 channel. We hope your family will use it to inspire learning each and every day.
This time, we’re protecting our planet! Children will learn that their choices can positively impact the land, water, air, and other living things.
Grades PreK-K
Play & Learn: In this packet, there are printable activities and everyday learning ideas for you and your child to choose from. As you complete each square, mark it off to celebrate the learning!
Grades 1-2
Play & Learn: In this packet, there are printable activities and everyday learning ideas for you and your child to choose from. As you complete each square, mark it off to celebrate the learning!
For even more games and educational resources for young learners, go to the Protecting Our Planet Collection on PBS KIDS for Parents.