Nicola Davies Learning ResourceInspiring Learning Outdoors and Through Sustainability

CFE First/Second Levels (Ages 8-11)

Resource created by Linda Murray, classroom teacher at St. Peter’s Primary School

Contents of this resourceNote to teachers – outdoor learning and sustainability Page 2About Nicola Davies Page 3The Leopard’s Tail and related activities Page 4Gaia Warriors and related activities Page 12Further Activities Page 15

Note to teachers – outdoor learning and sustainability

This resource contains cross-curricular activity suggestions to help you explore the topics of Outdoor Learning and Sustainability through books written by Nicola Davies. Adapt and use as you see fit! The resource has been produced to help you get the most out of our online Authors Live event with Nicola, but you can use them at any point to engage pupils with these topics. The aim is to provide ideas to inspire you to explore these areas further, or add to your current portfolio.

Outdoor Learning has been under review in recent times as we look deeper into the effectiveness of our teaching and learning. A document produced in March 2016 by the University of Edinburgh, Moray House (bit.ly/OutdoorLearn) has suggested that:

‘well-structured outdoor learning:

facilitates children’s development in school grounds, local areas and on residential courses,

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supports learning in all aspects of the school curriculum from 3 to 18, provides opportunities for pupils to guide their own learning and develop critical thinking skills in ways elusive in the classroom,

raises children’s awareness of environmental and sustainability issues, resulting in understanding and promoting an ethic of care for our planet (directly linked with the concept of ‘learning for sustainability’)

has direct health and wellbeing benefits’

There are many books and websites which can help us to plan for learning outdoors. The following websites are great starting points.

Outdoor and Woodland Learning Scotland: owlscotland.org/ Grounds for Learning: www.ltl.org.uk/scotland/ Woodland Trust Nature Detectives website: bit.ly/WTNatureDetectives

Sustainability is an area of learning which is now the responsibility of all teachers in Scotland and is currently a priority for the Scottish Government. What is sustainability in the school context?

Learning for Sustainability is learning to live within the environmental limits of our planet and to build a just, equitable and peaceful society. It is essential for the well-being of all and is an international priority. (UNESCO, 2013)

We already cover aspects of sustainability in our daily teaching and in the work of our schools; the following link shows a copy of a Wordle which shows the many ways through which we deliver learning for sustainability: bit.ly/GTCSSust

Other useful links include:

www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/curriculum/ACE/LearningforSustainability learningforsustainabilityscotland.org/ www.britishcouncil.org/school-resources

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About Nicola Davies Nicola Davies has always been fascinated by animals and describes her early memories and experiences on her website including when she received her first pair of binoculars. She talks about her first few jobs which began with studying geese in Scotland moving on to hand rearing jackdaws before securing a job watching humpbacked whales. She is a zoologist and children’s author and was also a TV presenter on the Really Wild Show.

Her books help us to see issues in our world such as pollution and climate change and how we might contribute to putting this right. Her fictional series ‘Heroes of the Wild’ provides the reader with short, action packed stories which hold some powerful messages about conservation and the threats to our wildlife. Her non-fiction book Gaia Warriors gives us lots of ideas about how to ‘live differently, change minds AND have fun doing it’.

http://www.nicola-davies.com/ http://www.walker.co.uk/contributors/Nicola-Davies-2580.aspx

The Leopard’s TailMalik lives with his grandparents in a small village in Armenia, and loves the local landscape and wildlife. He is fascinated by tales of the local mountain and is keen to explore more, especially after one visit which resulted in a leopard sighting.

Malik discovers a plot which initially appears to be a case of poaching but on further investigation is much more. Together with the new girl in school, Malik works to bring down the business that has resorted to wholesale slaughter of the animals on the mountainside to give way for a gold mine proposition.

This book is short, action-packed and a real page turner. It is a very accessible read and may encourage reluctant readers to continue to read to find out what happens next. There are more books in the ‘Heroes of the Wild’ series to check out when you’re done!

