Earth Day Activities & Free Worksheets

If you are looking for fun activities to include in your lesson plans before or on Earth Day (April 22nd) with your high school and transition age students, then keep reading!  

While so much of what's out there for Earth Day activities is geared toward young children and simple word search activities, this list is specifically for older students, specifically teens and young adults with disabilities (because they need and deserve age-appropriate resources too)!  

While Earth Day may not speak to your students as being important just yet, it is a perfect time to incorporate environmentally conscious activities into your Earth Day lessons (and who doesn't love a little variety as the end of the school year draws near)! 

April Earth Day & Spring Weather Functional Life Skills Activities

Functional math, reading, life skills, budgeting, and conversation starters- but make it Earth Day and weather-focused for April? You got it! 

Designed to be a supplemental resource to your Weather and Earth Day activities in April, your students will be learning holiday appropriate skills and information in an approachable way.

A Holiday Sample:

• Reading a flyer for an annual shore clean-up event
• Identifying what the different colors mean on a weather map
• Sharing how to handle junk mail
• Comparing the cost of a disposable rain poncho to a raincoat
• Identifying how and when to use appliances during a power outage

Created with teens and young adults in mind, students will see themselves in this lesson unit through the questions and examples. 

Resource Includes:

• Functional Math- 5 Google Sheet image reveals (10 correct questions reveal a seasonal image)
• Functional Reading- Common seasonal reading with 4 comprehension questions
• Budgeting & Shopping-  Monthly budgeting scenarios or 4 small-scale budgeting, paying, and shopping questions
• Life Skills- Life skills 5 question worksheet
• Communication- Question of the Day slips

12 Earth Day Specific Resources:

• 3 Question of the Day
• 2 Life Skills worksheets
• 2 Functional Math Google Image Reveal
• 3 Functional Reading passages
• 2 Budgeting and Shopping worksheets

Free Earth Day Printables

Two (yes, 2) free printable activities are included in this freebie PDF file download.  These are not your typical Earth Day activity pages; these free printable Earth Day worksheets are a free download sneak peek into the April Earth Day & Spring Weather Functional Life Skills Activities (linked above) and focus on functional math and functional reading skills.  

The Earth Day reading comprehension resource includes four follow-up reading comprehension skills questions, including asking students to identify the main idea, a detail, and two additional comprehension-based questions (and an answer key!). 

The Earth Day functional math skills resource is a Google Sheets resource that has students answer questions, with each correct response revealing part of an image (perfect for your students who receive special education services or who thrive when resources have immediate feedback or gamification!).  

Both can be completed as a class, in small groups, in partners, or in independent practice.  

While designed for use with high school and young adults, these free Earth Day worksheets could work for young learners in middle school/junior high school, too.  

Earth Day Printable Worksheets

Boom Cards: Earth Day Activity- Making Environmentally Friendly Choices

A  fun activity to do about taking care of our earth!  It's great to increase environmental awareness, but if you missed using this resource under the Earth Day Theme guise, you could still use it in late April or May!  The resource does NOT explicitly use 'Earth Day' language, so it can be used anytime during the school year.

I looove using Boom Cards because they are an excellent way to practice skills for low-level readers.  All questions are set to automatically read aloud, so be sure students turn their volume down or have headphones available.  

If you are looking for the perfect Earth Day Activity that includes both desk-based and life skills educational activities, pair the resources listed above ↑ with one of the FREE and fun ideas below ↓! 

10 Free Earth Day Activities for Teens and Young Adults with Disabilities

1.  Learn How to Remove Home Addresses from Junk Mail Lists

Not only is this an Independent Living lesson, but an Earth Day lesson!  There is so much waste from junk mail.  If you want visuals, save a few pieces of junk mail from the school mail room or your own house (be sure to black out your address) and have students identify junk mail and how to dispose of it properly.  Some junk mail has clear Recycle symbols, and others don't, unfortunately.  Then, use the Eco-Cycle website for more information about different types of junk mail and how to remove yourself from the lists.  

*Students don't need to actually remove themselves from these lists.  Making them aware of this option is a great way to show how Independent Living skills are a part of everyday life! 

2.  Check the Recycling Bin

If you are in a school building, then you likely have a blue recycling bin in your classroom.  Pull out what students drop in and analyze whether it is appropriate for the bin or not.  If your bin is rather empty, dump the contents from other classrooms or the main office into yours for the day.  A little variety is a good thing!  

