Taking Care of Our Earth: Celebrating Earth Day Montessori Style
Recently, our classroom spent a morning celebrating Earth Day. The weather cooperated beautifully and provided us with a crisp, sunny spring day in which we could enjoy time outdoors partaking in different projects.
The children were engaged with making pinecone birdfeeders, using soynut butter and bird seed. A great hands-on activity, the children used butter knives to spread the soynut butter onto the pinecones and then they rolled the pinecones on a tray filled with bird seed. Fun, easy and helpful to our feathered friends returning to Maine after a long journey from the south!
We also planted sunflower seeds to add to our garden and more for each child to take home one planting pod. Children discussed how a seed becomes a flower and we learned how planting flowers can help the birds and the bees.
Finally, a grand experiment! We attempted to make a batch of recycled paper. The week prior, we took time to tear paper into little pieces. Then we soaked the paper to make pulp. Using a frame and window screen, we then pressed the pulp onto the screen. More about process than product, our paper is still drying so we won’t know for a bit if our experiment was a success!
We ended our morning with a story about respecting nature, not just on Earth Day but every day of the year. The children then broke into a “Hip-Hip Hurray for Earth Day!” cheer to put a festive end to our day.
“The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth.”
-Dr. Maria Montessori