ActivitiesAdvertising the Shamovar National Wildlife Refuge LIT 1/2-26a, LIT 1/2-29a

In the epilogue, we find Malik and Larisa all grown up and hosting the opening of their Refuge Centre. There’s a glass and timber visitor centre and the leopards and other

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animals are thriving. Malik talks about having one big international wilderness reserve as his big dream.

Have your class create posters to advertise the Refuge, either to visit, or to offer donations.

Perhaps your class would like to create adoption applications and certificates for the centre, just as we see in many zoos and wildlife centres. These are great opportunities for short, persuasive writing pieces.

Design the Visitor Centre Building TCH 1/2-15a, TCH 1/2-12a

The only description of the visitor centre for the wildlife refuge is that it is a ‘beautiful little glass and timber building…Larisa’s dad was laying out leaflets about the reserve and pinning up posters to help visitors identify animals and plants.’

Can your class design this building? What style would thy make it and why would there be so much glass? Think about wheelchair access and the fact that the centre is up a steep track so most people would access it by car. Would the centre be an eco-building and if so, what features would it have? Could this be a 3D model?

Abandoned Buildings/Spaces LIT 1/2-10a, LIT 1/2-20a, LIT 1/2-26a

Malik’s grandfather has a job as security guard at the abandoned rubber factory. Abandoned buildings and spaces always fire the imagination.

It is important at the outset to discuss the dangers of being near any local buildings or spaces which are no longer in use, as well as illegal trespassing and its consequences. We need to stress that fictional activities are just that – adventures we might imagine, but should never to be encouraged to take part in, in real life. This should not prevent us taking our classes to spaces with recognised public access e.g. castle ruins. These places can be the impetus for some amazing writing.

There are abandoned or ghost towns all across the world. The Bond movie Skyfall features an abandoned island where the villain imprisons 007. This island truly exists and has a special history of its own as an industrial town owned by Japan. You can find out all about the island here www.hashima-island.co.uk and here bit.ly/HashimaIsland.

Use this as a springboard for your pupils to work in small groups to create different environments of their own. Activities you could develop could include

A ‘location’ for the environment A back story for what the area was once used

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A reason for the abandonment The environmental impact of the area Models, maps and/or artwork

Have your groups present their abandoned places to the class to encourage presentation skills. Could they use electronic visual aids which take them away from PowerPoints – Prezi for example? prezi.com/. You can find plenty of tutorial videos for Prezi on YouTube: bit.ly/PreziLearn

After this, ask pupils to create extended pieces of writing with descriptions or stories of events in their places; characters who lived there; people who discovered the place or atmospheric scene-setting descriptions.

You can find out about some abandoned places in Scotland here: bit.ly/ScotlandAbandonded

First Aid LIT 1/2-26a, LIT 1/2-28a, HWB 1/2-16a, HWB 1/2-17a

Early in the novel Malik is knocked unconscious by a falling boulder. What would your learners do if they came across someone in this state? How much first aid do they know?

Arrange for your class to receive some lessons on treating others. Every school has a designated First Aider; perhaps they could come and teach your class some techniques. The recovery position is simple to learn and it is empowering for children to discover they can roll an adult over if given the correct instruction. How to handle first aid outdoors adds an extra element of skill.

The British Red Cross has a great resource aimed at primary teachers and their classes, and the St John’s ambulance website has some useful information too:

Red Cross: bit.ly/RedCross1stAid St John’s: bit.ly/StJohnInfo

There will be local organisations who would be happy to come in to schools to help with this, which in turn can raise awareness of voluntary organisations in your area and their contribution to your community.

After pupils have learned about first aid, ask them to create instruction booklets or laminated aide-memoires for first aid skills. This could be a useful resource for when you are out and about with your class. Ask pupils tothink about how these instructions could be developed to help those with English as an Additional Language. Could you have family members come in to help write these instructions in other languages? What sort of visual aids could you create?

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Ask pupils to make up a class first aid box/rucksack for outdoor adventures. Get them to help to make up the list of contents and draw up a budget. The class could then research prices for the equipment and see how far they could stretch that budget. What would be the essentials? Could they find alternatives (what could they use to stabilise a suspected broken leg or arm if they couldn’t afford to buy splits)? Spend time outdoors dressed appropriately and set up scenarios for your class where they need to use what they have, to improvise: for example, a school sweatshirt can be fashioned into a form of sling.

