Great K-5 Environmental Lessons from Green Guardians
The mission of Green Guardians is to advance environmental literacy. The website integrates environmental topics into core subjects by offering interactive lessons and resources that go beyond Earth Day. The lessons are grab-and-go—taking very little preparation.
The Story of the Nimbus Fish Hatchery
The Story of the Nimbus Fish Hatchery is a series of lessons for Grades 3-5 about how the combination of human activity and climate change have affected the life cycle of salmon and what Nimbus Fish Hatchery is doing to mitigate these problems.
No sign up or login is needed to access the fish hatchery series of lessons. Each of the four lessons include plans, slides, and handouts. I love that the slide decks include stories and interactive elements.
Download the Teacher Guide for The Story of the Nimbus Fish Hatchery.
More Free Lessons
While the entire Nimbus Fish Hatchery lesson series is free, the other 13 series have one free lesson followed by premium lessons. Notable free lessons include:
After the Party (K, 1, 2)
Whale Watching (3, 4, 5)
Asthma Attack (3, 4, 5)
Blackout! (3, 4, 5)
What is a Joshua Tree? (3, 4, 5)
A Shopping Trip (3, 4, 5)
All About Chocolate (3, 4, 5)
Disaster Strikes (K, 1, 2)
All Dried Up (K, 1, 2)
Time for a Walk (K, 1, 2)
Timor and the Caterpillar (K, 1, 2)
The Banana's Journey (K, 1, 2)
Each lesson lists relevant Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards, and History-Social Science Content Standards.
Free Activities, Games, and Resources
Green Guardians' teaching materials include interactive quizzes, matching games, crossword puzzles, and word searches. These could be played as a class while projected to a screen, or the teacher can send the links to students.
Green Guardians' curated environmental resources include tools & simulations, videos, databases, and articles.
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Premium Content
You can subscribe to full access to the entire K-5 curriculum. This includes 48 lesson plans, 48 slide decks, 50 videos, 150 activities & games, and new content monthly. For one teacher it's $2.99 a month or $29.88 a year.
Shapegrams Partnership
Green Guardians is priced very similarly to Shapegrams. Both curriculums are plug and play, making it super easy for teachers to get the lessons ready for students. In fact, watch for ways Green Guardians and Shapegrams collaborate on future projects.
