Green School Badge

I can conserve electricity

Objectives: Based on Maryland Environmental Literacy
Standards and differentiated for our Pre-Kindergarten to 2nd
grade learners
Standard 8- Sustainability
Topic A- Intergenerational responsibility
The student will understand and apply the basic concepts of sustainability
to natural and human communities.
Topic B- Interconnectedness of systems
The student will recognize the concept of sustainability as a dynamic
condition characterized by the interdependency among
ecological, economic and social systems and how these
interconnected systems effect individual and socially wellbeing.
http://marylandpublicschools.org/programs/Documents/Environmental/MDEnvironmentalLitStandards.pdf

1. Choose a book or video based on Green School Badge objective.

• Adapt the activity to meet the needs of your students.

2. Choose an activity.
• Adapt the activity as needed to follow your students’ interests.
• Activity can be completed as a whole group, small group or
individually.

3. Provide evidence of activity completion to Green Committee

member
• Collect your students’ work and turn it in
• Email pictures of students participating in activity or their work
• Click here for link to Reflection Form options

4. Earn your Green School Badge!

Why Should I Switch off the Light?
By MJ Knight
Follow the “Notes for Parents and Teachers suggestions at the back
of the book

Choose one of the “suggestions for follow up activities in the back of

the book

Go Easy on Energy (Cloverleaf Books ™ — Planet

Protectors) Kindle Edition
(Amazon summery)
We use electricity and other types of energy every day. But did
you know that some kinds of energy can make Earth dirty? Join
Tyler to learn how we can use energy wisely. Do your part to be a
planet protector! Discover how to reduce, reuse, recycle, and
more with Tyler and Trina in the Planet Protectors series, part of the
Cloverleaf Books™ collection. These nonfiction picture books
feature kid-friendly text and illustrations to make learning fun!

Conserving Energy Foldable

Link to download free resource from Teachers Pay Teachers
https://livecarrollk12-
my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/aesealf_carrollk12_org/EQVaccJND3dLiHDjdQB2jA8BZcg
bH2qZXixipoCGTSkqrw?e=ESC4P2
What is Energy? Lesson for Kids
Great Youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyVF6R9e6xE

How To Save Energy for School Teaching

GREAT!! Youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycdke8MTSCI
Teaching Kids to Save Electricity: Five Fun Ways to Make It Fun
Source: https://www.tomsofmaine.com/good-matters/thinking-
sustainably/teaching-kids-to-save-electricity

If you think your home consumes more electricity than it needs to, you’re
probably right. Most families know they can afford to cut back, but few
know what household changes actually have an impact. Teaching your
kids about energy consumption can help them create sustainable habits
in the future. The good news is it doesn’t take much time or effort to
teach them, and it can even be fun!

Here are five interesting ways to teach kids exactly why—and how—to
save electricity.

Do you ever feel like your house has enough lights on to light up your whole neighborhood?
These creative activities will teach both adults and kids how to save electricity.

Do Watt It Takes

Engage your kids’ creative sides by having them brainstorm household appliances and
gadgets they can turn off or unplug to save power each day. Once they’ve compiled lists
separately, bring everyone together and, based on this chart from the US Department of
Energy, calculate the number of kilowatts saved if you were to turn them off. Did one family
member “score” higher?

Decide which actions on each list are realistic and use those items to set a goal for saving a
certain number of kilowatts together in the next month. The following month, try to beat your
goal by an even greater margin.

Conduct an Experiment

Describing energy will only get you so far with kids. It’s hard for them to imagine what’s inside
a wire, but if they can feel or see the energy themselves, they can perceive its value.

My favorite two-minute science experiment is something everyone

has done as a child, and uses a physics concept called
“conservation of charge,” which is a fancy way of saying static
electricity. All you need is a balloon and long(ish) hair. Simply blow
up the balloon and rub it on your child’s head until his or her hair
stands on end. The balloon and your child’s hair are sharing
electrons, which is the same effect present in a typical battery.
While wearing some funny hairstyles, find opportunities to suggest
why energy conservation is important: “It’s nice to protect the
environment so it has enough energy left over to ‘share’ with your
puppy when he wants to enjoy the outdoors.”
No-Electricity Night

This activity can save electricity and relay the lesson of how much power
your family consumes without realizing it. To make the evening fun, plan to
play charades by the fireplace or candlelight, or sit outside and tell stories
using the natural sounds of the neighborhood. Deliberately unplugging with
your family allows your kids to discover their dependence on power in its
absence, and appreciating electricity will be one of their most lasting
takeaways.

