Free printable conservation and endangered species lesson plans for Earth Day

Hello my friends of the Omschool! Are you enjoying your Spring Break and Easter holidays? In this lovely month of April, we celebrate Earth Day, which replaces the original holiday Arbor Day (Tree Day). For the past years April has also come to be celebrated as Earth Month, culminating with official Earth Day, April 22 on the Spring Equinox. 

To explore this important holiday, here's a free printable environmental science and endangered species booklet Save our Species, with information, activities and coloring pages exploring endangered species in the US. The purpose of Earth Day is to celebrate our earth, educate people and explore ways to protect natural resources. Protecting our earth includes supporting our animals, plants, habitats and ecosystems. Earth Day reminds us that we rely on the earth for sustenance and the earth relies on us for care and safety. 

Understanding endangered and threatened species helps us to learn better ways to care for our environment as a whole. The EPA has developed a free printable 28 page environmental science activity and coloring booklet entitled Save Our Species. This free printable endangered species resource book is perfect for Earth Day. It has been developed for and provided to the public as an educational information guide. On Earth Day, and all Earth Month, students can explore endangered and threatened species in the United States, by coloring the animals, plants and habitats. 

This free printable environmental science activity book can be used as a field guide or zoo field trip planner. This booklet includes free printable coloring pages of endangered species and threatened species (species whose habitats are being encroached upon and destroyed). It explores 16 species of endangered animals in the United States and five threatened species.

Spotlight: The Black-Footed Ferret

One highlight of the Save Our Species booklet is the Black-footed Ferret. Once thought to be extinct, this resilient creature is making a comeback through careful conservation efforts. Sharing success stories like this in the classroom offers students a sense of hope and shows them that environmental protection really works!

Here's a unit on animal extinction lesson plans which explores the annihilation of the passenger pigeon population. This planned extinction is unique in endangered species in that it happened so quickly. An entire bird species was wiped out in a matter of years. Here is a website called Revive and Restore which endeavors to de-extinct lost species. So far, the gene editing process has not been successful which shows just how true is the maxim "extinct is forever." 

John Ball Zoo, in Grand Rapids, Michigan has extensive free printable Zoology lesson plans. There are science lesson plans on migrations, animal habitats, conservation and a host of other animal related activities. Featured animals are monarch butterflies, penguins, lions, chimpanzees, hummingbirds and more. 

Local Spotlight: The Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake

In our own backyard near Grand Rapids, the John Ball Zoo is doing vital work to protect Michigan’s only venomous snake. The Eastern Massasauga is a "threatened" species that relies on our local wetlands. Teaching students about these misunderstood neighbors is a great way to explore local biodiversity and the importance of habitat preservation!

Additionally, local initiatives in Native Planting to boost populations by planting Michigan-native species Eastern Hemlock or Spruce, in schoolyards or home gardens to support local wildlife. Michigan has struggled with invasive species, some of which, like purple loosestrife, were planted as ornamental flowers and ended up taking over wetlands and destroying the entire ecosystem. The golden loosestrife beetle was introduced to eradicate this rampant invasive species. Replanting original native species helps restore balance to Michigan's precious natural resources, including the precarious dune structure. 

These free printable environmental science resources make an excellent Earth Day tool for classroom, homeschool, scouting, 4H and any organizations dedicated to the preservation of natural resources. The website includes a free printable Save Our Species poster and lesson plans for teachers and homeschoolers. Decorate the school hallway for Earth Day by assigning each student to color a certain number of endangered species images. Place a large map on the wall and arrange endangered and threatened species pictures around the map with arrows pointing out areas to which the endangered species is native.

Use these endangered species lesson plans to raise awareness to our vital yet fragile ecosystems and to the importance of protecting them. Here is a final thought from teacher Omi who has loved the Lake Michigan dunes and beaches for decades. 

Dune Icon: The Great Lakes Piping Plover

If you’ve ever walked the beaches at Sleeping Bear Dunes or along the West Lake Michigan shore, you may have seen areas roped off with "psychological fencing." These protect the nests of the Piping Plover, a tiny shorebird that is a true conservation success story. Once down to just 17 pairs in the 1980s, the population hit a record 88 nesting pairs in 2025! These birds are so well-camouflaged that they look like "stones with legs." Protecting their nesting sites doesn't just save the birds; it preserves the wild, undeveloped beauty of our dunes for everyone to enjoy.

Free printable Easter Bunny activities and Peter Rabbit crafts

Hello my friends of the Omschool! Easter is probably the most quintessentially preschool-first grade holiday of all. And teacher Omi has 10 grandchildren in that age category. So I'm sharing free printable Easter bunny lesson plans and crafts galore. From Easter baskets, candy, egg decorating, bunnies, baby animals, spring--little children love this festive season. For the young and young at heart, here are free printable Easter bunny crafts. I've included printable activities based on my two favorite bunnies, Peter Rabbit and the Velveteen Rabbit, too. Parents and homeschoolers, use for preschool lessons; teachers, you'll want these for preschool classroom fun. 

