Environmental progress comes from everyday actions—people protecting nature and creating solutions. Clean air, safe water, and a stable climate aren’t optional; they’re essential. This Earth Day 2026, every action and every voice matters. While "Our planet, Our power" will continue to guide celebrations globally in 2026, Earth Day Canada's media theme is "conscious consumption", chosen to encourage us to consume less, but better, in order to reduce our impact on the planet while improving our quality of life. To learn more about why we celebrate Earth Day, check out this month's Hot Topic page!

The suggested resources and activites share some ideas on how we can get creative when celebrating Earth Day this year!

Grades K-3

Our Environmental Footprint

The Earth is out home. It gives us everything we need to live. Everyday our actions and choices add up and have an effect on the Earth. We call this effect an environmental footprint. In this lesson, students will consider their own behaviours and habits and how they impact the environment around them. This unit fosters a closer connection to nature while fostering student reflection about everyday choices that can harm or help the environment.

Activities

• Complete the Nature is Neat activity and have students become aware of how nature makes them feel, and all the services nature provides
• Get outside and play Earth Day Scavenger Bingo or Try one of these Earth Day Outdoor activities with your students
• Get outside and play Maple Trees and Marmots; this activity explores the effects of climate change on animals and plants through role-playing games

Grades 4-8

Waste Not, Want Not

Students explore how much waste Canadians produce and consider its impact. They brainstorm ways to raise awareness within their school and community, then design and conduct a survey to better understand local waste habits.Using their findings, they identify actions they can take to promote positive change. 

Activities

• Create a class survey to learn more about waste trends in your school or community
• Mission Zero is a digital climate impact game that aims to help students understand the impact of their daily actions on the environment and climate
• The Earth Day Bingo invites students to adopt five climate-friendly habits. These climate actions are a great way to help reduce their climate impact
• Host or organize a school/community clean up in your area or use this Earth Day toolkit to organize a Swap For The Earth and keep clothing out of landfills

Grades 6-9

Commit2Act

Commit2Act is an app that enables students to make climate-friendly decisions in everyday life. It guides students towards climate-friendly lifestyle choices, measures the impact of these choices, and connects users to a community of like-minded students.

Activities

• Complete one of the lesson plans that accompany the Commit2Act app
• The Eco 360 Rethink Your Plastic Waste resource challenges students to actively engage in creating a circular economy by exploring innovative solutions for reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic waste.
• Can you get bingo by adopting five climate-friendly habits? Check out this Earth Day Bingo for climate actions to help reduce your climate impact
• Here’s a list of indoor and outdoor Earth Day activities for middle school and high school students



Grades 7-12

Clothing for Climate

Students gain insights into the ecological footprint of clothing across its entire lifecycle - from production and consumption to waste management. They analze how these processes contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and water consumption. Students barinstorm sustainable solutions to mitigate these issues and foster a more environmentally friendly clothing system.



Activities

• Explore the environmental impacts of our clothing system with Clothing 4 Climate
• Take your class outside on a neighbourhood walk to identify natural, human, and built systems that impact climate change. Have students document their observations through photos, sketches and notes
• Participate in the Earth Day Plastic Detox Challenge and reduce your plastic use
• Learn about your Fashion Footprint and the harmful environmental effects of fast fashion and discover ways to increase personal responsibility and fashion sustainability
• Here’s a list of indoor and outdoor Earth Day activities for middle school and high school students

About Learning Inside Out

Above you will find a selection of activities, broken down by various grade levels. These guides will be released biweekly and archived on our Learning Inside Out page, so you can always access the full catalogue.

Some of the activities have been modified from resources on our R4R database, simplified and adapted for both outdoor learning in the school yard or at-home as needed. The activity descriptions above should contain all the information and links that you need!

We want this guide to work for you, so your feedback is invaluable to us.

Use the feedback form below, or email us at info@LSF-LST.ca.

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Please share widely with any parents and teachers in your life!

Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) is a Canadian charity with over 25 years of experience working within the education system. Our Resources for Rethinking (R4R) database is an award-winning collection of resources that are peer-reviewed by certified teachers and connected to curriculum in all provinces and territories. R4R is recommended on many Ministry of Education websites.