WHAT IS ELF?
ELF = Environmental Learning for the Future
Environmental Learning for the Future is a volunteer-run, educational program, developed to promote an understanding and appreciation of the natural world and increase environmental literacy. We hope to encourage children’s curiosity and concern about the natural world and to provide hands-on experiences for learning. ELF encompasses four different year-long concepts: Cycles, Adaptations, Designs of Nature, and Earth and Sky.
Are you looking for a FUN, in-class volunteer opportunity with your kids? ELF is a completely volunteer-run, supplemental, hands-on science program.
Each classroom has 5, two-hour sessions throughout the year, and each session consists of interactive centers. That’s where you come in!
Parents run the interactive centers with small groups of students who rotate through the centers. You don’t need to commit to every session; even if you can only make one, your time is appreciated!
Time commitment includes the 2-hour session during the school day, and about 20 minutes of prep-time per session as you read over the center outline and watch short training videos.
Email with questions: mitchellelf@gmail.com
2025/2026 School Year
Earth and Sky
What is the connection between plants and the air we breathe, between honeybees and the earth’s magnetic field, between ancient shellfish and limestone rocks? In examining the physical characteristics of the world around us, children discover that the living and the nonliving are interwoven in an intricate tapestry.
Learning about the physical environment involves examining the properties of rocks and air, sunlight and sound, and wind and water. Through the activities in this theme, students will explore many different aspects of the physical world as well as the forces that affect and shape the earth over time. These explorations will help children to understand the connections between living organisms and the nonliving systems that support them.
Unit One: Finding Your Way
Animals, including humans, use various methods to recognize their surroundings and orient themselves in the natural world.
Unit Two: Rocks & Minerals
We will focus on the fact that every rock tells a story of how the Earth was formed, shaped, and changed over time.
Unit Three: Air & Sound
Air is all around us, but it has no shape or size. We can’t really see, smell, feel, or taste air, but it is vitally important to all life on Earth.
Unit Four: Weather & Water
Earth’s water is a finite resource that circulates from the land, lakes, rivers and oceans to the air and back again, in a continuing cycle – call the Water Cycle.
Unit Five: Erosion
The shape of the landscape changes over time due to the erosive forces of wind, water, gravity, weathering, and ice as well as human activity.