Earth Day is Coming! Interactive Notebook Activity

 

PLANET EARTH: FUN FACTS

 

1. Scientists say that it takes about 500 years for plastic to decompose.

2. The Ring of Fire located in the Pacific Ocean is the largest zone of active volcanoes. 75% of the world’s volcanoes are here!

 

3. There is enough salt in the oceans that if you could collect all of it and spread it, it would cover all the continents in 5 ft. (1.5m) of salt.

 

4. Scientists say the earth travels at 66,700 mph through space or 18.5 miles per second!

 

5. The name "Earth" is the only planet named for an Angle Saxon word ("erda") and not from Greek or Roman mythology.

 

6. In 1961, the first man in space, Russian Yuri Gagarin, was the first to call Earth, “the Blue Planet”.
 

7. Scientists say that the average person makes about four pounds (1.8kg) of garbage every day!

 

8. Did you know you are heavier in certain places on Earth? There is less gravity near the coast of India and more gravity in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean.

 

9. The earth isn’t round. It is an oblate spheroid, or “pear shaped”.

 

10. It is estimated that the earth weighs about 6, 588,000,000,000 million tons.

 

11. 25,000,000 plastic bottles are thrown away every hour in the United States. You read correctly!

 

12. Don’t throw away the tinfoil of a Hershey’s Kiss. About 133 sq. miles of tinfoil are used to wrap 20,000,000 of the sweet treats every day!

 

13. Yellowstone National Park, was the world’s first national park. It was established in 1872.

 

14. The Peace Bell, rung at the United Nations every Earth Day, was made from coins collected by kids in Japan to promote peace on Earth.

 

15. Scientists say that the jellyfish is older than the dinosaur and dates back at least 650 million years.

 

16. One recycled aluminum can saves enough energy for a television to run for three hours.

 

17. Scientists say there are more living organisms in just ONE tablespoon of soil than all the people living on the earth (and that’s over 7.4 billion people)

 

18. One inch of topsoil, the very most fertile layer of soil, takes over 500 years to create.

 

19. Seen from outer space, the Great Barrier Reef (off the coast of Queensland, Australia), is called the “single largest animal being of the world”.

 

10. Mt. Trashmore, in Virginia Beach,VA, is a hill 60 ft (18 m high) 800 ft, long ( 240m) made from trash.(That’s why it’s called Mt. Trashmore!)

 

TEACHER PAGE: Extension Activities

1. Illustrate one of the Did You Know? facts.

2. Have kids select a photograph of the earth from space and write a paragraph as to what they see.
 

3. Discuss Haiku (3 line poem with 5-7-5 syllable pattern). Write a Haiku about Earth day or something about the earth (trees, ocean, river, trash, etc.)
 

Links for teachers: 

 

 

More Earth Day resources:

1. Earth Day:Webquest on the Blue Planet! Learn about the history of Earth Day and, our planet, EARTH, with this informative web quest. There are 15 web questions as well as comprehension questions and a Did You Know? fun fact section. The teacher page includes extension activities, the key, and additional links. Great for a Friday activity!