Earth Day - Rivers - The Children's Hour

We celebrate Earth Day on The Children’s Hour with students working to save the environment around them. RiverXchange is a program that partners with schools in Albuquerque, which is nestled along the Rio Grande, to create projects that protect our precious environment.

Visit the RiverXchange website to find loads of resources for kids, teachers and parents about how to understand and protect watershed health.

RiverXchange® Program Overview

RiverXchange® students explore local water resources and conservation concerns with water resource professionals and educators from local institutions.

Classes receive 4 in-class presentations and a field trip to help students explore these issues.

Through our hands-on curriculum, students learn about The Big Water Questions and gain the knowledge they need to decide for themselves what they can do to protect water resources.

Students advocate for their local watershed in their community through a service learning action project of interest.

Kids learn how to make the environment around them better using the RiverXchange Project inside their classrooms over the course of a school year, tackling problems like food waste, littering, and planting trees. These kids pictured are working on the problem of food waste.

We also learn about Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day in the United States, from our friends at PBS Wisconsin Education.

In this episode we hear directly from kids about the impact this program has had on their classrooms, their schools, and themselves. We hear from kids in Albuquerque New Mexico at Zia Elementary School, students in Mr. Rogers’ class at North Valley Academy, and at Mission Avenue Elementary. Many thanks to the kids and teachers who submitted content for this episode.

Celebrate Earth Day with us, honoring rivers with RiverXchange®.

This episode is mixed with great music celebrating the Earth, and especially our precious rivers.

This episode was recorded in the field by RiverXchange teachers across Albuquerque, New Mexico. This episode was produced by Senior Producer, Christina Stella with help from Katie Stone, Executive Producer.

Playlist: Earth Day - Rivers

title	artist	album	label
Earth Day Reggae	Mighty Drop	Earth Day Around The World	2023 Daria
By the Rio Grande	Tish Hinojosa	Culture Swing	1990 Rounder Records, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc.
O Rio Tem Cachoiera	Helio Ziskind	Putumayo Kids Presents: Brazillian Playground	2007 Putumayo World Music
Everybody	Podington Bear	Carefree	2018 HUSH
New River Train	The Laurie Berkner Band	Laurie Berkner's Favorite Classic Kids' Songs	2015 Kidz Bop Enterprises LLC. Distributed by Concord Music Group, Inc., Marketed by Razor & Tie Recordings. Distributed by Concord.
River Come Down	Suzi Shelton	Hand in Hand	2018 Susan C. Shelton
The Wheel of the Water	Tom Chapin	Mother Earth	2010 Sundance Music
Lie Down in the River	Levity Beet	My Best Friend Jake Is a Cyborg	2017 Levity Beet
River Song	Green Chili Jam Band	Starfishing	1994 Green Chili Jam Band
Easygoing	Podington Bear	Thoughtful	2014 HUSH
Slotcar	Podington Bear	Soul	2018 HUSH
Peace Like A River (feat. Raffi)	Lindsay Munroe	I Am Kind	2020 Troubadour Music Inc., Under exclusive license to Craft Recordings, a division of Concord.
A Shenandoah Lullaby	David Grisman & Jerry Garcia	Not for Kids Only	1993 Acoustic Disc
Alphabet Soup	Podington Bear	Rainy	2017 HUSH
The River	Aaron Nigel Smith & Red Yarn	Smith & Yarn	2022 Aya World Productions / Red Yarn's Notebook
Over The River	The High Llamas	Cold And Bouncy	1998 Alpaca Park Ltd. / V2 Music Ltd.
Living Water Song	Wagogo Banda	Thank You Beautiful	2014 Luis Armando Ortega