Ask pupils to produce basic question and answer phrases for your 1 + 2 Languages e.g. questions like, ‘Where is the nearest doctor/hospital?’ or ‘Does anyone have a phone?’ and of course the most important one, ‘Help!’ Get them to make cards with phrases such as ‘I am allergic to nuts. Does this item contain any?’ They would be useful to share across your school and parent community for people to take on holiday.

The following link gives information about the essential contents of a basic first aid kit: bit.ly/FirstAidContents

Taking this further, invite your local mountain/RNLI rescue team in to show you their work. The mountain rescue teams will often bring their dogs and show the children how they search out lost people. Leaflets encouraging people to contribute to, or join these groups could be designed and distributed. A series of ‘public information’ videos could be made if you were looking to encourage IT skills.

Scottish Mountain Rescue - www.scottishmountainrescue.org/ RNLI - rnli.org/

Camping Out HWB 1/2-16a, LIT 1/2-26a, LIT 1/2-28a

Malik often spends time out on the mountain overnight. What would your learners take with them and how would they organise their camp? What would they do to keep safe?

They may suggest lighting a small fire to keep animals away or for cooking. If you are confident and can make appropriate risk assessments, you may wish to take to the pen spaces round your school and light your own fires to encourage understanding of safe fire building techniques.

If spaces are not available or you feel less confident, you could have colander fires in the playground. These use little equipment and firewood and are generally very successful. Ensure you have appropriate risk assessments and adult to pupil ratios – I would recommend one adult per fire with a maximum of 6 children at each fire and you as overall supervisor.

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You will need an old roasting tin, colander and 2 bricks. Place the roasting tin on a flat piece of ground well away from overhanging trees or shrubbery; put the bricks in the tin and place the colander on top of the bricks; from here on in make a fire as you normally would but all within the colander. Don’s use any accelerants for starting the fire – newspaper and matches will be sufficient.

After this, get pupils to pitch a tent! If you can, find an old-fashioned tent with dollies and loop fasteners rather than zips to pitch as well, so pupils can compare tent evolution. Local Scout or Guide groups may have access to older tents for you to use – not that they all use them now. Leaders may even come in and help. Look to local Facebook and twitter links to find your area’s groups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X5kB00nx6U (homemade tent)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9ePnYERqq4 (pitching a patrol tent)

There are the obvious links here to instructional writing and ‘warning’ posters. You could do the previous First Aid project, which also incorporates instructional writing, and then do this one so you have a good proxy for the learning. There are also great opportunities for parental involvement.

Reluctant readers may be encouraged to read instructions to help them set their fire up before it is lit, and if you can, prepare picture instructions, as pupils with EAL needs may find accessing the instructions easier this way.

Larisa the Eco Warrior SOC 1/2-08a

Malik has difficulty making friends, but through his passion for wildlife, he ends up befriending Larisa who is new to the village. Larisa was expelled from her previous school for attending a climate change demonstration. She is the perfect friend for him and understands completely what Malik wants to do.

Linking up with Nicola Davies’ book Gaia Warriors, have your class investigate climate change and what we can do to help. Browse through the activities inspired by Gaia Warriors beginning on page 12 of this resource: even if you don’t own the book, many of the activities should still be doable!

Challenge pupils to make displays or create videos to spread the word to others: they could produce videos in different languages or create subtitles in other languages to accompany the English dialogue.

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Man’s Best Friend? HWB 1/2-44a/b

Malik is a compassionate boy who always has at least one injured animal or bird to care for. He finds it hard to make friends in school yet has so much caring to give.

Hold a discussion with your class about friendships and how making friends can be easier for some people and tricky for others. Why do they think this might be? There are all sorts of different types of friend: the supportive one; the leader; the follower, etc. Can they identify which type of friend they are? Ask them to make up an anonymous survey as a class and answer it individually to see how everyone feels about friendships – often there is someone feeling lonely or left out without others realising it. Collate the survey’s results and create an action plan to address any issues raised. Review the situation the following term – has anything changed?

