SA Eco-Schools
Earth Day
April 22 is Earth Day – a time to teach about the value of our environment and how to preserve our
planet. On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across America celebrated the first Earth Day. It was a
time when cities were buried under their own smog and polluted rivers caught fire. Now Earth Day
is celebrated annually around the globe. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. Government,
grassroots organisations, and citizens like you, what started as a day of national environmental
recognition has evolved into a world-wide campaign to protect our global environment. Learn about
the history of Earth Day
AT HOME
IN YOUR COMMUNITY
AT SCHOOL
Environmental Kids Resources
Planet Earth
is just one of the nine planets in the family of Sun, called the solar system. If you start counting
away from the Sun, the planet Earth comes third in distance. At one stage of its infancy, it was in a
very hot and semi gaseous state. And it looked like the huge red-ball-like Sun we see just over the
east and west horizons. It took millions of years for that red hot Earth to cool down and solidify.
Even then, it lied barren for yet another hundreds, or may be, thousands of million years. And, like
all other planets it too has undergone many changes before reaching the present stage.
Today, if you approach the Earth from outer space it appears to wear a fade greenish blue colour.
This is absolutely uncommon. For, no other planet in the solar system wears this colour - the
colour of life.
Otherwise. it acts the same way as do the other planets. It moves round the Sun along a certain
path, called orbit, like its fellow planets. Yet, despite all these common features compared to other
planets, it is altogether different!
So different, that it is regarded as the unique body in our solar system.
Why so unique?
It is the ingredients, or, the stuff with which the earth is made up of. For instance, the sky that
displays such a variety of colours. Or, the greenish blue stretches that marks the wonderful water
world - the oceans and seas, rivers and streams, lakes and reservoirs. And, the atmosphere with
plenty of oxygen that makes us possible to breathe and live on along with other forms of life. Or, the
vital greeneries that are dotted with such a variety of flowers.
And, certainly, the amazing variety of insects and animals that make the world celebrate the buzz of
life. To top all, there is man that makes the planet so distinctively intelligent.
Strange, though, none of these are found in any of our fellow planets. And not only in the solar
system. But also in no other star's family, or stellar system, known till date.
Now let us look a little closer look at the land
The Land Surface
Even the land surface differs as well. And the shaping of the land is largely done by running water
that carries away materials loosened and broken up by weathering. This is called erosion. The
erosion cuts down the softer rocks and land, the harder ridges of tougher resistant rocks stand
erect. This is why land surface is so different.
Some parts are plains. Like, the vast Gangetic plains in India, world's one of the most populated
places. Some are mountains. Like the Alps, the Himalayas, or, the Rockies in North America.
Some parts are deserts, like the African Sahara, the Australian desert, and the icy cold Gobi desert
in Mongolia.
Some places are crowded with trees, and, are called forests. Like, the tropical forest in Africa, or,
the Amazonian Rain forest in South America.
These apart, there are some large islands. Some of the world's largest islands are Greenland,
New Guinea and Borneo and Great Britain.
This varied contour of the Earth's surface is called its topography. And in rhyme with the varied
topography, the soil structure also differs. In some parts it is pure soil, wherein grows a wide variety
of trees and greeneries. In some, there are more rocks and dust than the soiled earth. Some soil
contains more of sand. The color of some soil is black, some red, and, brown. It is due to the
difference in the nature of soil, the type of crops and the fruits grown, differ.
Deserts are areas where rainfall is very scarce. And so are the plants. Say, hardly 10 inches
downpour takes place in a year. They encircle the Earth in two bands. One is above, the other
below, the Equator. Though heat and sand are commonest features of deserts, but not for all. Only
28 per cent of the Sahara is covered with sand. There is soil over the remaining stretches where
plants can hardly grow. But the edges of the ice caps at the two tips and some permanent snow
fields are cold deserts.
Mountains are land masses that stand above the surrounding landscape. They often have steep
sides and small summit. Mountains are of four types based on the way they were born. Volcanic,
Block, Fold and Residual.
The commonest form of volcanoes is built of alternate layers of lava and fragmental materials. For
instance, Vesuvius, Italy; Fujiyama, Japan; Mt. Shasta, California, among many.
Fault block mountains are formed by an uplift of layers of rocky segments along the cracks of faults.
Examples include the Vosges, France; and Sierra Nevada, USA, among the others.
The fold mountains are formed when the rock layers fold, buckle and lift above the surrounding
land, all due to pressures in the Earth's crust. Examples include the Alps, Europe; Andes, South
America; and the Himalayas, South of Asia; among others.
