PPBF: What Does It Mean To Be Green

Today I'm happy, because we're celebrating my Dad's 79th birthday. 

On Earth Day. 

So fitting for a farmer, who made his living off the land, right?

Today's PPBF is the perfect fit for Earth Day, too.

Title: What Does It Mean To Be Green?

Author: Rana DiOrio

Illustrator: Chris Blair

Publisher: Little Pickle Press

Date: March 15,  2010

Suitable for ages: 4-8

Themes: recycling, conservation, citizenship

Brief synopsis: This treasure trove offers lots of ideas that we

 {young and old alike!} can all use to go green and save our planet.

Opening page: What does it mean to be green?

Resources:  Sign up to download lesson plans for the book {here}.

Share this beautiful tribute song to the earth. 

Encourage students to upcycle something, like this, brought to me by a fifth grader. It's an empty tissue box that he filled with handwritten, heartfelt cheer-up notes, perfect, he said, for a counselor like me. And he was spot on! 

Download an Earth Day freebie from Denise at Sunny Days {here}.

Watch the book trailer on You Tube:

Let your students host a recycling campaign.

Our Student Council is collecting clean grocery bags this week.

Don't you love their handiwork that's hanging all over our school?

Or make a Go Green wall of fame, like this one spotted by the character cam in the second-grade hallway at the school next door.

Why I like this book: Its silly start and simple conservation suggestions hooked us; its adorable illustrations reeled us in.

Looking for green things like the frogs subtly placed on the pages sealed the deal. Actually, it took an observant kindergartener to point that last part out ... 

and oh, what fun we had going back through the pages once we realized that there were little green frogs hidden on most every page!

We started the lesson with Boris the bear, who told our young sponges that he was "green with envy" that they get to go to school at Westwood, his former school. That engaged them and got them laughing and thinking and ready to read. 
But first, a song.

If You're Green And You Know It

by Barbara Gruener

Sing to the tune of If you're happy and you know it. 

If you're green and you know it, plant a tree. {clap clap}

If you're green and you know it, plant a tree. {clap clap}

If you're green and you know it,

then the world will surely show it; 

if you're green and you know it, plant a tree. {clap clap}

After singing the first verse, let the students write the next verses by suggesting phrases to replace the lyrics plant a tree. 

We sang about four verses, then we read the book aloud before singing a few more verses, all sparked by the new ideas we gleaned from the book. Check it out and enjoy going green!

For other PPBF picks today, hop to Susanna's blog next.
While you're there, wish HER a blessed day as well.
{A little birdie told me it's her dad's special day, too!}