This book list gives suggestions for further reading on the ups and downs of friendship: bit.ly/FriendBooks. You could also get pupils to explore friendship by creating short plays depicting different dilemmas faced by friends.

Poachers SCN 1/2-20a, SCN 2-01a

Initially, Malik thinks the men are animal poachers looking for the best skins, but it soon becomes clear this is simply a bonus for the men and the real plan is to destroy all animal life on the mountain.

Ask your class to investigate the issue of poaching. What do the poachers want? What is being done about this? Which animals are under most threat through poaching?

www.awf.org/campaigns/poaching-infographic/ www.worldwildlife.org/threats/illegal-wildlife-trade

Dodos SCN 2-01a

Zelo’s henchmen show no sense of guilt or compassion: ‘Humans are good at killing animals – just think of the dodos!’

What animals are close to extinction in our lifetime? Linking with the previous Poachers activity, research the most endangered species. Present the class findings in a way which engages younger classes, e.g. mini films, or an awareness day/week. Perhaps every class could choose a particular species to investigate. The school may wish to fundraise for a particular project they have researched – this could lead to an entire enterprise project.

Here is a fantastic school resource to get you started which raises awareness of Sumatran Orang-utans: http://bit.ly/OrangutansSOS

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Preserve the evidence SCN 1/2-01a

Malik and Larisa gather evidence to help with their case to stop the gold mining proposal. They know that persuasion alone will not help sway the government representative. They find scat, take photos of teeth marks on a leopard kill, and even manage to catch the leopard on film using hidden night cameras.

If your class was trying to collate evidence to prove the presence of wildlife in your area, what could they do? Choose an area where your class want to investigate. What will you all need to do? Can you create some sort of hideout to watch for the wildlife, even if this is a cardboard structure in front of a window in your classroom to observe birdlife at a feeding table? Create observation sheets, and use cameras. Are pupils able to find prints on the ground? If prints can be seen, try to preserve these by making plaster cast copies. Research the sightings and observations so that you can confirm the species you have discovered. The following resources should be helpful:

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/activities/ (general website address for you to explore – the spotter sheets are particularly useful)

www.wildlifewatch.org.uk/activities/leader-outside/plaster-cast-footprints

Take this further and make spotter sheets for younger classes to use to help them identify what they might be able to see. The RSPB Great Garden Bird Watch has some good resources to help you which you could adapt for animals. You may even wish to take part in the event, even if it is not at the same time as the official watch.

ww2.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch? gclid=COGvnJzbvdECFcMy0woduggC8Q

Milking the Cow and One Planet Picnic HWB 1-30b, HWB 1/2-35a, SOC 1/2-22a

Malik returns from one of his trips up the mountain with the village herdsman and milks the family cow. For a fun activity, why not try to make butter with your class, or even yoghurt. Look at how you might incorporate this into a One Planet Picnic project, details of which can be found on the Eco-Schools website. The picnic focusses on the idea that the produce used for the meal is either/and ethically produced, seasonal, local or organic. You could bake bread using this criterion and enjoy some delicious bread and butter! One Planet Picnic need not be a feast of gargantuan proportions but there is scope for lots of literacy and numeracy activities along the way including recipe writing, reporting, budgets and costings and if you sell your bread and butter as a break time tuckshop, you could discuss profit and loss as well. This is another enterprise project in the making.

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There are opportunities here for a transition project with feeder primaries setting up a farmers’ market, or café with one school producing the butter, another the bread, another the jam…lots of possibilities here. They might even be able to produce their food in the home economics department of their secondary school as part of a health and wellbeing day.

http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/sustainable-development-education/food-and-the-environment/one-planet-picnic/

http://www.primaryscience.ie/media/pdfs/col/sci_at_home_make_butter.pdf

Armenia SOC 1-13a, SOC 2-19a

This story is set in Armenia and Nicola Davies provides information at the back of the book about the country. Spend some time with your class finding out about Armenian culture and geography. Make a comparison with our lives here. Perhaps you have families from this area of the world learning with you in your school or your community. Your class could invite the families to come in and share different aspects of their cultures e.g. their foods and festivals or their education system

