The climate and environment of the Earth has changed many times in its history. The most recent Ice Age only ended about 12,000 years ago.

What is different about the way the climate is changing today is that it is happening at a much greater speed than in the past, which is because it is driven by human activity rather than natural forces. This process is commonly referred to as global warming.

Teach your children about the environment using our handy topic guide!

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Teaching Ideas

Make a birthday cake to celebrate Earth Day.
Challenge your students to take part in the Wind Power Challenge.
Use this collection of inspiring images and questions to encourage your class to think about the environment.
Reward your children with this Eco-Star Certificate.
Use this collection of ideas with your students to carry out an Eco week at your school.

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Resources

Use the resources in our HUGE Environment Teaching Pack!

Download the Show The Love Schools Pack which contains resources and assembly activities. to help your children understand issues relating to climate change.
Download these display resources to help promote recycling:
Ask your children to write or draw items that can be put into a compost bin.
Use this set of vocabulary labels to teach your class about recyling.

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Environment Facts

Up until the Industrial Revolution, the amounts of gases in the atmosphere were in equilibrium (balanced), but since then the amount of what we know as Greenhouse Gases, for example Carbon Dioxide, have increased. This is what is causing the planet’s climate to warm up.
Plastic pollution is also a huge problem in the world’s oceans. When plastic finds its way into the sea it breaks up into tiny pieces that can find their way into the food chain if they are ingested (eaten) by fish. Animals and fish can get caught up in larger pieces of plastic waste.
Factories, airplanes and power stations can all emit harmful substances that enter the air. This makes the air difficult to breathe and causing problems for people with asthma and other respiratory diseases, as well as damaging the atmosphere.
The number of miles an item of food has to travel is known as food miles. The environmental impact is much greater if food is transported by air, as this method emits far more carbon emissions.
Some people feel so strongly about protecting the environment that they become activists, which means they take action and protest to try and make changes.

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Videos

How to Care for the Environment

Do you know the difference between a biodegradable and a non-biodegradable waste? This video will teach you all about it. You’ll also learn how to reduce, reuse and recycle waste.

Running time: 8:33

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Watch this video to learn how to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Running time:3:39

BBC Teach: How Environmental Issues are Impacting Our Planet

Two aliens discover that we are making similar mistakes to ones made back on their ruined home planet, their mission: to discover how we can all learn to care for the environment.

Running time: 5:01

Kids Take Action Against Ocean Plastic

In this short film from filmmaker Chris Hanson, 17 Hawaiian students study the impact of plastic pollution on their local beaches.

Running time: 4:26

How to Save Our Planet

Sir David Attenborough explains how humans can take charge of our future and save our planet.

Running time: 8:27

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Books

Dear Mr. Blueberry

While on a summer vacation, Emily discovers a whale living in her garden pond. So she writes to her teacher, Mr. Blueberry, for advice on how to care for her new pet. But Mr. Blueberry reponds that she must be mistaken, as whales live in the ocean, not in ponds. In a delightful exhange of letters, Emily learns about whales, and Mr. Blueberry learns about imagination, faith, and friendship.

The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle

Learn about recycling from a new perspective! Peek into this diary of a plastic bottle as it goes on a journey from the refinery plant, to the manufacturing line, to the store shelf, to a garbage can, and finally to a recycling plant where it emerges into it’s new life…as a fleece jacket!

Greta and the Giants

This inspiring picture book retells the story of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg – the Swedish teenager who has led a global movement to raise awareness about the world’s climate crisis – using allegory to make this important topic accessible to young children.

Tidy

Pete the badger likes everything to be neat and tidy at all times, but what starts as the collecting of one fallen leaf escalates and ends with the complete destruction of the forest! Will Pete realise the error of his ways and set things right?

Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth

Our world can be a bewildering place, especially if you’ve only just got here. Your head will be filled with questions, so let’s explore what makes our planet and how we live on it. From land and sky, to people and time, these notes can be your guide and start you on your journey.

Links

Visit Ducksters to find out more about the environment and renewable energy.
National Geographic Kids has a range of resources to help your children learn about the environment.
Climate kids from NASA is a handy reference resource for children to explore.
BBC Bitesize has a selection of learner guides and class clips which link to this topic.
Use DKfindout! to learn about recycling.
Try the Action pack Recyling Challenge in your school.