🌱 Earth Day Poems KS2 | Creative Writing & Performance Ideas

Earth Day (22nd April) is the perfect opportunity to inspire KS2 pupils with poetry. It helps children explore the importance of caring for the planet while developing creativity, vocabulary and performance skills.

Through Earth Day poems KS2, pupils can:

🌍 Explore environmental issues in a creative, accessible way
📝 Experiment with different poetry forms (epitaph, list, acrostic, cinquain)
🎤 Share poems through performance to raise awareness in school
📚 Link English with Science, Geography and PSHE

If your pupils enjoy expressive poetry like this, you can book an Online Poetry Workshop or Poetry Day with me.

Great for teachers looking to save time!

📝 Original Earth Day Poems by Ian Bland

Here are four poems for Earth Day, each showing a different style: epitaph, list, acrostic and cinquain.

1. Here Lies the Body of Planet Earth (Epitaph Poem)

Here lies the body of Planet Earth
That gave the human race its birth
With valleys green and oceans wide
For lack of care the Earth just died

Flowers withered the sky turned black
And now those humans can’t go back.

Here lies the body all charred and burned
With lessons humans should have learned
Poisoned lakes and lifeless seas
There’s nothing left now save disease

The humans left it to its fate
And now they see it’s far too late.

Here Lies The Body Of Writing Framework

💡 Activity ideas:

• Introduce epitaphs as a style of reflective poetry.

• Pupils write their own “Here lies…” poems for endangered animals, rivers, or forests.

• Performance idea: split verses between groups, add sombre percussion (drums, tambourines).

• Literacy focus: explore metaphor, mood, and tone in poetry.

🔗 Related: Remembrance Poems KS2 | Environmental Poems KS2 👉 Christmas Shape Poems 👉 Winter Poetry KS2

🔗 Best Funny Poems KS2 👉 Poems For KS2 Children to Perform In Assemblies  

🔗 International School Poetry Workshops For KS1 And KS2 🔗 The Ultimate Guide To Teaching Poetry KS2 👉 Shape Poems KS2

Get yourself a signed book!

2. Things We Throw Away (List Poem)

Plastic bottles, fizzy cans,
Crisp packets, rubber bands.

Broken toys, a punctured ball,
Old computers, cracked phone call.

Cardboard boxes, bubble wrap,
Banana skins left in the gap.

Things we throw from day to day,
But where on Earth do they all stay?

💡 Activity ideas:

• Brainstorm “things we throw away” on the board. Encourage pupils to use rhyme and rhythm.

• Extend by creating a two-part contrast poem: Things we throw away vs Things we should save.

• Literacy focus: explore lists and couplets as a way of organising ideas.

🔗 Related: List Poems KS2 🔗 Poetry CPD and Training for Teachers 🔗 Teaching Figurative Language Through Poetry

🔗 Teach Narrative Poetry KS2 🔗 KS2 Poetry Comprehension Worksheets 👉 KS2 Character Poems 🔗 Christmas Card Poems KS2

3. EARTH (Acrostic Poem)

Every tree cut down leaves silence in the air
Animals vanish — their homes disappear
Rivers run dry, oceans overflow
The future depends on the seeds that we sow
Hope for tomorrow begins with us today.

Earth Acrostic Poem Writing Framework

🔗 Related: Haiku Poem Writing Framework

🔗 Related: Cinquain Poem Writing Framework

🔗 Related: Earth Mesostic Poem Writing Framework

🔗 Related: Earth Telestich Poem Writing Framework

💡 Activity ideas:

• Use EARTH, PLANET or RECYCLE as acrostic starters.

• Challenge pupils to write positive acrostics (how to save the planet) as well as negative (what we lose).

• Literacy focus: introduce acrostics as a structured poetry form that supports weaker writers while still encouraging creativity.

🔗 Related: Acrostic Poems KS2 🔗 5 Exciting Poems To Learn And Perform KS2 🔗 Best Poems For Children To Learn And Perform KS2

4. The Earth (Cinquain Poem)

Earth
Fragile, precious
Crying, pleading, fading
Save it before too late
Home

💡 Activity ideas:

• Teach the 2–4–6–8–2 syllable structure of a cinquain.

• Work as a class to build word banks (verbs, adjectives, nouns) before pupils create their own.

• Display cinquains on green leaf cut-outs to make a class “Earth Day tree.”

• Literacy focus: build understanding of syllable counts and concise word choice.

🔗 Related: Cinquain Poems KS2 🔗 KS2 Poetry Vocabulary Mats

🎉 Fun Earth Day Poetry Activities for KS2

• Eco Rap: Turn sound words (crash, splash, fizz) into chants or raps.

• Poetry Collage: Combine eco-poems with recycled art to create classroom displays.

• Shape Poems: Write inside outlines of trees, raindrops or globes.

• Performance Assemblies: Present the four styles above in one “Earth Day Poetry Showcase.”

• Cross-Curricular Links:

  • Science – ecosystems, habitats, recycling.

  • Geography – human impact on the planet.

  • PSHE – responsibility, global citizenship.

🔗 Related: Science Poems KS2 | Nature Poems KS2 | Feelings & Emotions Poems KS2 🔗 Teaching Rhythm and Rhyme KS2

👩‍🏫 Teacher Pedagogy Notes

Curriculum links:

• English: poetry forms (epitaphs, acrostics, cinquains, lists).

• Science: climate change, recycling, sustainability.

• Geography: human impact on the environment.

• PSHE: empathy, responsibility, action.

Differentiation:

• Support: scaffold acrostics or short list poems.

• Challenge: extended epitaphs or persuasive free verse.

Engagement:

• Children are naturally passionate about the environment. Poetry gives them a voice to share their feelings and ideas for change.

🌟 Final Thoughts

Earth Day poems KS2 give pupils a chance to mix creativity with caring for the planet. Whether it’s a reflective epitaph, a rhyming list, a structured acrostic or a short but powerful cinquain, these poems inspire children to think about their role in protecting the Earth.

👉 In my Poetry Days in primary schools across the UK I work hard to get the children excited about writing and performing their own poems. I visit over 100 schools every year and I’d love to work with your children and teachers.

📅 You can book me for:

• In-person Poetry Days across the UK

• Online Poetry Workshops (affordable and flexible)

➡ Secure your date here: Poets in Schools – Ian Bland