Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Flipped classroom

20 minutes

Find Out: What is climate change?

25 minutes

Take Action: Short story

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

explore climate change
build their thinking and creative writing skills.

Students can:

explore the impacts of climate change
write a short story about an animal or plant affected by climate change.

Tune In: Flipped classroom

Step 1

In their own time, students will watch the video.

Climate Change Everyone’s Business - (vimeo.com/65187288/f6c1d94912)

Students are to take notes in the Student Worksheet whilst watching the video to record the facts and their feelings.

Find Out: What is climate change?

Step 1

Watch the video with your students.

Climate Change: Crash Course Kids #41.2 - (youtube.com/watch?v=SzcGTd8qWTg).

Learning support: Provide students with a brief written explanation of climate change to assist their understanding such as:

“Climate change is when the weather and temperatures change a lot over a long time. The Earth's weather has always changed, but in the last 200 years, it has changed much faster than usual. Some changes happen naturally, like when the sun changes or big volcanoes erupt. But when we talk about 'climate change' today, we usually mean the changes caused by people. They might suggest activities like:

burning fossil fuels (making electricity, driving cars, flying planes)
changing habitat (cutting down trees, removing plants, damming rivers)
building roads and buildings (using up resources, burning more fossil fuels, clearing more habitat, creating ‘hot spots’)

Step 2

Lead a discussion with students about climate change. Use the following prompts to guide your discussion:

What do you think climate change means?
How do you think climate change affects animals and plants?
Have you noticed any changes in the weather where you live?
Why do you think it is important to talk about climate change?

Take Action: Short story

Step 1

Provide each student with a printed or digital copy of the Climate Change Affects on Plants and Animals Factsheet. Lead your students through the factsheet by reading aloud or invite students to volunteer to take turns reading with assistance.

Literacy extension: Ask students to select two unfamiliar words from the reading. Invite them to use a visual dictionary to find the definition of the word/s and build their understanding.

Step 2

Create a list of wildlife animals and plants with students using a whiteboard, inviting students to raise their hands with animal and plant suggestions. This could include:

Animals

polar bears
koalas
monarch butterflies
coral reefs
snow leopards

Plants

grasses
ferns
mangroves
crops
forest trees
seagrasses

Step 3

Your students’ task will be to create a short written story about their chosen animal or plant. Before students begin their story, direct them to research their chosen animal or plant using an iPad or similar device. Students will record their responses to the prompting questions in the Student Worksheet before writing their short story.

Learning support: Students may need assistance researching basic information on their chosen animal or plant. Guide students to use a safe and easy-to-navigate search engine platform like Kiddle.

Reflection

Invite students to reflect on what they think we can do to care for our environment and slow the progress of climate change.

Use the whiteboard to draw the table below and invite students to the whiteboard to write their responses.

Start Things we need to start doing:	Stop Things we need to stop doing:	Keep Things we need to keep doing:

Earth Hour - Short Stories for Climate

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Info

Related Professional Learning

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