Preparing an environmental exchange box will give your students a chance to learn more about their own region and the things that are special about it. Then, when they receive an exchange box from another region, they can compare environments, people, and much more.
This is one of 96 activities that can be found in PLT’s PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide. To get the activity, attend a training either in person or online and receive PLT’s PreK-8 Guide. Below are some supporting resources for this activity.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 
The following tools and resources may be used to enhance the activity.
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Flat Smokey
This printable cutout of Smokey Bear, courtesy of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, can be colored, shared on social media, and sent through the mail to help teach kids about preventing wildfires. Created in 1944, the Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign is the longest-running public service advertising campaign in U.S. history. Learn the Story of Smokey, find more activity ideas for kids and resources for elementary and middle school educators at SmokeyBear.com, and review these fire safety tips.
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Native Land Digital
Curated and designed by an Indigenous-led team, Native Land Digital is a tool that maps Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages. Download The Land You Live On Education Guide for some exercises to increase students’ awareness of the history of the land around them, and for help with discussions about Indigenous history, geography, and the rich and diverse cultures that have evolved from the land. Learn how to connect with local Indigenous organizations and communities to engage in cross-cultural exchanges about the land we live on and the importance of Indigenous land acknowledgment. Please note, while it provides a general sense of an area, the map does not represent or intend to represent official or legal boundaries of any Indigenous nations. Use it to spur discussion on the topic and as a first step to pursue more research.
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The Fresh Air App
Download the Fresh Air – Hyperlocal Weather & NOAA Radar Map app to explore the weather around you using data from the U.S. NOAA Weather radar map. Visualize local temperature, precipitation, wind, and more with daily weather notifications.
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Environmental Justice – EPA’s Data and Mapping Tool
EJ SCREEN is an environmental justice mapping and screening tool that combines environmental and demographic indicators to provide interesting and important regional data related to public health and environmental quality. By clicking anywhere on the map, users can view an area’s ozone levels, traffic concentrations, lead paint indicators, and more. EJSCREEN can assist in the identification of rural, urban, and suburban areas that are the most at-risk and it allows users to find correlations between the socioeconomic background of the region and the prevalence of environmental hazards.
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Identify Trees from Leaves
Leafsnap is a free app that uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from leaf photographs you take in the field. Leafsnap currently focuses on tree species found in the Northeastern United States and Canada, but expansion is underway to include all U.S. regions.
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Scratch
Using Scratch, educators of all ages and levels can program interactive stories, games, and animations and share their creations in an online community. Click on For Educators to access tips and resources for using Scratch in the classroom, including an introductory video, how-to tutorials, and a webinar. Teachers can also join the ScratchEd community to connect and collaborate with other educators using Scratch.
