Earth Day

• Celebrate Earth Day with your preschoolers with an afternoon filled with environmental learning fun. Lesson plans on Earth Day can include activities on many different aspects of environmentalism. Start with a discussion about the history of this planet-friendly holiday, telling the children basic facts such as Earth Day started in 1970 in response to growing concern about the health of our planet. Read a picture book such as "It's Earth Day!" by Mercer Mayer or Gary Kowalski's "Earth Day: An Alphabet Book." Complete the lesson plan with a hands-on sorting activity. Bring in a tub of washed plastic bottles, aluminum cans and paper products. Invite the children to sort the items into different types of recyclables.
  
  

Art Lessons

• Educate the young child about our environment with a strategically designed visual arts lesson. Teach preschoolers the value of reusing objects by turning old magazines and newspapers into a colorful collage. Go a step further and ask the kids to cut out pictures of things on our planet, such as oceans, the polar ice caps or the rainforest. Glue these on a cardboard base cut from the side of an old cereal, packing or electronics box.
  
  

Science

• Learning about the environment is the perfect content for a preschool science lesson. Create a hands-on plan that encourages little learners to make their own discoveries and explore our planet. Try a simple activity such as a nature walk coupled with a discussion about what we see in our environment. Move on to an extended lesson on the water or life cycle. Design a lesson plan that allows students to follow the growth of a plant from a seed to a mature vegetable. Discuss the different parts of our environment that impact the seed's growth. Tie this to a lesson on the water cycle, helping kids to understand that water is necessary for life. Collect rain water to nourish the plants and ask the kids to predict what will happen to the droplets when the sun shines on them.
  
  

Reduce, Recycle, Reuse

• Help your preschoolers learn about the three "R"s of environmentalism. Lesson plans on reducing, recycling and reusing can include a discussion, book reading and hands-on activities in the community. Begin your lesson during circle time with a discussion on how what we throw away affects the environment. Ask the children to think about things that they throw out and what other options may be. Add in a book such as "Charlie and Lola, We are Extremely Good Recyclers" by Lauren Child or "The Great Paper Caper" by Oliver Jeffers. Follow this with a community activity where the kids can help collect items that the school can recycle or reuse.