Primary School Lesson Plans and Ideas (KS 1/2)
Our suggested morning has three periods: an information based 'academic' period, a 'practical' period involving poster design, scientific experiments, games etc, and an 'action' period when children can look at their own energy use and pledge to cut it. Obviously you may prefer to do something totally different. Whatever the format of the day, we hope you will find some useful lesson plans below.
Academic Period
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Introduction to climate change
Age: this can be adapted for primary (7-11) and secondary classes (11-18)
Time: 1 - 2 hours in total, divided into short sections
Format - there is a powerpoint presentation and teacher notes to accompany the presentation. All charts / images can be downloaded individually. This is not a lesson plan. It is however a useful collection of background notes, pictures and charts which can be used as a basis for structuring a lesson plan. For more specific lesson plans with images and videos, see below.
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Renewable energy - a collection of lesson plans
Ages: Various lessons
Keystage: 1/2/3/4
There is an excellent website with lessons about Climate Change, Solar Power, Solar Hot Water and Wind Energy.
Search by Key Stage, Topic and Subject (D&T, Geography, Science). Lots of lessons for KS1, KS2, not so many for KS3, KS4. -
Lessons from Generation Green:
Keystage: 1/2
Key Stage 1 What is electricity? Wind and water power. The power of the sun. Turn down, turn off.
Key Stage 2 Turning fossil fuels into electricity. How much energy does our school use?
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Key Stage 2 Lesson Plans on Climate Change from Project Genie (supported by BT Betterworld)
Keystage: 2
Currently there are four blocks of lessons:
1. Understanding Climate Change
2. Reducing Energy Use
3. Exploring Power and Energy
4. Rethinking Britain -
Organise a climate change talk
For £65 for a half-day, £130 for a full-day, someone from Action Aid will come and do a climate change talk in your school.
Click here for more information: http://www.actionaid.org.uk/101898/teach_climate_change.html
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PowerDown from Action Aid
PowerDown is a set of primary and secondary resources that explore the causes and impacts of climate change. Use our lesson ideas, images and videos to get your pupils learning about climate change, investigating energy use and taking action to be part of the solution.
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Green Day: A FREE climate change activity pack for schools
Keystage: 1/2/3
Green Day is a one-day event for schools about climate change, sustainability and the built environment. It is a fun and flexible way to integrate these themes into lessons and whole-school activities.
CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) have run Green Day for three years. It is aimed at primary and secondary schools (particularly KS1-3). CABE publishes a free activity kit which contains over 100 different curriculum linked lesson ideas, and further web based resources for teachers to use to help planning. CABE also delivers training for schools in the form of face to face workshops.Follow this link for more information: http://www.cabe.org.uk/publications/green-day
Practical Period
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Design a climate change poster - Cutting your carbon footprint
Time 1 hour to 1½ hours.
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Demonstrating Solar Photovoltaic energy (from BP)
Keystage: 2/3/4
Inexpensive Solar PV demonstration kit from BP (£14 per kit, £16 including teachers notes, £40 for three kits). You can also download the informative teachers notes free of charge from the above site (as long as you register which takes two minutes). These include a discussion of solar energy and the photovoltaic effect. Activities for both primary and secondary level.
Follow this link: http://www.bp.com/genericResource.do?categoryId=8043&contentId=7037460
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Stuck for creative ideas? There are lots of great ideas for practical and creative projects about climate change on Cool it Schools.
There are projects in every creative area you can think of, from art and music to poetry, fashion design and gardening.
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Endangered Species Mobiles
Age: 3-7
Time: 40 minutes
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Endangered Species Mobiles
Age: 7-11
Time: 1 to 1 ½ hours.
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The melting test – the heat from the sun
Keystage: 1
Time: 1 to 1 ½ hours.
http://www.ourplanet.org.uk/climate-change-lesson-plan.asp?lessonID=48
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Lots and lots of lesson plans from the Prince of Wales's rainforest project
From age 3 to age 16.
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Making a solar powered boat
Keystage: 2
http://www.ourplanet.org.uk/climate-change-lesson-plan.asp?lessonID=37
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Key Stage 1 and 2 Carbon Calculator
Keystage: 1/2
A fun simple carbon calculator aimed specifically at children. They can calculate their carbon footprint and work out ways of cutting it.
Action Period
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What can children do to cut their energy use?
Keystage: 1/2/3
30 minutes part 1 Electricity use; 30 minutes part 2 Simple kids carbon calculator (requires internet access).
What is their carbon footprint, how can they cut it? What would it be like if they lived in Africa? Optional - Kids Carbon Calculator.
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Key Stage 1 and 2 Carbon Calculator
A fun simple carbon calculator aimed specifically at children. They can calculate their carbon footprint and work out ways of cutting it.
Follow this link: http://www.planet-positive.org/how_2_calculator.php
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Climate Cops from npower (KS1,2,3)
All mapped to the Curriculum for England, Wales and Scotland, our fun and engaging resources provide you with the learning tools you need to help you deliver fun and engaging lessons on energy, energy efficiency and climate change for 4-7, 7-11 and 11-14 year olds.
Suggested outline of the morning
Academic Period (1 or more). For example:
- Introduction to climate change (cause/impact)
- What is electricity?
- Renewable energy
- The Carbon Cycle View lesson plans
Practical Period (1 or more). For example:
- Poster design
- Experiments
- Mobiles View lesson plans
Action Period (1 or more):
- Focus on individual child's energy use
- Kids carbon calculator
- Pledge to do something View lesson plans
Suggested Morning - Key Stage 1
Academic Period
- What is electricity? Lesson plan from Generation Green: click here.
Practical Period
Draw a picture / poster showing something positive that can be done to cut energy use:
- riding a bike instead of going by car;
- walking to school;
- watching less TV;
- taking a shower instead of a bath;
- turning the TV off at the wall, turning the lights off
Action Period
- Discuss every day activities relevant to children that use electricity. See download.
- Calculate a simple carbon footprint using our kids carbon calculator
Do this individually or as a class activity based on a 'typical' child. Make some changes in their behaviour and calculate the footprint again to see what difference the changes make.
- Ask everyone to pledge to do something to cut their footprint and / or their family's footprint.
Suggested Morning - Key Stage 2
Academic Period
Discussion of climate change
- What is climate?
The changing climate - melting glaciers, rising sea levels, rising temperatures. Look at this glacier picture (click here to open). - The carbon cycle
See diagram (click here). - The greenhouse effect
View lession - Human activities causing climate change
See image.
Practical Period
- Demonstrating solar photovoltaic energy
- Design a climate change poster - cutting your carbon footprint (click to view)
Action Period
Calculate a simple carbon footprint using our kids carbon calculator (click here).
Do this individually or as a class activity based on a 'typical' child. Make some changes in their behaviour and calculate the footprint again to see what difference the changes make.
Ask everyone to pledge to do something to cut their footprint and / or their family's footprint.