This book can be purchased at:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Watcher+by+Jeanette+Winter&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss

This book can be purchased at:
https://www.amazon.com/Follow-Moon-Home-Hundred-Turtles/dp/145211241X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=follow+the+moon+home&qid=1619726579&s=books&sr=1-1

Affective: students will identify value in the usage of recycled material to create something new. 

Cognitive: Students will describe where the recycled materials would go in the environment, if they were not used as craft materials.

This activity could be paired with many of these titles, but I would highlight Kenya's Art by Linda Trice (2016), What a Waste by Jess French (2019). Students will make tissue box guitars, with rubber bands, empty tissue boxes and toilet paper tubes. I will pre-cut holes in the tissue boxes, and have the components roughly sorted for the kids. While they are assembling their tissue box guitars, I will play the Ruth Pelam song “Guitar Box Band” which explains the value in creating something from what is otherwise garbage, and giving it a new life, in a happy, catchy song (Ruth Pelam, 2015). 

Affective: Students will verbally reflect on their choices of organisms, and why each organism is important to all other organisms on the page. 

Cognitive: Students will identify how different organisms are connected through distant relationships, by what they eat and what eats them. 

I will read Who Eats What?: Food Chains and Food Webs by Patricia Lauber (2016), or The Great Kapok Tree: A tale of the amazon Rain Forest By Lynn Cherry (1990).

I will have the students fill in a coloring sheet style handout depicting a food web. This food web will have simple fill in the blank areas where they can guess and choose what organism could fit into that location on the food web, and hints will be given by the surrounding coloring sheet  (flowers growing out of the ground, a spider web with a space to catch something a spider might eat, etc.) While they complete the food web, I will play the song “Under One Sky” by Ruth Pelam, which describes the connectedness of all people and things on Earth (2015). 

Clinton, C. (2019). Don't Let Them disappear: 12 endangered species across the globe. Philomel Books: New York, N.Y.. 

Cousteau, P., & Hopkins, D. (2016). Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles. Chronicles Books: San Francisco, California. 

Cullerton. J, & Cullerton J. (2013). Seeds of  change: planting a path to peace. Lee & Low Books. 

French, J. (2019). What a waste: trash, recycling and protecting our planet. DK Publishing: London, England. U.K.. 

George, J., C. (2009). The last polar bear. HarperCollins Publishers: New York, N.Y..

Hiaasen, C. (2005). Hoot. Random House Inc.: New York, N.Y., 

Jaffers, O. (2017). Here we are: notes for living on planet Earth. Philomel Books: New York, N.Y..

Lauber, P. (2016). Who Eats What?: Food Chains and Food Webs. Harper Collin’s Children’s Books: New York, N.Y., 

Lawlor, L. (2014). . Holiday Publishing: New York, N.Y..

Lindstrom, C. (2020). We are water protectors. Roaring Brook Press: New York, N.Y.. 

Olien, R. (2016). The water cycle at work. Capstone Press: North Mankato, M.N., 

Ruth Pelam. (2015). Guitar box band. [Video]. Youtube. Retrieved on March 31, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5irzkHhbdo.

Ruth Pelam. (2015). Under one sky. [Video]. Youtube. Retrieved on March 31, 2021 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBk--jQwDJU

Scanlon, L., G. (2018). Kate who tamed the wind. Schwartz & Wade: New York, N.Y..

Seeger, L. (2012). Green. Roaring Book Press: New York, N.Y..

Siddals, M., M. (2014). Compost Stew: and A to Z recipe for the Earth. Dragonfly Books: Canada. 

Trice, L. (2016). Kenya’s art. CharlesBridge Publishing: Watertown, M.A.. 

Vegara, M. (2020). Grete Thunberg. FRANCES LINCOLN CHILDRENS: London, UK. 

Verde, S. (2016). The Water Princess. Putnam Publishing: New York, N.Y..

Walsh, M., (2012). 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World. Candlewick Press: Somerville, M.A.. 

Wheeler, E. (2019). Home in the woods . Nancy Paulsen Books: Penguin Books. New York, N.Y..

Winter, J., (2011). The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps. Schwartz & Wade: New York, N.Y.. 

These questions will elicit a thoughtfulness about how our society, and our species, utilizes the natural resources available to us on this planet, but overall, we don’t do a great job of protecting our planet from unnecessary waste and damage. These books and activities will allow kids to assess practices within our society that are harmful to the environment on a local and global level, and instil a sense of understanding, connectedness and belonging that will help form them into responsible citizens of the world that we all share.