Great Reading: Bookmark It!

Volume 31, Number 5, June 2004

Kate Houston Mitchoff

The Environment

Environmental kids club
This EPA site for kids helps youth explore our environment, from water and air to garbage and recycling, and learn how to protect it. It includes middle school and high school level sections as well as a teacher page with curriculum ideas.

Briefing papers for students: Biodiversity
This United Nations resource explains the world’s biodiversity through vital statistics and actions taken by youth to protect the environment. Students learn what steps need to be taken to improve our care for the world and explore activities illustrating how small actions can make a difference.

Global warming: Kids site
The EPA created this attractive and interactive site to introduce the global warming concept to children. The site explains global warming, the greenhouse effect and climate change, using straightforward text. It then discusses why students should care and how they can make a difference in the environment every day. Games and computer animations help students retain what they have learned while visiting the site.

The Lorax’s save the trees game
This site is an online extension to the lessons younger children learn from reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. They can catch and save seeds and plant new truffula trees. Once completed, students may add their names to the site’s Friends of the Earth Honor Roll. This site requires the latest Shockwave plugin, and a link to download it is provided.

Kate Houston Mitchoff: School Corps Librarian, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR.
E-mail Kate.