Hold an international day and celebrate the different cultures within your school and community. Connecting Classrooms encourages teachers to become involved in the selection process to be able to visit with school in other parts of the world. There are specific courses teachers are required to take to qualify; nevertheless, there are plenty of resources to explore even if you cannot apply for a partner school. Many of the resources encourage collaboration and critical thinking – skills gaining momentum in our classrooms.

https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/about-schools-online/about-programmes/connecting-classrooms

Art Inspired by the Armenian National Flag EXA 1/2-02a, EXA 1/2-03a

Armenia’s flag has three horizontal stripes of equal width, red on the top, then blue and orange/apricot. Use the colours to create some optical illusion art. There are lots of suggestions online if you don’t feel confident with this to begin with. The link below is a good starting point. It’s a little slow but gives you a chance to draw a long with it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x3rzgkilog Try hand painting instead.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2LrmAThAhk

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Moving for a better life SOC 2-15a, HWB 1/2-05a, HWB 1/2-09a

Malik lives with his grandparents as his father and older brothers are living and working in Russia where their prospects are better. This has been a feature of life across the centuries all over the world and continues today.

Have your class imagine what it might be like to leave home for a better life elsewhere. Where would they go, what would they do and how would it feel to be uprooted from everything they know? How might those left behind feel? Change the idea up and think about how things turn out in the new country. You could develop a literacy project here with imaginative writing, or link the idea back to social subjects such as the Highland Clearances and child evacuees during WWII.

Your class could also look at how they might help children coming into your school from another country. Could they create EAL-friendly signs for use around your school, or welcome leaflets perhaps?

See the Highland Learning blog for examples: bit.ly/LingSigns

You may wish to delve deeper into the subject of migration and refugees (depending on the circumstances in your own place of learning) using activities from UNICEF’s Convention for the Rights of the Child, and create greater awareness amongst your learners about their rights and how some children do not have these rights observed. This could lead into considerations for developing your school as a Rights Respecting School – another huge area within learning through sustainability.

You’ll find the Rights Respecting School resources here: bit.ly/RespectRightsUNICEF

Toxic Waste SOC 2-08a/b, TCH 2-19a

Most people like a bit of ‘bling’ but if we appreciated the toxic waste produced in the mining of gold, would we be so complacent? Malik and Larisa try to get others to see that Zelo and his cronies will need to dispose of the arsenic, cyanide and lead which could potentially pollute their water supplies and the ground they need for farming. Zelo dismisses the issue as a ‘little problem to deal with when we have some gold in our hand’.

Have your class investigate this toxic waste and its safe disposal. What other industries produce dangerous waste and what are the companies doing about it? There are lots of research possibilities here as transition or home learning topics.

The No Dirty Gold website is a good starting point: bit.ly/GoldImpact

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Language 1+2 – Building Vocabulary MLAN 2-12a

Using the animals featured in the novel, or perhaps the research projects you choose to engage in, can your class create flashcards for the animals in the 1+2 languages used in your school? Perhaps they could work with the younger classes to try them out. Could they adapt these and design a board game, including basic rules?

Gaia WarriorsGaia Warriors is a non-fiction book packed with information and ideas relating to global warming. It contains quotes and articles about people who are trying to find ways forward as well as some quotes from people showing that true understanding of the situation is not universal.

The final section contains an ‘Afterword by James Lovelock’ who is the scientist behind the Gaia Theory. He refers to the ‘living planet’ as Gaia.

For explanations of the Gaia Theory including video clips for children, the following links may be helpful. There are many works you might like to read. Lovelock doesn’t describe himself as an environmentalist but is concerned about the environment e.g. he does believe in fracking and nuclear energy.

http://encyclopedia.kids.net.au/page/ga/Gaia_theory (read this with a critical eye as there is an ‘editing war’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvqMamiu2b4 (illustrated video offering an explanation suitable for older primaries)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuJsBJYzPE8 (James Lovelock 2016 - a quick introduction for the teacher before looking further)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqwZJDEZ9Ng (programme Beautiful Minds)

ActivitiesFootprint Friends (suggestion taken directly from the book p94) SOC 2-09a

