Earth Day Writing Prompt & Lesson

Use Earth Day to focus on expository writing! An “I Can Help the Environment” writing prompt will encourage reflection and support writing skills. It’s fun and functional! Add the final drafts to student writing portfolios or your Earth Day bulletin board. I’ve listed each step of the writing process below. If you want to save some prep time, you can grab the printable and digital lesson here.

Brainstorm

Start the lesson by having students work together to fill in a bubble map with things they can do to help the environment. Encourage students to fill in as much of the bubble map as possible. Having a variety of options will be helpful during the next step of the writing process. Here are some ideas students can use if they get stuck:

donate clothes
use less water
plant trees
look for the recycle symbol
care for toys so they last longer
always throw away trash
buy items with less packaging materials
turn off lights when you leave a room

Pre-Writing

Use a pre-writing tree map to help students organize their thoughts before they begin writing their paragraphs. First, students select three ideas for helping the environment from their bubble map in the previous step. Next, students add a specific example for each idea listed on their tree map. Here’s what it might look like: Use less water > I will turn off the faucet when I brush my teeth.

Outline

Providing students with a sentence-by-sentence outline for writing their paragraphs will help them stay focused and organized. Students can use their tree map to complete the paragraph outline. You can differentiate or scaffold the lesson with sentence starters.

Rubric & Examples

If you’re using a paragraph grading rubric, now is good time to review the writing expectations. This would also be a beneficial time in the writing process to show students an example of a paragraph that meets each criteria of the rubric.

Final Draft

When the paragraph outline is completed, students will be ready to write their final drafts! Earth Day writing paper makes for a fun and polished-looking final draft that students can to add to their writing portfolios or share with parents.

Short on time? Get everything you need to complete this writing activity with your students! The step-by-step printable and digital lesson linked below includes two graphic organizers, paragraph outline, writing paper, grading rubric, and examples! Celebrate Earth Day and practice writing skills!