7 environment lesson ideas and activities
Looking for ways to teach your pupils about the environment? We’ve gathered ideas and activities to engage and excite children about the natural world.
Teaching children about the environment has never been more important than it is right now. As our world faces huge environmental challenges, it’s integral that the next generation feel equipped with the skills and knowledge to protect their planet.
But how can we make environmental education fun and engaging for our pupils, whilst also making it relatable? We’ve gathered some of the best ideas from the world wide web - get ready to inspire your eco-warriors of the future!
7 ideas for teaching the environment
Use these lesson ideas and activities to teach your children how to do their bit for the environment.
1. Create a class garden or vegetable patch
If you’re lucky enough to have a spot of land outdoors, you could create your own class garden or vegetable patch. To prepare, plant and grow plants is such an exciting and unforgettable experience. It could also help provide children with context into how food comes to end up on their plates.
If space/time is a premium, you could create a classroom terrarium. NASA has a great children’s guide to making a terrarium mini-garden that you can use with your pupils. You can use terrariums to teach about the water cycle and ecosystems in a hands-on way.
Photo by Maud Bocquillod on Unsplash
2. Theme storytelling and non-fiction texts
Learning about the environment, particularly climate change, can be tough. These are complex and sometimes abstract ideas that children might struggle with unless they are provided with recognisable themes and contexts.
Storytelling is not only fun, but it’s also a great way to communicate difficult concepts to children. Learning by Questions has a range of fiction texts you can use to teach pupils about their environment, as well as questions designed to exercise their reading skills. Take a look at these stories written by our primary curriculum advisor, Kate Wilkinson-Brindle:
Oh I wish I had a little pet bee
If you’d like to have free access to these resources and 1,000s of others, sign up to a free trial of Learning by Questions.
3. Trips
A memorable and hands-on approach to teaching about the environment would be to take the children beyond the school gates. And it doesn’t have to be a huge effort on your part - skip the coaches and stick to somewhere within walking distance of your school if you can.
Parks, nature reserves and local farms are great options to give your pupils a first-hand experience of the environment in their local community. By engaging children with nature within the context of their own lives, you’ll give them a lasting lesson in the responsibility they have in taking care of the environment.
4. Documentaries
If budget/time is an issue, or you would like to share wider issues with the environment that go beyond pupils’ local area, documentaries are a fantastic way to do this. Documentaries are edited to provide viewers with a story - of individuals, animals or communities, which could help to provide that all-important context for children.
The BBC is always a good place to start with nature documentaries. You can’t not mention the great David Attenborough when it comes to amazing documentaries on the environment. Why not choose a clip from one of his documentaries?
TIP: They’re also a great way to explore the literary feature of personification as Attenborough often describes animals and insects using human characteristics.
5. Study inspiring eco-warriors
Speaking of David Attenborough, you could inspire your class with eco-warriors already out there doing an amazing job saving the planet. There are so many green advocates you could take a look at with your pupils. Below is a starter list you could use for research projects:
Amy & Ella, aka. Kids Against Plastic
Dr. Mya-Rose Craig, creator of the Birdgirl blog and Black2Nature, and campaigner for equal access to nature for all.
Greta Thunberg, Swedish environmental activist known for challenging world leaders head-on.
David Attenborough who probably doesn’t need any introduction. LbQ has some reading comprehension resources all about Mr Attenborough and the work he has done over his lifetime.
Jane Goodall, expert on chimpanzees and conservationist. LbQ also has reading comprehension resources on Jane Goodall you can use for free.
A quick Google will introduce you to a wealth of (mostly young!) faces you can use as inspiration role models for your class.
6. School recycling
You probably already have recycling set up in your classroom/school, but have you explicitly taught children about recycling: the reasons why we do it and where it goes once they’ve chucked it in the box? Take the time to explain the reason for recycling, and about the recycling process for their community - each local council deals with recycling differently!
You might also go a step further and discuss recycling items that don’t have a specific receptor. Why not teach children about mending clothes? Yes, there’s a cost-saving element to it, but the textile industry makes up 35% of microplastic pollution in the ocean. You could teach children about the WW2 concept of Make Do and Mend and how it relates to saving the planet today!
7. Science experiments
Experiments are a great way to teach children about the environment - they’re memorable, fun and effective at inspiring pupils for the long-term. Here is a list of experiments you could try with your children:
1 - Composting: create your own class compost bin and encourage children to fill it with organic materials - including their food scraps from lunch. Just ensure pupils understand which scraps are appropriate for composting.
2 - Seed germination: plant seeds in differing environments and take care of them with different levels of care.
3 - Water pollution testing: collect water from different sources (e.g tap, river, puddle, pond) and test for common pollutants like pH, nitrate ad phosphate levels.
Teaching children about the environment is a fun and rewarding experience, and there’s nothing like the feeling of instilling a lifelong love and respect for the natural world.
By teaching pupils about the importance of environmental sustainability and the actions they can take to protect our planet, we help to raise a generation of eco-warriors who will work towards creating a cleaner, greener and more sustainable world.
See LbQ in action by booking a chat with us today.