PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide

Education Connections

The guide is designed to meet the common components of national education reform by using the constructivist approach to learning, whole language teaching, cooperative learning, problem solving, and authentic assessments.

In Florida, the PreK-8 guide has been correlated to the Sunshine State Standards. At the national level, the curriculum has been correlated to the National Science Standards, National Social Studies Standards, and Excellence in EE Guidelines.

What's Inside the Guide

The 96 hands-on interdisciplinary activities are organized into five main themes: diversity, interrelationships, systems, structure and scale, and patterns of change.

The guide is designed so you can use a single activity or many over the course of a quarter or school year. Each activity includes background content, a teachers' step-by-step guide, and gives need-to-know information on:

  • Grade level recommendations;
  • Concepts, skills, and curriculum objectives;
  • Reading connections;
  • Differentiated instruction enhancements;
  • Technology connections (for most activities);
  • Needed materials, many of which are easy to obtain, free or low-cost;
  • Timeline—how long it will take to prepare and conduct the activity;
  • Incorporating subjects within math, science, social studies, art, music, physical education and language arts.

Each activity also provides:

  • Resources and extensions for those who want to delve deeper;
  • Reproducible student pages (also available in Spanish);
  • Related activities;
  • Assessment opportunities for students.

Although the guide contains in-depth information on specific topics, it is not designed to be an all-inclusive or comprehensive curriculum. Instead, teachers are invited to fill in program gaps with content that relates to their community, expertise, or interests, or the needs of their students.

An updated version of this guide became available in 2006. National PLT spent five years improving the previous edition (blue cover) through a collaborative effort, involving PLT state programs, education experts, content specialists, and many others in focus groups. Please read the Correlation Between Old and New PreK-8 Activity Guide for more information.