Earth Day Resources

The international celebration of Earth Day is coming up on Wednesday, April 22nd! This day helps us recognize the importance of environmental protection and appreciate all of the wonderful experiences and resources provided by nature.

Our LPS Earth Day bingo cards have activities and resources for any age group to celebrate at school. Activities are organized into sustainability-themed topics, so you can choose one activity (or more) from each topic. Earth Day categories include energy, consumption and waste, climate action, water, and the great outdoors.

And, of course, don’t forget to submit your Earth Day activities to the Green Schools Recognition Program.

We look forward to celebrating Earth Day with all of our students, staff, and families across the Lincoln community! Please share your photos and celebrations with us using #LPSEarthDay

Bingo Card Download Links

Cans4Books Drive

The Cans4Books drive is back for 2026! Proceeds from aluminum cans our school communities recycle through GreenQuest Recycling/Recycle Link will help provide Barnes and Noble gift cards for new library books.

Flyers with dropoff hours and more details are available to help your school make the most of this opportunity to support recycling efforts and our school libraries!

Green Schools Recognition Program Tips

Activities include:

Earth Day

10 points

Host an Earth Day Celebration at your school. The official date is April 22nd, but we hope schools will schedule their celebrations all month long! This celebration could be an assembly, a family night, a series of lesson/activities throughout the school, or whatever other creative way your school chooses to celebrate and educate.

Community Litter Clean Up

15 points

Partner: Keep Lincoln Lancaster County Beautiful

Clean up litter near your school, or anywhere in the community! Supplies for the clean up are available through the Keep Lincoln Lancaster County Beautiful Community Improvement Program. Please e-mail kllcb@lincoln.ne.gov to schedule a clean and receive your supplies.

Power Patrol

10 points

Establish a student power patrol to check on classrooms, offices, and other areas of your school to provide feedback on energy savings. “Oops” and “Energy Star” cards can be left to inform staff on how they are doing on conserving energy. Get more information and ideas from our Power Patrol Resource.

Power Patrol Resource

Recycled Art

5 points

Environmental Education isn’t just for science! Help your students understand the importance of the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, while creating some beautiful art pieces with recyclable materials. Displaying these pieces can also help students see the visual representation of what it would mean for all that material to go to the landfill instead. Here is a list of Classroom Activities Using Recycled Materials to get you started!

Classroom Activities Using Recycled Materials

From Paper to Paper

10 points

Explore the steps required to make recycled paper by doing them yourself! Follow these simple steps to make paper from recycled paper!

Steps to Make Paper From Recycled Paper

Poet-Tree Break.

5 points

Take a break from the classroom and find a tree by your school or in your neighborhood and spend some time observing it from various perspectives. After spending time with the tree, write words or a poem about it. Visit this website for more detailed directions about this activity.

Poet-Tree Directions

Film Fest

10 points per film (40 points max)

Have students create a short music video, play, commercial, movie, etc. that explains a topic dealing with sustainability. This could be a composting help video to show the school at the beginning of the school year, facts about saving energy, a description of different items that can be recycled, etc.. To receive points the videos must be sent to Brittney Wees and at least one of the videos must be shown at an assembly or during school announcements.

Save Energy, Lights Off Stickers

10 points

Help reduce energy waste in your building by placing stickers on each light switch panel! LPS Sustainability has rolls of stickers especially for this purpose, as well as instructions for how to make sure they stay in place for the long haul. This is a great activity to get your whole Green Team involved with a building-wide effort. To request the stickers or for help with planning, fill out an interest form!

Interest Form