Through the use of a flashcard game, students explore some of the reasons why saving energy is important for our environment. They begin to think about what actions they can take to save energy.

Students investigate ecosystem diversity by comparing a variety of ecosystems. They identify the key features and suggest the main factors that influence them. They ask questions about the conservation and threats to ecosystems of interest.

Students critically examine the quality of internet information about energy saving devices, equipment, white goods, cars etc. They will present their findings to the class.

Students investigate some big issues around how we create and use energy. They then share their findings by creating podcast, video, infographic or oral presentation. This activity can be completed in class time or as homework.

In this lesson students are asked to start expressing their views about nature and place. Students will head outside to an area of their school yard. Working in groups, students respond to questions about nature, recording their ideas on separate pieces of paper that the class will then compile to make a flip chart. They then express their personal views through a drawing or a story.

Students explore the importance and availability of clean water and the relevance of bottled water to this issue. They work in groups to research the topic using a variety of questions inspired by Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. They then share their findings and ideas with the class as a slide show presentation.

In this activity students become more familiar with some of the technical terms (and meanings) associated with solid waste. Students are asked to research terms and create definitions for these terms that will then be used in a class game. Finally, students are asked to think of a question they would like answered about waste, and to either undertake research to answer this question or swap their question with another student, and research and report back to their classmate the answers they found to the question.

In this activity students get out into an ecosystem and record the sounds that they hear. The sounds can be recorded (e.g. on a tablet), or through drawings or brief explanatory notes.

During this lesson students explore the importance of trees in the environment. They observe their own sensory and emotional experiences of trees then, working as a class, they gather insight from an inspirational picture book. Students use creative and descriptive language to write a poem about trees while immersed in, and inspired by, nature in the playground. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

During this lesson students gain a greater appreciation of the value of trees by exploring and creating rhyming poetry. After writing a class poem, students form groups and create a series of photos that reflect and enhance the meaning of the poem. The class poem and photos are used to create a display in the school to raise awareness of the importance of trees. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

During this lesson students reflect on the way they view and use trees, and how nature can be used in poetry to express ideas and convey messages about conservation. They begin by taking a walk around the school yard, then read Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree. As a class they brainstorm verbs, nouns and adjectives from nature, and use these to independently write a Diamond Poem about trees to share with a chosen audience. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

In this lesson students explore the concept of biodiversity. They begin by working in groups to conduct research in order to investigate a topic relating to ecosystem diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity. Then they work in new groups to create a communication product that explains the importance of biodiversity.

Students are introduced to the topic of energy by analysing research articles and creating a Wordle cloud. Wordle is a free word art tool that crunches any chunk of text and produces a visual representation of the content. The resulting word cloud emphasises the most common words by amplifying their size based on frequency. Students will develop knowledge of subject-specific vocabulary and use this knowledge to create an energy limerick.

In this lesson students explore the concept of solid waste by analysing three quotes. Students work independently or in pairs to analyse quotes that can be applied to the concept of solid waste and to answer a series of questions about these quotes, and then work to create their own quote about waste.

Through class discussion and independent exercises, students explore some of the big environmental issues associated with the current trend of drinking bottled water, and learn that tap water is a safe, tasty, environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative to bottled water. Students will understand that some of Earth’s resources are renewable, but others are non-renewable. They will use scientific knowledge and findings from investigations to evaluate claims. Students will be able to independently research the issues around bottled water, contribute to a discussion about the issues around bottled water. Students can communicate their research findings with other students

In this activity, students decide how they would like to help the plants that live around them to survive. Students make a promise that can apply in their home and at school and illustrate these promises. They will create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and diagrams. They will represent and communicate observations and ideas in a variety of ways such as oral and written language, drawing and role play.

In this lesson, students research and design water education posters and present them to younger students at their school. They work to represent and communicate ideas and findings in a variety of ways such as diagrams and physical representations. Students plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features and selecting print, and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose. Students will be able to research the answers to water questions using reliable sources, draft an informative poster appropriate for younger students and ensure the images in their poster complements a written message.

Students can use this essay planner to organise their ideas before writing and expository or persuasive essay.

Students investigate the issue of a sustainable fresh water supply. They examine some of the issues and compare different views about managing water resources. Students then write an essay about a water issue of their choice. They use comprehension strategies to interpret, analyse and synthesise ideas and information, critiquing ideas and issues from a variety of textual sources. Students analyse and evaluate the ways that text structures and language features vary according to the purpose of the text and the ways that referenced sources add authority to a text. Students will be able to research an issue using a variety of reliable sources. Students can analyse a range of resource management issues around water and can articulate the complexities of a single water issue, giving at least two opposing perspectives.

The K-W-H-L thinking tool can be used throughout a lesson or unit. It serves as an aid to ensure a student’s interest is catered to and helps to determine what needs to be taught. The chart is introduced at the beginning of the topic, and can only be completed once a student have finished their investigation of the topic. The chart can also be used as an assessment tool. This thinking tool can be integrated into a number of subject areas as the focus is on developing general capabilities and 21st century skills. Students will be able to represent and communicate ideas and findings in a variety of ways.