Earth Day

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box crackles and clatters when it moves. Hold it up. Whole class chants:

Shake it hard — a horrible rattle. Lift the lid a crack, sniff, and pull your face away.

Three things on the floor in the middle of the circle. Everybody holds their nose: “Trash!”

4 min Teach · Trash

Everybody stands up. We say it twice — the first time sad and slow, the second time with the whole class doing it:

Now the bin comes into the middle. Hold one piece of trash up high, drop it in, and everybody listens for the sound it makes. Do it again with the can — a different sound.

Say the plain true thing, slowly: trash is not a bad thing. Trash is a thing in the wrong place. It has one place it belongs, and that place is the bin.

Littles hold their nose and say “Trash!” Bigs owe you the frame: “Put the trash in the bin.” “This is trash.”

Teacher fails: take the last piece, put it carefully on the floor beside the bin, dust off your hands and walk away looking extremely pleased with yourself. Hold it. Wait.

Chinese moment: lay the 垃圾 card beside the bin and say 垃圾桶 once, pointing at it. Leave the card there all week; the row grows by one card a day.

3 min Song · Love the Earth — chorus + Monday verse

The one song of the week — same chorus at every circle, one new verse each morning, the whole thing on Friday. Chords and the full sheet are on the Song tab. Sing it standing round the bin, always.

3 min Game · Litter relay

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Everybody shuts their eyes. You walk round the circle scattering the clean litter — loudly, so they can hear it landing.

Nobody races anybody. When the floor is clear, tip the bin out onto a tray and count every piece together, out loud, pointing. Littles carry one piece and say “Trash!” Bigs tell you what they did: “I put the trash in the bin.”

Scatter exactly as many pieces as there are children, and count them into the bag before circle. The counting at the end is the real work, and it only works if the number comes out right.

1 min Close

Standing round the bin, big wiping arms ready. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? Michael Recycle (Ellie Bethel) — a green-caped hero cleans up a filthy town. Let them shout the rhymes at you.

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box is heavier than usual and it does not rattle at all. Chant, then hold it flat and carry it round the circle without tipping it.

Lift the lid a crack and sniff, with your eyes shut. Sniff again. It smells of wet earth — let your face say so.

It goes right round the circle and every child touches one leaf with one finger. Arms up as branches: “Tree!”

4 min Teach · Tree

Everybody crouches down as small as a seed. We grow twice — slowly, then all together:

Then the real seedling, held in your two hands. Say the plain true thing, slowly: a tree drinks the rain and makes the air we breathe. Everybody takes one enormous breath in and lets it out at the little tree.

Littles do the branch arms and say “Tree!” Bigs take the frame: “Let's plant a tree.” “The tree needs water.”

Teacher fails: start planting the seedling upside down — leaves buried in the soil, roots waving in the air. Pat it down firmly. Stand back and admire it. Wait.

Chinese moment: the 树 card joins 垃圾 on the mat — 种树, to plant a tree. And 谷雨, Grain Rain, fell only last Tuesday: 谷雨种大田 — the rain that came last week is the reason anything we plant today will grow.

3 min Song · Love the Earth — chorus + Tuesday verse

Sing this verse starting right down on the floor and stand up through it, so the class is fully stretched by the last word. Then straight back into the chorus. They will do the growing without being asked by Wednesday.

3 min Game · Plant a seed

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” One cup each, name already on it. The order is the lesson, so say it once and then let them do it:

Two spoons of soil, one seed, a pinch of soil over it, two squirts. Littles do the spooning with a hand over theirs; Bigs do the whole sequence alone and tell you the steps back: “Soil, seed, water!”

Every cup goes on the tray on the window sill in a straight line. They go home on Friday — tell them that now, and tell them again on Friday.

One seed each, not a handful. A cup with a fistful of seeds in it grows a green mat and then dies, and the child learns the wrong ending to the story.

1 min Close

Standing by the window sill with the cups behind you, branch arms out. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? The Tiny Seed (Eric Carle) — one seed out of many makes it all the way to a flower. Stop on every page and ask what the seed needs next.