Some mountains are so deeply worn off and reduced by weathering and river action that they stand
out as skeletons. For instance, the Catskill, New York.
In line with these variations in the surface, climate also differs, as we move from one region to
another. In some parts it is mostly cold throughout the year. In some it is hot. Some places see
both the heat and cold at their extremes. There are some places where it is neither too hot, nor too
cold. Somewhere it pours mostly throughout the year. Again there are some regions where dry
spell dominates throughout.
Broadly, it's extreme cold near the two polar caps. As we move away, the ferocity of the cold gets
reduced gradually. As we approach the Equator, the climate gets hotter and humid as well.
Obviously it is hottest along the two sides of the Equator. Regions lying in between are usually a
strict follower to the four main seasonal guidelines. That is, the summer, autumn, winter and the
spring.
Polar climates have temperatures no warmer than 10 degrees centigrade even in the warmest
month of the year. These occur beyond the tree limits of Arctic and Antarctic and at high altitudes in
major mountain ranges.
Wet tropical rainy climates are those in which the temperature of the coolest month is above 17
degrees centigrade. This include tropical rain forests where the rainfall is heavy throughout the
year. These are located near the Equator near the Amazon Valley, the Congo basin, along the
Guinea Coast of Africa, and in large parts of the East Indies. Savannas, which have less rainfall,
also belong to this group. More open than tropical rain forests, they have a wet season and a dry
season. Usually adjacent to tropical rain forests, grassy savannas occur in the Llanos of the
Orinoco Valley of Colombia and Venezuela, the Guinea Highlands in northern and southern
America, the Campos of Brazil, the Sudan and the grasslands of northern and southern Africa, and
the low grasslands of northern Australia.
Moderate humid climates are those where the coldest month is between 18 and minus 2 degrees.
These are located along the western and eastern sides of continents. But they also extend inland
about 2000 miles in the Mediterranean region of the southern Europe.
BACK TO THEMES
Earth Day
April 22 is Earth Day – a time to teach about the value of our environment and how to preserve our
planet. On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across America celebrated the first Earth Day. It was a
time when cities were buried under their own smog and polluted rivers caught fire. Now Earth Day
is celebrated annually around the globe. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. Government,
grassroots organisations, and citizens like you, what started as a day of national environmental
recognition has evolved into a world-wide campaign to protect our global environment. Learn about
the history of Earth Day
AT HOME
IN YOUR COMMUNITY
AT SCHOOL
Environmental Kids Resources
Planet Earth
is just one of the nine planets in the family of Sun, called the solar system. If you start counting
away from the Sun, the planet Earth comes third in distance. At one stage of its infancy, it was in a
very hot and semi gaseous state. And it looked like the huge red-ball-like Sun we see just over the
east and west horizons. It took millions of years for that red hot Earth to cool down and solidify.
Even then, it lied barren for yet another hundreds, or may be, thousands of million years. And, like
all other planets it too has undergone many changes before reaching the present stage.
Today, if you approach the Earth from outer space it appears to wear a fade greenish blue colour.
This is absolutely uncommon. For, no other planet in the solar system wears this colour - the
colour of life.
Otherwise. it acts the same way as do the other planets. It moves round the Sun along a certain
path, called orbit, like its fellow planets. Yet, despite all these common features compared to other
planets, it is altogether different!
So different, that it is regarded as the unique body in our solar system.
Why so unique?
It is the ingredients, or, the stuff with which the earth is made up of. For instance, the sky that
displays such a variety of colours. Or, the greenish blue stretches that marks the wonderful water
world - the oceans and seas, rivers and streams, lakes and reservoirs. And, the atmosphere with
plenty of oxygen that makes us possible to breathe and live on along with other forms of life. Or, the
vital greeneries that are dotted with such a variety of flowers.
And, certainly, the amazing variety of insects and animals that make the world celebrate the buzz of
life. To top all, there is man that makes the planet so distinctively intelligent.
Strange, though, none of these are found in any of our fellow planets. And not only in the solar
system. But also in no other star's family, or stellar system, known till date.
Now let us look a little closer look at the land
The Land Surface
Even the land surface differs as well. And the shaping of the land is largely done by running water
that carries away materials loosened and broken up by weathering. This is called erosion. The
erosion cuts down the softer rocks and land, the harder ridges of tougher resistant rocks stand
erect. This is why land surface is so different.
Some parts are plains. Like, the vast Gangetic plains in India, world's one of the most populated
places. Some are mountains. Like the Alps, the Himalayas, or, the Rockies in North America.
Some parts are deserts, like the African Sahara, the Australian desert, and the icy cold Gobi desert
in Mongolia.
Some places are crowded with trees, and, are called forests. Like, the tropical forest in Africa, or,
the Amazonian Rain forest in South America.
These apart, there are some large islands. Some of the world's largest islands are Greenland,
New Guinea and Borneo and Great Britain.
This varied contour of the Earth's surface is called its topography. And in rhyme with the varied
topography, the soil structure also differs. In some parts it is pure soil, wherein grows a wide variety
of trees and greeneries. In some, there are more rocks and dust than the soiled earth. Some soil
contains more of sand. The color of some soil is black, some red, and, brown. It is due to the
difference in the nature of soil, the type of crops and the fruits grown, differ.
Deserts are areas where rainfall is very scarce. And so are the plants. Say, hardly 10 inches
downpour takes place in a year. They encircle the Earth in two bands. One is above, the other
below, the Equator. Though heat and sand are commonest features of deserts, but not for all. Only
28 per cent of the Sahara is covered with sand. There is soil over the remaining stretches where
plants can hardly grow. But the edges of the ice caps at the two tips and some permanent snow
fields are cold deserts.
Mountains are land masses that stand above the surrounding landscape. They often have steep
sides and small summit. Mountains are of four types based on the way they were born. Volcanic,
Block, Fold and Residual.
The commonest form of volcanoes is built of alternate layers of lava and fragmental materials. For
instance, Vesuvius, Italy; Fujiyama, Japan; Mt. Shasta, California, among many.
Fault block mountains are formed by an uplift of layers of rocky segments along the cracks of faults.
Examples include the Vosges, France; and Sierra Nevada, USA, among the others.
The fold mountains are formed when the rock layers fold, buckle and lift above the surrounding
land, all due to pressures in the Earth's crust. Examples include the Alps, Europe; Andes, South
America; and the Himalayas, South of Asia; among others.
Some mountains are so deeply worn off and reduced by weathering and river action that they stand
out as skeletons. For instance, the Catskill, New York.
In line with these variations in the surface, climate also differs, as we move from one region to
another. In some parts it is mostly cold throughout the year. In some it is hot. Some places see
both the heat and cold at their extremes. There are some places where it is neither too hot, nor too
cold. Somewhere it pours mostly throughout the year. Again there are some regions where dry
spell dominates throughout.
Broadly, it's extreme cold near the two polar caps. As we move away, the ferocity of the cold gets
reduced gradually. As we approach the Equator, the climate gets hotter and humid as well.
Obviously it is hottest along the two sides of the Equator. Regions lying in between are usually a
strict follower to the four main seasonal guidelines. That is, the summer, autumn, winter and the
spring.
Polar climates have temperatures no warmer than 10 degrees centigrade even in the warmest
month of the year. These occur beyond the tree limits of Arctic and Antarctic and at high altitudes in
major mountain ranges.
Wet tropical rainy climates are those in which the temperature of the coolest month is above 17
degrees centigrade. This include tropical rain forests where the rainfall is heavy throughout the
year. These are located near the Equator near the Amazon Valley, the Congo basin, along the
Guinea Coast of Africa, and in large parts of the East Indies. Savannas, which have less rainfall,
also belong to this group. More open than tropical rain forests, they have a wet season and a dry
season. Usually adjacent to tropical rain forests, grassy savannas occur in the Llanos of the
Orinoco Valley of Colombia and Venezuela, the Guinea Highlands in northern and southern
America, the Campos of Brazil, the Sudan and the grasslands of northern and southern Africa, and
the low grasslands of northern Australia.
Moderate humid climates are those where the coldest month is between 18 and minus 2 degrees.
These are located along the western and eastern sides of continents. But they also extend inland
about 2000 miles in the Mediterranean region of the southern Europe.
BACK TO THEMES
| Earth Day “Take-Home Kit” learn how you and your family can protect the environment every day in lots of ways. |
| Please familiarise yourself with our Terms of Use and Disclaimer prior to downloading resources. Contents of this website (c) Donnette E Davis and/or St Aiden's Homeschool unless otherwise stipulated. |
| Earth Day Everywhere |
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| Files are in PDF format. You can download Acrobat here. Download any or all of our Grade K-5 Thematic Units, Printables and/or Lesson Plans for use in your homes, homeschool, classroom or community centres. |
