by: Marianna Monheim Updated March 16, 2024
An Engaging Earth Day Activity for Upper Elementary
Have you used a scavenger hunt with your students before? If not, Earth Day is the perfect time to try one! It’s a great way to break up the monotony of boring test prep…while still giving students essential practice with answering right there questions about informational text. In this post, we will take a closer look at the Earth Day Scavenger Hunt and show you how easy it is to play!
In a hurry? Grab my Earth Day Scavenger in my TPT shop by clicking on the picture or button below:
Why Students Love Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunts were always an exceptionally big hit in my upper elementary classroom. Here’s why:
- An opportunity to get up and move – Students love any reason to be out of their seat, even if its for an academic activity!
- A break from the norm – this is true for any month of the year, but particularly in April when you’ve been hitting test prep hard.
- Learning fun facts – there’s no better hook for nonfiction than interesting trivia, which scavenger hunts are full of.
Why You Will Love Scavenger Hunts
Teachers across the country use my scavenger hunts with their upper elementary students, because:
- They’re easy to prep – Simply print out and cut the fact cards and hide them around your room. Then, print out enough recording sheets for your students and send them on their way. That’s a wrap!
- They get students interested in the topic – read a passage about Earth Day? Boring! Use similar information but make it a scavenger hunt? Your students will be begging for more.
- You get 3 for 1 – in addition to the traditional scavenger hunt, you can also play the vocabulary hunt or the critical thinking scavenger hunt with your students. Plus, there are so many different ways you can incorporate these activities into your schedule!
What's in the Earth Day Scavenger Hunt?
If you’re interested, but wondering exactly what students will learn while completing this activity, I’ve broken it down for you here:
History of Earth Day
Students will learn how Senator Gaylor Nelson used the enthusiasm of college students to start this grass roots movement and bring it to Congress.
Environmental Issues
Find out how our environment is being impacted by things such as pollution, waste, and energy consumption, among other issues.
Ways to Help
Simple, daily activities kids can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
All of this information is presented on 1 of the 24 fact cards included. Students will walk around with their recording sheets in order to answer a question about each fact.
You can download this FREE scavenger hunt to see how things are formatted!
Three Activities in One
We’ve gone over the traditional scavenger hunt, but the Earth Day Scavenger Hunt resource also includes two more ways to play!
Each fact card includes an underlined word. During the Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt, students will determine what the words mean and what strategies they use to define them.
Of course, you want students to remember these new facts, which is where the Synthesis Hunt comes in. These 6 critical-thinking questions ask students to take their new knowledge and apply it while answering. This is the perfect activity for your students who need a little bit more of a challenge.
Learn More about the Earth Day Scavenger Hunt
Click here to view the resource in my TPT store. You’ll get a full preview with images of the cards and recording sheets. I hope you students love the activity!
More Scavenger Hunts from Creatively Comprehensive
Make holiday lesson planning a breeze with these done-for-you scavenger hunts. Not only will you have a solid activity for all the events you can think of, you’ll save over 40% when you buy them all at once.