Easter bunny masks and costumes

Preschoolers love to dress up (so do many parents and teachers). Everything is more fun when you're in costume. That first link takes you to a plethora of printable animal masks. Actually, Woo Jr. (see link above) has an array of printable masks for masquerade, Greek theater, tribal cultures, Halloween and more. For more free printable Easter bunny masks visit First Palette. Print on plain paper. Have kids color their masks then glue on recycled cereal box cardboard then cut it out. This makes masks more durable. You'll find all kinds of fun Easter crafts here too. 

Vintage Easter crafts 

Now that you are properly Easter Bunny attired, let's make some Easter baskets and greeting cards. The Toymaker has free printable egg baskets, bunny cards and an egg roll game (like they play at the White House). Make cards and baskets, then fill with Easter eggs or candy and deliver to a lonely senior neighbor (wearing your mask, of course). The Easter bunny loves to visit his older friends, too!

Printable 3D Paper Bunny Crafts

The calendar may say spring, but Easter is often cold and damp. Settle kids down to an afternoon of serious rainy day crafting with free printable 3D bunny-themed paper toys from First Palette and Woo Jr. I'm partial to the old-fashioned Easter Bunny diorama. Get baskets full of free printable Easter Bunny crafts here. DL-TK has a blowout of Easter bunny coloring pages, bunny masks, paper bunny ears, stand-up toys, pop up rabbit crafts and much more. I love how easy these are to make. Simple instructions, step-by-step how-to--perfect for preschool and special needs children who need no-fail activities. 

Free Peter Rabbit printables. 

Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter's rascally rabbit has his own page, along with other Beatrix Potter friends. There are printables based on the Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams, on Making Friends. It's part of a complete free printable unit on rabbits. Print Peter Rabbit coloring pages, lesson plans and activities the Peter Rabbit website. Look for more bunny coloring pages, games, puzzles, dot-to-dot and color by number, felt board games and felt board patterns. First School offers a free printable Peter Rabbit activities unit with learning games, literature activities, writing prompts and stories. Teach alphabet, simple math, counting and reading with these worksheets. 

Enjoy reading books on rabbits for Easter as well! 

The Velveteen Rabbit

Beatrix Potter Treasury on Peter Rabbit

Knuffle Bunny (Mo Willems)

Peter Cottontail (Thornton Burgess)

Bunnicula (for older kids) (James and Debra Howe)

Richard Scarry features rabbits in many of his books! Teacher Omi had and loved The Bunny Book (shaped like a rabbit) when she was young, a long time ago! I found copies of this beloved story book on Thriftbooks. 

Happity, Hippity, Hoppity Easter

Teach global awareness of poverty, war, pollution, sustainability for World Month

Hello my friends of the Omschool. April is Earth Month and this year I'm thinking of it as World Month too. With terrible wars in Ukraine, Palestine and now the US in Iran, our earth and the people who live on it, face devasting circumstances and consequences of the circumstances. Consequences that will not go away when the guns are silent. I just watched a documentary on Fleury-devant-Douaumont, one of many "ghost cities" obliterated in WW1 in battles such as the Somme, Ypres and Verdun. It is a cemetery and the ground is too toxic ever to rebuild anyway. These cities bear the distinction "mort pour Le France (died for France). There are countless others around the world, from countless wars, disasters, impoverishment, disease, all man-made, destroyed or with lasting, extensive damage. Pripyat, Biafra, Hiroshima, Chechnya, Warsaw, Carthage, Nagasaki, Aleppo, Gallipoli, Lebanon, Palestine the list goes on. 

And it's not just war that injures and kills. Exploitation of natural resources by consumer driven societies do just as much harm. In many industrialized 'first world' countries, we live in insular communities which have little or no contact with global issues. So we think it doesn't affect us. We think wrong. 

We consume grotesque quantities of natural resources. We use goods wantonly, we burn vast amounts of fossil fuels every second. We let good clean water run down the drain endlessly. We cram miles of good fertile land with plastic, paper, yard waste, glass, metal. We pay billions of dollars to watch idiots and buffoons entertain us. We are a glutted society, drowning in our own waste. There are beaches in China that appear sandy but are in fact composed entirely of microplastic from global waste. There's a trash island TWICE the size of Texas and growing, called GPGP (the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) floating in the Pacific ocean. 

So what's the point of this discouraging review? That all is not lost. We have a generation of citizens who are forced to sit in our schools every day listening to talk on all sorts of subjects. What if we were to bring this captive audience global awareness of the world around them?  Not just latitude and "name the capital of Tibet" and drawing maps. I'm talking real lessons about real people around the world, 3/4 of which live below the poverty level.

