Earth Hour - News Makers of the Future (Part 1)

Students begin by sharing what they already know about climate change and the actions we can all take for climate change. They then work as a class to investigate how news article headlines and leading paragraphs are written to draw in the reader. Students will then work in groups to rewrite a range of stories about climate change action in Australia over the past 10 years. Students will then write their own news story and headline to describe an action they are already doing to help fight climate change. This lesson may be followed by Earth Hour – Switch off to join the future – Years 5 & 6 – Lesson 2.

Essential questions:

• What is climate change? What do I already know about climate change?
• How can we limit climate change? What actions can we take? What actions have I already taken?
• What are the roles of the headline and a leading paragraph in a news story? What are the other key components of a news headline?
• What is Earth Hour? How does Earth Hour share messages about climate change and taking action for climate change?