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box will not shut — the lid is sitting up on top of something. Chant, then let the lid slide off on its own.

Lift out one bin at a time, very slowly, and stand the three of them in a row where everyone can see the photograph on the front of each.

Everybody makes a posting hand and drops it: “Recycle!”

4 min Teach · Recycle

The three bins stay in the row. Say it twice; the second time everybody posts with you:

Now the word itself, held up with the bottle in your hand and said slowly: recycle means this bottle gets made into a new thing. Not thrown away — made again. Squash it, post it into the plastic bin, and tell them it comes back as another bottle.

Littles do the posting hand and say “Recycle!” Bigs owe you the frame: “We can recycle it.” “The paper goes in the paper bin.”

Teacher fails: take the banana skin and post it into the paper bin with enormous confidence. Nod at it. Wait for the roar.

Chinese moment: the 回收 card joins 垃圾 · 树 — 垃圾分类, sorting the rubbish, which is exactly what every building in Beijing now does. Read the three real bin words off the real bins outside if you have them: 可回收物 · 厨余垃圾 · 其他垃圾.

3 min Song · Love the Earth — chorus + Wednesday verse

Say the four things in the first line as a rhythm before you sing it — pa-per, plas-tic, glass and can — clapping each one. That list is the whole tray on the shelf, learned as a chant.

3 min Game · Sorting race

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” The 12 sorting cards are face down in a basket. The three bins are in a row on the far side of the carpet.

One child at a time, all the way round. Littles name the thing with one word; Bigs say the sentence as they post it: “The newspaper goes in the paper bin.”

When every card is in, tip each bin out and check it together, one bin at a time. Getting one wrong is completely fine — that is what the checking is for.

Play it once more with the two big signs from pages 12–13 instead of the bins — 回收 or 垃圾, recycle it or bin it. That two-way version is the one that goes on the shelf tomorrow.

1 min Close

Standing behind the three bins, posting hands ready. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? What a Waste (Jess French) — big photographs, one idea a page. Read two pages only, and let them find our three bins in the pictures.

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box is light and soft, and something inside it slooshes. Chant, then tip it gently from side to side so they can hear the water.

Out comes the cloth bag, shaken open with a snap, and then the bottle, held up so the water moves. Lay them both down. Then pick up the thin plastic bag from the floor with two fingers, as if it were something the dog left.

Everybody cups both hands as if holding water: “Save!”

4 min Teach · Save

Everybody stands. Two switches and two taps, twice through — the second time with the class:

Now the real tap. Turn it on hard and just let it run, saying nothing at all, for five long seconds while everybody watches the water go down the drain. Then turn it off. Ask them what we just lost.

Then the lights: switch them off, stand in the half-dark for a beat, switch them on. That is the whole lesson and it costs ten seconds.

Littles cup their hands and say “Save!” Bigs owe you the frame: “I can save water.” “Turn off the tap.”

Teacher fails: turn the tap on full, start telling a long story about your weekend, and wander away from the sink. Keep talking. Let them stop you.

Chinese moment: the 节约 card joins the row — 节约用水, save water, which is written on half the taps in Beijing. Say it once, all together, with the tap shut and everybody's hands cupped.

3 min Song · Love the Earth — chorus + Thursday verse

End this verse on a whisper with everybody's hands cupped and nobody moving. A room of twenty children holding one imaginary drop of water in total silence is the best three seconds of the week.

3 min Game · Turn It Off!

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” First on the carpet: you call it, they mime it, faster and faster — light! tap! light! tap! — and on “Turn it off!” everybody freezes.

Walk the corridor and the empty rooms. Every light left on, every tap left dripping: one child turns it off and the whole line whispers “Turn it off!” Count them on your fingers as you go and announce the total when you get back.

Tell the office you are coming. A class of three-year-olds switching off the staff-room lights is a great deal funnier when somebody knew about it first.

