Green Curriculum Ideas for Earth Day in the Montessori Classroom

On April 22, over one hundred countries will participate in Earth Day. Earth Day has been celebrated annually for over forty years. This year Earth Day’s theme is “A Billion Acts of Green.” Individuals and businesses around the world will make pledges and commitments to live in a more environmentally friendly fashion.

Begin a discussion of Earth Day and “A Billion Acts of Green” to involve your Montessori students in activities that incorporate math and environmental education.

With your students, start a master list of activities they can do that are environmentally friendly. You can either start with a goal number in mind (100? 500? But probably not a billion), or keep listing to see how many you can come up with. To reinforce the math component, you can encourage your Montessori students to track the activities on the classroom list with bead chains, unit cubes or other math materials. As the list grows, students can group them by fives, tens, etc.

Green Curriculum Ideas for Earth Day in the Montessori Classroom

Once your Montessori students are satisfied with their list, you can begin a discussion on what to do with your new and wonderful ideas. Your students might want to implement one “green” idea a day at your Montessori school. They could do this as a class or individually. They might wish to explore doing their activities for one month or incorporate one daily until the list is exhausted. Use this discussion to explore how many days are in a month and/or how many days it would take to do an activity a day, etc.

This process is also a great way to encourage daily habits, and to identify other activities that are ideal for monthly, bi-annual, or annual events. Perhaps bi-annual or annual events can extend beyond the Montessori classroom and school into the neighboring community!

Your students can also challenge another classroom or the school community as a whole to also complete a daily activity to help the earth. In addition to math and environmental education, your students could strengthen their language skills by documenting their green acts on posters, in a blog or school/parent newsletter, or by writing a book for the Montessori classroom and school.

One small act can lead to a billion ... and a better world. Enjoy exploring the possibilities with your young Montessori citizens!

• http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2011
• http://act.earthday.org/
• http://www.earthday.org/node/164

Other NAMC blogs:

• Montessori Practical Life Activity for Earth Day
• World Water Day 2010, March 22: Montessori Classroom Opportunities
• Earth Day 2009: Celebrating Peace and Environmental Awareness in the Montessori Classroom
• Celebrating Earth Day in the Montessori Community
• World Environment Day Ideas for the Montessori Classroom

The NAMC teaching manuals provide a rich curriculum based on Montessori’s philosophy of Cosmic Education and Peace, emphasizing the interrelatedness of humans and all species.

As much as possible, NAMC’s web blog reflects the Montessori curriculum as provided in its teacher training programs. We realize and respect that Montessori schools are unique and may vary their schedules and offerings in accordance with the needs of their individual communities. We hope that our readers will find our articles useful and inspiring as a contribution to the global Montessori community.
© North American Montessori Center - originally posted in its entirety at Montessori Teacher Training on Tuesday, April 19, 2011.