Teaching my children to be good environmental stewards is very important to me. I’m always on the prowl for cute books and teaching ideas since a big part of our learning process is simply reading. Here are some wonderful resources I use to teach my kids environmental responsibility.
1. The Lorax (Classic Seuss) My ALL TIME favorite book teaching kids to conserve resources and take care of animals. My kids love this book and ask me to read it almost every day. Dr. Seuss has a really cool Lorax project here rife with fun activities, information, and free downloads. Seussville also has a lot of great educational resources.
2.. The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest – Another fabulous book with beautiful pictures that shows how many animals are affected when one tree is cut down in the Amazon Rail Forest. Homeschool Share has compiled a list of different activities for teaching about the animals of the rain forest and the countries of South America. From the San Diego County Office of Education, this website has fun interactive activities to study South America, climate, mapping, and practice writing.
3. Compost Stew. Did you know you can compost dryer lint? I didn’t until I read this cute book about composting! I love this “cookbook” take on learning the alphabet! It’s very unique and refreshing. The author, Mary McKenna Siddals, has a website with lots of fun composting ideas!
4. The Berenstain Bears Don’t Pollute (Anymore). I love this book because it takes on a reformist tone. It talks about some harmful activities people do and shows how to make small changes to help the Earth! My kids love the all Berenstain Bears Book and this one in particular. If you’re looking for ideas to each your kids about air pollution and chemicals, this website has a nice compilation of activities.
5. Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People Who Are Helping to Protect Our Planet – Finally, if you’re looking for good information for a more advanced reader, this is an excellent book! It tells stories of every day people making big changes in their own communities and encourages kids to find their own ways to make positive environmental impacts!
How do you teach your kids to be good environmental stewards? Do you have favorite books? I’d love to hear!