Climate change at school: resources for teachers and students

The Arts 

Developing ideas 

Communicating and interpreting 

• Create artwork inspired by what you love in the nature around you and what action you want to see happen to protect it. 
• Play with colours, textures, light and shadows to show your vision for our climate future. 
• Create a collage about your climate action or what you want to see happen in Aotearoa. 
• Take photographs of your nearby nature and/or the actions you and your class are taking to protect it. 
• Create abstract art to communicate your feelings about climate change. 

English 

Speaking, writing and presenting 

• Write a letter about what action you are taking to protect you, your whānau and nearby nature from climate change. 
• Write a letter about what action you want to see happening in Aotearoa to keep you, your whānau and nearby nature well. 
• Create a poem or song inspired by what you have learnt about climate change. 
• Write a ‘day in the life of…’ story from the point of view of your favourite plant or creature. Consider what climate action they would want us to take. 
• Write a story about your favourite nature spot and why you want to protect it. 
• Brainstorm and write your own emissions reduction plan (see information above) for your whānau, community or even for Aotearoa! You could challenge yourself to think of new and creative solutions for problems. 

Digital 

Designing and developing digital outcomes 

• Create a stop motion video about what Aotearoa could look like thanks to your climate action. 
• Record you and your classmates making a video about what you are doing as climate action and what you want to see happen next. 
• Someone new is arriving at school, create a step-by-step guide (algorithm) to looking after our planet. What actions do they need to take? 

Social Science 

• Explore your own and your classroom values about the nature around/ nearby to you.  
• Consider how the nature around / nearby to you used to be and how it is changing. How might that affect you, your whānau and the plants and creatures within your space?  
• What do your parents, siblings, grandparents think about climate change and taking-action? How can you bring their ideas and values into the action you take? 
• Research how people advocate for climate action around the world. How could you advocate for climate action in your community? 

Health and Physical Education 

• Go on a hikoi and explore your local environment. 
• Create a plan for how your whānau or community can use active and public transport more. 
• Investigate the role of a healthy climate for our body’s health. 

Mathematics and Statistics 

• Carry out a statistical investigation with your classmates. You could count how many people walk, cycle or use a scooter to get to school each day over a week. 
• Learn about how data is presented in graphs, make your own graphs relating to climate change. 

Science 

• Design an experiment to show how heat can create change in the world around you. 
• Make observations about the environment outside your window, explore how these observations might change in the future (positive and negative). 
• Investigate how your school, home or marae is heated, how would you change this?