Earth Day Educational Resources & Activities

Photo by Jean Lakosnyk on Unsplash

With Earth Day just around the corner, now is a great time to talk to your children about natural resources and climate change. Take advantage of our free library resources PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next to access lesson plans that you can use to teach your child about earth science from home. Additionally, you can supplement this lesson with eco-friendly activities, such as making your own paper out of scraps and starting your own window herb garden. Follow the instructions below to access our PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next resources, and then use the following instructions to make fun projects you can enjoy with your child! 

Research with PebbleGo & PebbleGo Next

PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next are curriculum-connected research tools for children that you can access for free through Basalt Regional Library. Children can learn about topics ranging from science and animals to social studies and historical biographies. PebbleGo is designed for grades K-2, and PebbleGo Next is designed for grades 3-5. These are fantastic tools to help keep your children busy and supplement their education, especially during this time of social distancing and learning from home. We have provided instructions to navigate to the "Humans and Earth" lesson below, and we encourage you to explore all the other fantastic lessons these databases have to offer!

To access the "Humans and Earth" lesson plans:
1.Go to the Basalt Regional Library's Children's page
2.Click on the PebbleGo (grades K-2) or PebbleGo Next (grades 3-5) link 
3.Choose the Science icon 
4.Choose the Earth and Space Sciences icon in PebbleGo (or the Earth Science icon in PebbleGo Next)
5.Choose the Earth Science icon in PebbleGo (or the Geosphere icon in PebbleGo Next)
6.Choose the Natural Resources icon and then the Humans and Earth icon in PebbleGo (or simply the Humans and Earth icon in PebbleGo Next)
8.Click through the lesson 
9.If you have access to a printer, you can print out activity sheets to finish together after learning about Humans and the Earth

Now it's time for some hands-on Earth Day fun!

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Make Your Own Paper
​Source: tinkerlab.com/how-to-make-paper

Supplies: How to Make Paper

• Window Screen
• Two Plastic Wash Tubs  
• Washcloth/rag/burp cloth/large piece of felt
• Water
• Torn paper from newspaper, tissue paper, magazines, etc. (Be sure that it’s staple and tape-free)
• Blender   
• Small seeds (optional)

Instructions:

• Tear the paper into tiny strips, about 2″
• Place your window screen on top of one of the plastic tubs
• Add paper to the blender, cover it with water, and run the blender on a low speed. Since you will squeeze all the water out of the paper pulp, you can’t really have too much water. If the blender doesn’t move easily, add more water.
• Run the blender a little bit faster until you get the paper mixture into a nice, smooth pulp. You can leave the mixture a little chunky for textured paper or blend more to make it smoother, depending on your preference.
• Spread the pulp thinly and uniformly across the screen and then layer a cloth diaper or towel on top to absorb the extra water, while also pushing the water through the screen into the tub. Get the kids involved.
• Place one hand firmly on top of the cloth while you flip the screen over onto a table or countertop that can handle water.
• Remove the screen and put the cloth with paper pulp in a spot where it can dry, undisturbed, for about a day. The thicker the paper, the longer it will take to dry.​

For more information and step by step pictures, visit Tinkerlab's original blog post. ​tinkerlab.com/how-to-make-paper/

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Plant Your Own Window Herb Garden
Source: connecticutlifestyles.com/how-to-create-a-mason-jar-herb-garden

Supplies: Plant Your Own Window Herb Garden

• 1/2 Pint Mason Jars
• Perlite
• Potting soil
• Small Pebbles
• Herb Seeds
• Cardstock or cardboard
• Popsicle sticks, toothpicks, or small twigs

Instructions:

• Add perlite in the bottom of each jar, filling about 1/2″ deep. Put small pebbles on top of the perlite, filling about about 1″ deep. Perlite and pebbles are used for drainage since the jars don’t have a hole in the bottom.
• Put organic potting soil on top of perlite and rocks, making sure there are no air pockets. The easy way to remove the air pockets is to tap the jar on the counter after you put the soil in. The reason you use organic potting soil is because you will be eating what you grow so you don’t want to use soil that has been treated with any type of pesticides or chemicals.
• Using your finger or a pencil or stick, put a small indent in potting soil in the center of the jar. Add 10 or 12 seeds in the hole. Cover the hole with a little bit of potting soil and press down lightly with your finger. Add water until you see it run through to the bottom and fill in the perlite and rocks.
• You can make herb markers with cardstock/cardboard and a Popsicle stick, toothpick, or small stick from a tree.
• Place your mason jar herb gardens in a windowsill that is away from direct sunlight. In just a few days some of your seeds will sprout and soon you will have fresh herbs to add to your next meal!

​For more information and step by step pictures, visit Connecticut Lifestyles original blog post. connecticutlifestyles.com/how-to-create-a-mason-jar-herb-garden

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Keep an eye out for an upcoming blog post about Basalt Regional Library's seed library. Free seed packets from our seed library are currently available at MANA Foods in Carbondale and Skip's Farm to Market in Basalt. More information will be posted this Friday.

Happy Earth Day!