Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

	Part A: What Are Natural Resources?
20 minutes	Part B: How Do We Use Natural Resources?
25 minutes	Part C: Looking After Natural Resources
50 minutes	Part D: Creating a Dream Car and Entering the Contest
10 minutes	Reflection

Part A: What Are Natural Resources?

Step 1.

Begin the lesson by engaging students in a class discussion around the following questions:

What is nature?
Where can you find nature?
What are some things you will find in nature?
Do humans use nature? If so, how might we use it?

Through your discussion, lead students to the idea that humans use nature for nearly everything we do: we use nature for growing food; we use nature for creating our houses and other buildings; we need nature for clean air and water; we make clothes and medicine from things grown in nature; we get paper and metal and plastic from nature.

Step 2.

Now, invite students to think about how they used nature this morning before they had even arrived at school.

As a class, talk through the steps you have taken in getting to school and how each of these steps is somehow dependent on nature. Write the steps on the board and add the things we use from nature next to each step as you talk. For example:

Waking up and getting out of your warm bed – Nature provides us with houses to sleep and live in. Houses can be made of wood, metal and/or brick. All these materials come from nature.
Breakfast – Nature provides us with the wheat to make cereal and toast, the cows to make milk and yoghurt and butter, the fruit for eating and juicing and jam, the bees to make the honey, etc.
Getting dressed – We make clothes out of cotton and wool, both of which come from nature.
Brushing your teeth – Nature provides us with the ingredients to make toothpaste, the water to rinse with and the plastic to make the toothbrush.
Getting to school – Nature provides us with the metal to make the cars, buses, trains, trams and bikes that we use to get to school, and the fresh air that we breathe on our way to school.

Explain to students that all the things that we use from nature can be called 'natural resources'.

Extend: Consider breaking down the term 'natural resources' with the class to mean:

Natural - something that occurs or comes from nature, without the help of humans
Resource - a stock or supply of something that we can use

Part B: How Do We Use Natural Resources?

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now be using a SEE THINK WONDER routine to help them think about why it is important to think about how many natural resources we use.

Either working in pairs or as a class (depending on age or ability), view the Natural Resources Flashcards (these can be printed or viewed on screen/whiteboard). As they view each image, invite students to respond to the question associated with each image as well as the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What do you SEE in these images?
What does this image make you THINK about natural resources?
What does this image make you WONDER about?

Step 2.

Once complete, encourage students to think about and reflect upon the connection between the object (e.g. the wood) and the source of the object (e.g. the tree). Pose the following questions:

Why is this natural resource important?
What are some of the other ways we use this resource?
What would happen if we ran out of this resource?

Differentiation: Year 4 – Introduce older students to the idea of renewable and non-renewable resources:

Part C: Looking After Natural Resources

Step 1.

Engage students in a class discussion around the idea that not all natural resources will last forever, especially if we don’t look after them.

Again, refer to the images that the students just looked at, and ask 'What can we do to look after this resource?' For example:

Natural resource	What can we do to look after this resource?
Tree	We need to plant more trees and look after them (e.g. by saving water for our environment, by not littering and polluting our environment). We can also use less paper and recycle paper and cardboard so that we use fewer trees.
Apple tree	We need to plant more fruiting trees and look after them. We should try not to waste food because this means we are wasting the natural resources that were required to grow and make this food.
Sheep	We all need clothes, but buying less, swapping and buying secondhand will use less natural resources.
Bees	Bees give us more than honey: they also help pollinate 60% of crops around the world! Without bees, we'd have a lot less food to choose from. And we'd be hungrier! To look after bees we should plant plants that bees love and where possible, try to buy foods that don't use pesticides (e.g. buy organic).
Minerals	Some metals will run out so we should try and recycle them instead of relying on them being taken out of the ground.
Cows	We should try not to waste food because this means we are wasting natural resources.

Step 2.

OPTIONAL - In this step, students will work in groups to identify how we can look after a particular natural resource.

