Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin, declared Earth Day on April 22, 1970. The idea was inspired by the effect the student anti-war movement was having in the US. He proposed a national environmental “teach-in” to be observed by all school campuses across the US, to bring attention to the environmental catastrophes and degradation at hand. Twenty million people participated in that first Earth Day (Wikipedia).
Now, the holiday has been touted as the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by over a billion people in 192 countries. It is used as a day of action, a call to change human behavior and provoke policy changes.
There are so many ways to celebrate earth day at school; plant a garden, clean up the schoolyard, do a project on a rainforest, make pine cone bird feeders, study the food chain, and how extinction or overpopulation affects it.
Here is a great Earth Day activity that has 25 students representing what they would look like if it was the population of the world condensed into their class.
It is important to celebrate Earth Day today and everyday. Encouraging the youth to be mindful and care about the planet is the most important lesson we can teach. Protecting the Earth, that’s just easy math!
