These Earth Day stories are a great way to celebrate Earth Day and to teach elementary students the importance of taking care of the environment. Students will enjoy listening to these read alouds and participating in thoughtful conversations about how we can keep the earth healthy. Learn more about some of my favorite Earth Day stories below!
This post highlights the following spring books that are great for celebrating Earth Day:
- Greta and The Giants
- Milk and Juice: A Recycling Romance
- One Plastic Bag
- Michael Recycle
- Tidy
- We are Water Protectors
- The Tree Lady
7 Earth Day Stories for Kids
Read below to learn about some of my favorite Earth Day stories to share with elementary students during the month of April! Your students will love these Earth Day picture books!
1. Greta and The Giants by Zoë Tucker
As Greta was in the forest, animals came to her asking for help. The Giants were greedy and destroying the forest to create towns, cities, and factories. The animals were too scared to speak to them!
So, one day, Greta began picketing for the Giants to stop. Then, more and more children joined in. Eventually, they spoke to the Giants about the effect of their actions on the forest. The Giants began helping to fix the forest, interacting with more hobbies, and helping in their community.
Check out these Greta and The Giants activities!
2. Milk and Juice: A Recycling Romance by Meredith Crandall Brown
This quirky and silly tale is a love story between a Milk jug and Juice container on their recycling adventure.
Once upon a time, there lived a Milk jug and a bottle of Juice in a refrigerator. They kept each other cold on warm nights and provided great company. That is… until the bottle was empty! We see the Milk jug out looking for the Juice bottle, but they keep changing as they are being recycled. Finally, they are made into a bench together and they get to live happily ever after.
Check out these Milk and Juice activities!
3. One Plastic Bag by Miranda Paul
The book, One Plastic Bag, teaches readers about Isatou Ceesay and the women of Gambia. For awhile in Gambia, people were littering. They would throw plastic bags on the ground and the pile of trash was getting bigger and bigger. Time passed and Isatou grew up.
One day, she learned that the goats were eating the plastic bags and dying. She realized she needed to do something. Isatou picked up the bags and she and a group of other women washed them. As Isatou watched her sister crochet, she had an idea. They decided to make the plastic bags into string and crochet bags out of the trash. At first, everyone laughed at the women. But over time, people started to buy their creations. The trash pile started to get smaller and eventually Gambia was beautiful and trash free once more.
Check out these One Plastic Bag activities!
4. Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel
Written in rhyme, Michael Recycle is about a town called Abberdoo-Rimey that was covered in garbage and slime. The air was hazy and nobody in the town seemed to care. One day, a green-caped superhero called Michael Recycle shows up to inspire the citizens to clean up the town. He teaches them that, in order to stop trash from piling up, they need to make sure they recycle, and the town is inspired to change for the better!
Using humor, this book will help teach students about the importance of recycling in order to keep our surroundings clean. Check out these Michael Recycle activities!
5. We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom
In the book We Are Water Protectors, a young girl and her village are water protectors. They understand that water is sacred and needs to be protected. When a black snake, long foretold by her people, threatens the land, the girl unifies those around her to fight for the creatures who cannot defend themselves.
This will quickly become one of your favorite Earth Day stories. Check out these We are Water Protectors activities!
6. Tidy by Emily Gravett
Tidy is another great story to read for Earth Day. In the forest, there was a badger named Pete who liked to keep the world around him tidy. He would snip off any flowers that didn’t match, groom the fox’s fur, and clean off the birds.
One day, Pete got a bit too carried away while tidying and realized that he had taken all of the leaves out of the forest! That still wasn’t enough, and Pete dug up all of the trees, too. Then, it rained, and there was a flood because the trees weren’t there to hold the water back. Soon, there was nothing for Pete to eat, and, when he tried to go back to his den, the door was gone. Pete eventually realized that he had made a mistake, and so he worked with his friends to set things right.
Check out these Tidy activities!
7. The Tree Lady by Joseph Hopkins
H. Joseph Hopkin’s book, The Tree Lady, is a biography of Katherine Olivia Sessions. It tells the story of how Kate became known as the Mother of Balboa Park, located in San Diego.
Kate grew up in Northern California and loved being in the woods under the trees. Unlike other girls at the time, Kate liked to get her hands dirty and study science. She even went to college to study science and was the first woman to graduate from that school.
After graduating, Kate moved to San Diego and became a teacher. San Diego was very different than anywhere Kate had lived before. There were no trees and it was a very dry landscape. After a few years of teaching, Kate decided to become a gardener. She made it her mission to bring trees to San Diego. Kate began collecting trees that could grow in San Diego. She wrote letters to gardeners around the world asking for seeds. Soon, there were trees all over San Diego and people were even planting them in their yards.
When a big exposition was coming to San Diego, it was decided the park, Balboa Park, needed more trees for shade. Kate worked to plant trees all over the park. People couldn’t believe the lush park that had been created. Her work planting all the trees made her known as “The Mother of Balboa Park.” This biography will teach students all about Kate whose love of trees changed the city of San Diego.
Check out these The Tree Lady activities!
Get All of the Earth Day Book Activities!
Scoop up all of the activity packets based on the picture books featured in this post!
Or Get All of the Activity Packets for 600+ Picture Books!
Starts with a Story is a collection of hundreds of book companions based on high quality children’s literature that support you in delivering highly-engaging interactive read alouds with follow up activities. Each book companion includes:
- reading comprehension questions with sample student responses
- 30 writing prompts targeting 10 different types of writing
- SEL lesson ideas based on character and events from each story
- printable student activities
- editable teaching slides with book-based clipart
- and more.
Learn how to get unlimited access to all 600+ book companion packets below!
Teachers Love these Other Earth Day Activities for Kids
We have lots of Earth Day activities you can use in your classroom. Check out the blog post Earth Day Activities for Kids to get more ideas and teaching resources!
One Last Thing Before You Go… Grab this Free Reading Resource!
If you want to get more book ideas to read aloud to your elementary students, then grab this reading freebie for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classroom teachers. It includes:
- seasonal read aloud books lists for teachers
- printable reading logs to track students’ reading
- monthly reading challenges to motivate students to read more
It will have you covered for the entire school year, as well as the summer months! Grab this free elementary reading packet now!
In closing, we hope you found this list of Earth Day stories helpful! If you are a member of Starts With a Story, you have access to all of these book companion activities. Lastly, you may also be interested in these spring books for kids if you love read alouds like us!