Break the class into at least five groups and assign each group with one of the following natural resources:

Water
Soil
Animals (including fish, mammals, birds and insects)
Plants
Minerals (including metals, gemstones, etc. sourced from the ground)

Each group needs to undertake research (online, in the library, and using this factsheet, Natural Resources Factsheet) to find three ways to help look after this resource. Students' findings from this research can be recorded on the Student Worksheet. Once complete students can share their ideas with the class.

Step 3.

Explain to students that they are now going to create an artwork that describes how we can look after natural resources now and in the future.

Explain to students that they are going to do this by imagining a car that could help protect and conserve natural resources. The car they are going to create will be a dream car. Students will then be creating a drawing or painting of this car and submitting this drawing into the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.

Spend a few moments discussing the process of submitting students' artworks and the prizes that might be won.

You could also work with students to view some of the previous year’s finalists of the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. As you view these artworks, invite students to consider:

What do you notice about this artwork?
What are the best things about this artwork?
What features of the cars in these artworks do you like the best and why?
Have any of these artworks incorporated features that address natural resources? If so, how?

Step 4.

You could now work with the class to dream up some ideas for your students’ own cars. Pose the following question to students and record ideas on the board:

How can my dream car look after natural resources?

Students could work as a class or in groups to brainstorm initial ideas. You could provide students with butcher's paper and marker pens to record their brainstorming ideas. Encourage students to be inspired by what others are suggesting, and to consider the following:

Where students have worked in groups, invite them to share their top three ideas with the class and record these ideas on the board.

Part D: Creating a Dream Car and Entering the Contest

Step 1.

Working independently, invite students to take a moment to look at the features of the dream cars you have added to the board. Invite students to think about which ideas they find most appealing.

Step 2.

Explain to students that they are now going to create an artwork that describes their very own dream car. Once complete, this artwork will be submitted to the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.

Explain the following contest rules for creating your dream car:

You must create your dream car artwork by yourself (no working with a friend or in a group).
Your dream car must be hand-created using things like pencils, pens/markers, crayons, paints, etc. It can’t be made using collage or a computer/digital device.
It must be drawn on an A3 piece of paper (or smaller). You might like to use this Toyota Dream Car Drawing Template.
Find the contest entry information here (including dates, prizes and full terms and conditions).

Step 3.

Invite each student to create a draft version of their dream car. Give students a set amount of time to create their draft and emphasise that perfection is not important at this stage: instead, it is more important to have fun and to create the car of your dreams!

This dream car can include some of the features written on the board from the class brainstorm, or students can think up features that are entirely new!

Depending on time, you could also encourage students to experiment with different colouring or painting techniques and mediums, such as:

Techniques - pointillism, hatching or shading.
Mediums – pencils, marker pens, acrylic paints, watercolour paints or pencils, crayons, pastels, etc.

Step 4.

Once students have created their drafts, invite them to share them with a classmate and to offer feedback. Use the following tips during the feedback process:

Step 5.

Once feedback has been provided, invite students to create the final version of their dream car on A3 paper, incorporating feedback where necessary.

Step 6.

As part of their entry, students are required to write a statement in response to the following: “Please explain the idea behind ‘Your Dream Car’ artwork”.

Ask students to create a draft version of their response, ensuring that they focus on being clear and brief and that they have explained what their car will do and how it will do it.

Again, invite students to share their statements with another student to seek feedback, and to check spelling and grammar.

Finally, scan or take a clear photograph of each entry and submit all entries using the online entry form.

Important! Students (or yourself) will need to hang onto their artworks after entering in order to be eligible to win prizes and have their artwork showcased.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What are two things I learnt natural resources from this lesson?
What is one question I still have about natural resources?
Why should we look after natural resources?
What part of my dream car do I like the most and why? What are its best features?
What part of my artwork am I most proud of? (Think of technique, choice of medium, colours, etc.)

Use questions in Questions 2 to guide further inquiry with your students.

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Toyota Dream Car Art Contest - Exploring Natural Resources

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