3. Choose a Later Amazon Delivery Day

If you have students who love shopping online, they likely know their way around the Amazon Checkout page.  Help students recognize that sending an Amazon Associate out to deliver a single item the next day ISN'T what's best for the earth.  A single-item delivery leads to wasted packaging, a waste of natural resources (like the gas in that Amazon driver's van), and adds to the pollution.  Move that item to Save for Later list, choose a later delivery date,  or, if possible, choose to walk/stroll to a local store to get the necessary item.  

4. Reduce Pick-Order Waste

If your students order food for delivery or pick-up, they are probably familiar with all the napkins and plastic silverware in their bags.  Depending on the restaurant and online ordering platform, some have the option to check or uncheck a box for napkins and plasticware.  Other ordering platforms have a Notes section at the final checkout where someone could request that napkins or plasticware NOT be included in their order.  

Curious how to make this into a lesson?  Ask your students where they eat at or where they order from and start a pretend order.  Go through the ordering process with them and see if there is an option at the end to deny the need for napkins and plasticware.  

*I had my students practice placing delivery orders at the transition level, as most were not planning to obtain a driver's license, and public transportation was not easily accessible for most. So, learning how to order food for delivery AND either uncheck the box for napkins and plasticware or ask for those items not to be included are important skills! 

5. Check Stores for Refill-Style Supplies

One way to take care of the Earth is to look for more sustainable ways to meet everyday needs.  For example, if students are working on comparison shopping at their local household supply or grocery store, the cheapest multi-purpose cleaning spray option likely comes in a plastic bottle.  However, there are a variety of cleaning supplies that you can buy, where you just add water to a glass spray bottle.  This is an easy way to embed comparison shopping by looking at prices over the long term, either in-store or shopping online.  If a student buys a reusable glass or aluminum spray bottle and then buys refill mix, would it be cheaper and more sustainable than buying continuously buying that one-time use plastic cleaning spray?  For example, the Grove Multi-Purpose Cleaner Starter Kit.  #FunctionalMath

6.  Increase Litter Awareness

This tip is for the teacher who has a million other things to do on Earth Day than dedicate a whole class period to Earth Day celebrations or cleaning a local park!  If you are taking your students out into the community, direct them to look out the window and look for litter or trash on the sidewalks, streets, and roadside.  We all know that increasing awareness is the first step in tackling a task, so not only is this an Earth Day-friendly lesson, but a practice in the first step of many Independent Living Skills.  When students start to notice it, they may be less likely to contribute to it!

7.  Safely Dispose of Medication

If your class has students who have food allergies and carry Epi-Pens or are aware of their prescription medicine, this might be a helpful conversation to have on Earth Day.  If that does not fit your student population this year, consider covering how to safely dispose of over-the-counter medicine, as these also impact planet Earth.  The Food and Drug Administration website is a great resource for learning about safe and acceptable ways to dispose of different types of medicine.  

8.  Request Paperless Statements

If your students have access to online banking, either through a school account or personal account, helping them understand Paperless Statements is a meaningful functional life skill that also sends an environmentally conscious message.  Not only do paperless statements reduce paper waste, but they allow students to save money on banking fees AND allow them to learn how to access ALL their banking information that is available online, which is easier to filter than all that paper!  Need a visual for the conversation?  Just Google '(local bank) paperless statement how to' and check out the results.  Here is an example of a popular nationwide option: Chase Bank.  

*Tip: Understanding and requesting paperless statements can go beyond just banking.  Many subscription-based services, like cell phones bills and different utility companies, will offer savings for people who choose paperless statements, especially with automatic bill pay. 

9.  Bring a Bag

If you go grocery shopping with your students, consider investing in reusable bags.  Not only are plastic single-use grocery bags NOT the best way to take care of our planet, but there is likely a small discount (sometimes $0.05 or $0.10 per bag) that students can take advantage of during check-out.  If you want to spend your class time looking at reusable shopping bag options (a.k.a. a free and fun way to celebrate Earth Day), I recommend these bags as they lay down flat (ideal for small classroom closets) and are perfect for popping open to use in place of a shopping cart or basket when grabbing just a few small or light items from the store.  

*Tip: If your students grocery shop weekly and you want to purchase reusable bags through the school, help students calculate savings per week and per year to show the Administrators who hold the purse strings how this investment could SAVE them money over time!  This is a great time to weave functional math into a holiday and life skills lesson! 

10.  DON'T Do the Earth Day Crafts

Perhaps a little controversial, but...ditch the craft.  It's a waste of supplies, a waste of your money/school budget, and adds to the landfill (which is the opposite of what Earth Day is all about, right?!?).  

Happy Earth Day!