1 min Close

Back on the carpet, hands cupped round one drop of water. Whisper → normal → shout:

Before home time: make the class handprint “Earth tree” poster for tomorrow — a brown trunk on a big sheet, and every child's green handprint pressed on as a leaf. It is the thing they carry round the school in the parade.

2 min Magic Box hook

The box comes out bulging and will not quite shut.

Pull each thing out and hold it up in complete silence. They will supply the word before you can.

The bottle → “Recycle!”  The seedling → “Tree!”  The bin → “Trash!”  The cloth bag → “Save!”

Last of all, one small thing left in the bottom: a folded cloth. Shake it out and wipe the lid of the box with it. “CLEAN!”

4 min Teach · Clean, then the whole week

Everybody stands. We tell the whole week with our bodies, twice — slow, then fast:

Then the real thing: the wet cloth and the dry cloth come out and two children actually wash a table while the rest of the class watches. Wet, then dry. When it is done, everybody looks at it. It is cleaner than it was, and they did it.

Littles do the five gestures and shout the five words. Bigs owe you a whole sentence each: “I can clean up.” “We can recycle it.” “I love the Earth.”

Teacher fails: wipe the table with the dry cloth first, then stand back and admire the streaks and the crumbs. “Beautiful.” Hold it. Wait.

Chinese moment: the 地球 card joins the row — 垃圾 · 树 · 回收 · 节约 · 地球, the whole week on the mat. Then tell them: 世界地球日 was last Thursday, the 22nd of April — the day the whole world looks after the Earth — and this week was ours. All together, hands on hearts: 我爱地球！

3 min Song · Love the Earth — Friday verse, then the WHOLE song

The finale: chorus → Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday → chorus, standing round the handprint tree with the seed cups at its feet. They learned it one verse a morning without ever noticing, and this run-through is the review of the whole week.

3 min Game · Earth Day parade

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Two children carry the handprint poster at the front. Everybody else carries one thing from the week — a bin, a bottle, a cloth, their own seed cup, held in two hands.

Stop at every classroom door, hold the poster up, and let the class shout the line together: “Clean it up — love the Earth!” Then walk on. Finish back on your own carpet.

Tell the other classes it is coming. Three doors that open and cheer turn a walk down a corridor into the thing they remember about this term.

1 min Close + awards

Every child gets an “EARTH HELPER” award and their seed cup to take home with the holiday news. Then, standing round the handprint tree, all five gestures:

Got 3 spare minutes? Sing the whole song one more time sitting round the seed cups. Then wish them a happy holiday, in both languages, and tell them the date they come back: Thursday 6 May — and that it is only two days long, and that it starts with the whole universe.

The four chords

Tempo: brisk and busy, like somebody actually tidying up, and a big lift on “Love the Earth” at the end of the chorus. Am is the only shape that might be new and it is the easiest of the four — one finger, second fret of the G string — and it appears exactly twice in the chorus. C is one finger, F is two, G7 is three, Am is one; learn them in that order. Chant it without the uke first; add the chords once they know the actions.

Chorus — sing it every single day

Sing the chorus twice each time. The actions are the whole point — a two-year-old who sweeps, stoops, picks up and puts a hand on their heart has understood the week, whether or not a single word comes out.

One verse a day — every verse is just C and G7

The build: each day sing chorus → today's verse → chorus. By Friday they know five verses without ever “learning” the song — and Friday's finale, sung round the handprint tree with the seed cups at its feet and again all the way round the school in the parade, doubles as the review of the whole week.

If you're brand new to ukulele

Practice this loop for five minutes tonight: C (4 strums) → F (4 strums) → Am → G7 → C. That is the entire chorus, and every verse is only C and G7. Am is one finger on the second fret of the G string — the same finger F uses, so if you can play F you can already play Am. C is one finger, F is two, G7 is three; learn them in that order. If your fingers get stuck, put the uke down, give one child the bin to hold and do the finger-play instead: the class will not notice, and the actions carry the meaning either way.