Obviously we can't end the suffering. But we can raise global awareness to the plight of poverty, illness, starvation, lack of literacy and dreadful environmental issues, much of the world lives with. I have interacted with hundreds of students of all ages and I have rarely found any so hard-hearted that they did not show concern when presented with the face of poverty, hunger, disease and want. Knowledge is power and we can empower this generation to go and make a difference in whatever way is right for them. Perhaps a student will join the Peace Corps, write a news expose that touches the public, find a cure for illness, sponsor a child, who knows?

So how do we raise awareness? Here are some websites with resources to educate and inspire students on the needs of the world.

Greater Good. You'll find all sorts of teaching resources for geography, science, demographics, culture and reading. There are map activities, lesson plans, literature links, and more. There are web pages on rain forests, global health care and literacy also. Each link has teacher resources and lesson plans to help students understand the factors contributing to poverty. There are lessons on climate, harvest, natural disasters, politics, disease prevention, vitamin and nutrition deficiencies, dehydration, land mines and disease in general. The rain forest page lists science lessons on water and water shortages, biome and habitat health, symbiosis, etc. The literacy link shows ways to improve literacy, communication and interaction.

World Health Organization Search this informative site for ways to improve and explore health. You'll find statistics, charts, graphs that can be useful in math and science also.

UNICEF The United Nations developed UNICEF (UN Children's Fund) to bring resources to nation's in need. It's primary focus is on children. Click this link to find out more about what educators and students and do to help or be informed.

Peace Corps This site is filled with lesson plans and teacher resources all about global issues. You'll find many lessons for grades 3-12. There are lessons in many different world regions. There are language, literature, environment, health, cross-culture, social studies, geography, service learning and more.

TheWorldWar has free printable World War One resources to teach students about the scope of this "war to end all wars." If only...

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial site, has a wealth of lesson plans to help students begin to conceptualize the horror of genocide. I find the Hall of Names and their personal stories on YouTube Yad Vashem the most profound. Especially the children. 

Let's bring about some real global awareness of issues that affect us, our world and our neighbors in it.

Free Printable Mo Willems Lesson Plans--Activities using Knuffle Bunny and Pigeon books

 Hello my friends of the Omschool! So I have 13--count them! grandchildren and one of the, a little lad named Emmett, loves any and all Mo Willems books, particularly the ones featuring that bombastic pigeon! Most famously of "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" I just read them all "Duckling Gets a Cookie?!" and it was loved as well. Here are some free printable Mo Willems lesson plans for you to use in preschool or early elementary. 

Read "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" with "wiginal voices." This was our youngest daughter's way of saying, give all the characters their own voices. This brings them to life. Next 

Read with audience participation. Emmett loves anticipating recognized phrases and joining in. So does his little sister Flora who has learned from listening to him. I love how children teach each other vital reading and listening skills by reading and listening. 

Color Mo Willems' character coloring pages. In the pigeon books there's only one to a few characters, such as Duckling and pigeon. Other books feature Elephant & Piggie (click  here for free printable Elephant & Piggie lesson plans). There's also the Caldecott winner, Knuffle Bunny (click for free printable Knuffle Bunny coloring pages) and Trixie. Use these coloring pages to keep students on track listening to the story. 

Create masks or puppets for characters. The good news is that Mo Willems' drawings are so easy to copy that kids can make reasonable facsimiles with just a little tracing. Use lightweight tracing paper to get the basic face or shape of the character then transfer the image to lightweight cardboard or tagboard. Blank insides of recycled cereal boxes are the perfect puppet-making and mask-making media. 

Go on a Pigeon Hunt (or Knuffle Bunny Hunt). I got this idea from the Muskegon Museum of Art's Mo Willems exhibit. They hid little cut and paste images of Pigeon around the museum and children received a clipboard with a map of locations in which Pigeon might be hiding. Emmett's and Flora's big brother Henry and cousin Milo had a fan-Pigeon-tastic time hunting up that rascally bird. To recreate, have students cut pictures of Pigeon or Knuffle Bunny and hide images in various locations. 

Play a Worst Case Scenario or What if? game. We got to discussing why Pigeon can't drive the bus and none of us could think why. Have children predict or imagine situations in which Pigeon driving would be a bad thing. 

Play CBT (cognitive behavior therapy) game. In Duckling Gets a Cookie?! evaluate choices both made, using CBT, to determine why Duckling did and Pigeon did not (get a cookie). Discuss what Pigeon could do differently. 

Make Pigeon cookies (with nuts and without) and have a Pigeon Party! Make small cookie-sized tracings of Pigeon. on parchment paper, using the method described above. Cut out images. Make blue sugar cookie dough (or white and frost with blue frosting). Roll out dough and "trace" pigeon images on cookie dough. Bake but watch for browning. You could make Knuffle Bunny and Elephant & Piggie cookies with gray and pink cookie dough. All Mo Willems images are very easy to recreate.