Sunday, April 23, 2017

Celebrating the Earth

Each Earth Day, citizens gather together to find ways to protect our beautiful earth. Think Green is a popular mantra!


URGENT MESSAGE:
As residents of the earth, we need to take on the role of stewards, keep watch over the bountiful creation provided us, and teach students about the challenges of climate change and other local environmental concerns. Adults can model the slogan, Reduce-Recycle-Reuse, to take a small step forward in Earth Day efforts to save Mother Earth. 

Children can also help, as evidenced by the HBO documentary, Saving My Tomorrow, that aired last night at the close of Earth Day. You can view the clip below.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITY:
Classrooms can promote "Earth Day Everyday" by planting trees, recycling, reading about Earth Day at Wonderopolis' Wonder of the Day 1675, How Can You Make Earth a Better Place, and reflecting. To broaden the after-reading experience, 4th to 6th grade students can engage in a writing activity focusing on 10 of the highlighted words in the Wonderopolis text, i.e., earth, public consciousness, future, protection, legislation, global, recycling, rally, action, conserve, plant, trash. Using these words as prompts, students work in pairs to create poems that either celebrate the beauty of Mother Earth or provide insight into ways to save the earth. Recitation of the pair-created poem with another pair enhances the oral reading experience. Asking for feedback allows students to refine their poem. Students create Illustrations, posters, or videos of the class poems to publicize a celebration event.

POETIC FORMAT:

The example I provide below is an adaptation of the Golden Shovel poetic format featured by Writer's Digest. While I enjoy creating this type of poem, I admit that it is challenging.

-Find a quote that appeals to you about your subject.
-Use each word in the quote as an end word in your poem.
-Keep the end words in order.
-Give credit to the person who wrote the quote.

QUOTE:
The earth is what we all have in common. 
- Wendell Berry
MY RESPONSE:
There is beauty in fragile flowers, the
turn of light upon the grass. The earth
wrapped in shades of vibrant hues is
resplendent in springtime, but what 
if we neglect our mighty land?  Will we
deplete earth of its riches or of all
it has bestowed on mankind. Have
we forgotten what is necessary in
our haste to have superfluous interests in common?
©Carol Varsalona, 2017


Yesterday was Earth Day 2017 
but 
EVERYDAY should be Earth Day! 

Let's band together to honor the earth through advocacy and simple steps to focus on becoming faithful stewards of the environment.




The image poem and inspirational message above are part of my #poetrylisciouspoetry collection for National Poetry Month 2017.

Thank you, Margaret Simon for suggesting the topic for #DigiLitSunday and creating the digital flyer below.


Thank you, Ruth Ayres for providing space each weekend to Celebrate This Week with fellow bloggers.


This post is also part of my Wonder Bundle of activities that I am creating for Wonderopolis as part of my commitment to being a Wonder Lead AmbassadorDo you often wonder how you can help protect the earth?

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