Must Watch Earth Day Videos to Use in Upper Elementary Classrooms

If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, then you know that I just LOVE to engage and motivate students by tying the seasons and holidays into my everyday lesson plans.

And when the calendar is turned to April, Earth Day is front and center in my upper elementary classroom. You can find my students knee-deep in Earth Day reading, science, and research writing activities.  I love to watch them learn so much about our planet and vow to help protect it!

No matter how you involve your students in learning about how to take care of our planet, these FREE Earth Day videos will inspire, educate, and motivate your students to learn more ways to help take care of our planet this Earth Day. And bonus...you can grab a set of note-taking graphic organizers for free at the bottom of this post, perfect to help your students take notes as they watch these educational videos. (see more hands-on Earth Day activities HERE.)

Note: As with any video, website, or resource that you bring into your classroom, be sure to preview each video before sharing with your class to make sure that they are appropriate for your cohort of students.

Read Aloud: Here Comes the Garbage Barge (11 minutes)

This picture book is a true story about a town that had so much garbage and they did not have any place to put it. The Garbage Barge tells the story about how important it is to take care of garbage correctly and teaches environmental awareness.

Happy Earth Day (17 mins long)

This video talks about Earth Day, endangered animals, how to make less garbage, what it means to reduce, reuse, and recycle and how to compost.

What Happens When You Throw Out Plastic Bottles? by TED-Ed (4 mins)

This video goes on a journey as plastic bottles are discarded in different ways and illustrates the importance of recycling plastic bottles.

National Geographic Kids: Save the Polar Bears (3 mins)

This video is one in a series that includes an overview of the species, why they are at risk of becoming extinct, and how kids can help to save animals around the world.

Other videos in the same National Geographic Series:

• Save the Elephants
• Save the Wolves

While Brainpop and Brainpop Jr are {amazing}subscription websites, they do offer free videoes of the week. 

When April begins, they usually have free videoes of the week related to Earth Day. Be sure to check their sites weekly to see what free videos they are offering that week. If you are unfamiliar with these sites, Brainpopjr is geared towards grades 1-3 and Brainpop is geared towards 4th grade and older.

Want to get your kids up, singing, dancing, and moving around? Try these super catchy music videos that will have them singing all month long!

Recycling Song

Jack Johnson Recycling Song 

No matter how you decide to bring Earth Day into your classroom, include these videoes. These websites will help engage students, too.  Have students take notes, summarize, discuss, or just enjoy the information they are learning on different ways to save our planet, help endangered species, and reduce, reuse, and recycle.

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Resources You Will LOVE: