Environmental Exchange Box

Do you know what makes your environment special? What is unique about where you live from other regions of the world? Well it’s time to find out! Use Project Learning Tree’s “Environmental Exchange Box” to explore your unique geographic region. Then exchange your “environmental box” with another school to learn about their unique environment. First step – find another group to exchange with! Follow this link and fill out the form to be matched with another “environmental exchange” group: PLT Environmental Exchange Box Sign-up
Then set out to learn all you can about your own environment and start collecting items to share!

Young Child Extension
Sign up for an environmental exchange group too! Then take small children on a walk around your schoolyard, yard or local park to observe the plants and animals that live there. Start your own exchange box and put the children in charge of gathering local leaves from trees or drawing pictures of birds they see.

Book List

Grades PreK-2
Chesanow, N. and A. W. Iosa. 1995. Where Do I Live?. Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.
Dorros, A. and S. M. Dorros. 1997. Radio Man: Don Radio. San Val.
Edwards, M. 1994. Eve and Smithy: An Iowa Tale. HarperCollins Publishers.
Holling, C. 1980. Paddle-to-the-Sea. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Hopkins, L. B. and S. Alcorn. 2000. My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
Kohl, M. and J. Potter. 1998. Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World. Gryphon House.
Petty, K. and J. Maizels. 2000. The Amazing Pop-Up Geography Book. Penguin Group (USA).
Pierce, P. and B. Langton. 2003. H is for Hawkeye: An Iowa Alphabet. Sleeping Bear Press.
Pierce, P. A. and D. Rohner. 2006. Numbers in a Row: An Iowa Number Book. Sleeping Bear Press.
Rocha, R. and O. Roth. 1990. Blue & Beautiful: Planet Earth, Our Home. United Nations Publications.
Rylant, C. and L. Desimini. 2002. Tulip Sees America. Scholastic, Inc.
Wagner, J. and E. P. Dawson. 2003. H is for Hawkeye. Trails Books.

Grades 3-5
Allaby, M. 2008. National Geographic Visual Encyclopedia of Earth: Wonders of Our Living Planet. National Geographic Society.
Alexander, H. and M. Hamilton. 2010. A Child’s Introduction to the World: Geography, Cultures, and People – From the Grand Canyon to the Great Wall of China. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc.
Doherty, G., A. Claybourne, and S. Davidson. 2010. The Usborne Geography Encyclopedia with Complete World Atlas. EDC Publishing.
Dorros, A. and S. M. Dorros. 1997. Radio Man: Don Radio. San Val.
Edwards, M. 1994. Eve and Smithy: An Iowa Tale. HarperCollins Publishers.
Holling, C. 1980. Paddle-to-the-Sea. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Hopkins, L. B. and S. Alcorn. 2000. My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
Kohl, M. and J. Potter. 1998. Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World. Gryphon House.
Ladoux, R. 2002. Iowa. Lerner Publishing Group.
Moore, J. E. and G. Shipman. 1993. Beginning Geography, Vol 2: Land Forms & Bodies of Water. Evan-Moor Educational Publishers.
Moore, J. E. and G. Shipman. 1993. Beginning Geography, Vol 3: Continents And Oceans. Evan-Moor Educational Publishers.
Petty, K. and J. Maizels. 2000. The Amazing Pop-Up Geography Book. Penguin Group (USA).
Wagner, J. and E. P. Dawson. 2003. H is for Hawkeye. Trails Books.

Grades 6-8
Allaby, M. 2008. National Geographic Visual Encyclopedia of Earth: Wonders of Our Living Planet. National Geographic Society.
Doherty, G., A. Claybourne, and S. Davidson. 2010. The Usborne Geography Encyclopedia with Complete World Atlas. EDC Publishing.
Editors of Kingfisher. 2005. Concise Geography Encyclopedia. Kingfisher.
Hopkins, L. B. and S. Alcorn. 2000. My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
Kohl, M. and J. Potter. 1998. Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World. Gryphon House.
Ladoux, R. 2002. Iowa. Lerner Publishing Group.

Grades 9-12
Editors of Kingfisher. 2005. Concise Geography Encyclopedia. Kingfisher.
Hopkins, L. B. and S. Alcorn. 2000. My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
Morrice, P. A. and J. Hart. 2007. Iowa. Cavendish, Marshall Corporation.