Smarten the Games

If your busy schedule can’t add another commitment, combine education with the little
ones’ downtime. I’ve been able to teach power conservation this way by steering my kids
toward games and apps that show other kids saving energy, and the result is always positive.

At Kids Energy Zone, you’ll find activities specifically for kids to learn about energy
conservation. So when they’ve earned a few minutes of screen time, offer them
these educational online gamesinstead of the same video games they always turn to. Our
favorite game is called “Lights Out!” and features a character named CFL Charlie. Using only
the keyboard’s arrows and space bar, kids maneuver Charlie around an on-screen house,
replacing traditional light bulbs with high-efficiency CFL (“compact fluores cent lamp“) lights,
then turning off each appliance. Meanwhile the wattage clock is ticking, so the goal is to
hustle, minimizing your consumption. Challenge your kids by competing for the best score!

Get Real

The “aha” factor of the above activities gives children an awareness of electricity, but only
when they see the environmental effects of excess consumption will they consider changing
their daily behavior. Burning fossil fuels to create electricity is the biggest source of carbon
dioxide emissions in America, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). So
while it doesn’t seem immediately harmful to leave lights on, it really is. Help your child
understand their consumption by putting him or her in “charge” of saving electricity with
some simple daily responsibilities. Examples may include:

• Unplugging appliances and phone chargers when not in use.

• Taking quicker showers to minimize the water heater’s workload.
• Line-drying clothes instead of running the dryer.

The goal here isn’t a number of watts saved, but rather the number of consecutive days your
family members make an effort to carry out some easy, energy-saving tasks. Brainstorm a
collective (unplugged) treat everyone can enjoy if the goal is met.
NASA Climate Kids
Recourses Specific to Energy Conservation
https://climatekids.nasa.gov/menu/energy/

Be a Power Saver
https://climatekids.nasa.gov/power-savers/

Turning on lights in our homes is as easy as flipping a

switch. We do it all the time. But do you ever wonder
where the electricity comes from?

It all starts at a power plant. It might be hundreds of miles

away from your light switch. A power plant makes
electricity. There are different kinds of power plants, and they make electricity in different
ways. Many of them are coal power plants and natural gas power plants. They burn fuel and
use the heat to run a machine that makes electricity for us to use.

The electricity travels in power lines to get to our homes. Then we can use the electricity to
turn on the lights, watch television, keep food cold in the refrigerator, heat up water for
bathing, or turn on the air conditioner.

The trouble is that making electricity this way also creates

pollution. These power plants make smoke and release
greenhouse gases like CO2. These greenhouse gases are a
cause of global climate change. We don’t want to make
too much CO2, and we want to decrease pollution.

Remember, these power plants make electricity for us to use. If we use less electricity, the
power plants will make less electricity. If they are making less electricity, they are also making
less pollution.

That means that we can help the world by using less electricity. Everyone can do it, and
everyone can make a difference.

How can you use less electricity? You can become a

 Climate Kids Power Saver!

To become a Climate Kids Power Saver, take the pledge:

I will do my best to save energy in my home.

I will help others learn ways to use less electricity.
I will help make the world a better place.
I will be a Climate Kids Power Saver!

Print out your official Climate Kids Power Saver badge:

Now look for ways to save electricity all the time. In your home, what is plugged in right now?
What do the switches control? Ask yourself which of them need to be turned on, which of
them don’t, and which of them can be unplugged.

Remember that some things use electricity when they’re

plugged into the wall even if you’re not using it right now. For
example, phone and tablet chargers use electricity when they’re
plugged in, even if the phone or tablet isn’t connected. Make
sure you unplug them when you’re not using them.

Did someone leave a light on when they left the room?

Flip the switch.

Did someone leave the TV on?

Switch it off.

Did someone leave a fan on?

Turn it off.

Did someone leave a phone charger plugged in?

Unplug it.

Make a difference every day!

Badges to Print