A site exclusively for young people aged 10-18 with a forum for them to share their views on climate change and includes competitions and the chance to upload their footprints. You are invited to paint your feet to symbolise the footprint you want to leave on the planet. This is an activity you could easily adapt for younger classes.

http://www.footprintfriends.com/home.htm 12

Global Action Plan (suggestion taken directly from the book p102) SOC 2-08a, SOC 2-09a

This website offers plenty of ideas for school to help them make practical changes: www.globalactionplan.org.uk/Pages/Category/at-school

If you don’t already do so, carry out an Environmental Review using the Eco Schools format. This will help you to identify areas for development: www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/sustainable-development-education/eco-schools/seven-elements/environmental-review/

Climate Refugees SOC 2-08a, SOC, SOC 2-13a

The book talks about the peoples around the world whose whole lifestyle is threatened by climate change.

Investigate this further as a class. How would your learners feel if this was happening to them? Use this as a stimulus for personal writing. What traditions will be lost when the homelands have gone? How can we preserve the memories and traditions? Closer to home, have a little look at St Kilda and how the island has reverted back to the wild over the past few decades.

Gaia Fashionistas HWB 2-33a, TCH 1/2-02a

Davies gives us lots of ideas to help reduce CO2 when we think about washing clothes – she tells us to wash at 30°, dry on a wash line and don’t iron which can drop emissions of CO2 by half over the lifetime of the clothing item. Organise with your class to add stains to squares of material and test them out in a 30° wash – which ones worked? Stains could include grass, school paint, whiteboard markers or felt tips, school lunch…your class will have great fun thinking these up! How can we solve the problem of stains which don’t wash out? Get the class to investigate ‘green’ stain removers.

Clothes last longer when folded and put away – scientific fact, so says Nicola Davies! Challenge your class to a home learning task where they keep all their clothes off the floor and into drawers etc. for a week! This could be linked to numeracy with the creation of charts; the mapping and redesigning of drawer layouts; the most economical way of folding a t-shirt to make the most of the space available…

The book also suggests holding a swishing party, which is a means of swapping clothes. Everyone brings their unwanted clothing item and leaves with one they want from someone else. This might serve as a fundraiser or eco-event with the whole school involved.

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Interviews LIT 1/2-02a, LIT 1/2-09a, LIT 1/2-10a, LIT 1/2-28a, LIT 1/2-29a

There are lots of views expressed in Gaia Warriors and Nicola Davies has clearly spoken to many people before writing her book.

Have your class write to local people with influence/involvement in climate change in your area: councillors; business owners; farmers; etc, inviting them to come in to sit in a ‘hot seat’ and answer questions about their role and what they are doing to help us. Your class should talk about the tone they wish these interviews to take – interviews in the media often portray an aggressive questioning style – is that what is needed to achieve results?

Take the interview results and create reports for each one. Make a class magazine with the results.

CO2 – Our Carbon Footprint SCN 1/2-04a, TCH 1/2-02a

Gaia Warriors constantly references carbon footprint. The phrase is constantly bandied about in the media now, but do we really know what it is and how it involves us?

Investigate this as a research project with your learners, either as a home learning task, or a challenge in class. Can they develop an assembly about this and present it to the school, or help out your school Eco Committee? Have a go at calculating either family carbon footprints, or that of the school.

There are lots of websites to help with this. Here is one to whet the appetite: http://www.greeneducationfoundation.org/institute/lesson-clearinghouse/277-Calculating-Your-Foodometer.html (American site with lesson plans which can be adapted)

Deforestation SCN 2-04a SOC 1/2-13a

Deforestation is a huge issue worldwide and the facts and figures revealed in this book really bring this home.

Ask pupils to find out what areas of our world are most affected and what is being done to help alleviate the problems. This could be developed into a whole-school project with different year groups focussing on different aspects of the deforestation and its effects or areas of the world most affected. Aspects to be considered might include some of the issues mentioned in the book: the biology of a tree and what it gives back to us e.g. fewer trees means less rain; deforestation releases the CO2 stored in the trees; trees are uprooted to make way for farming; deforestation occurs to grow biofuels for cars and flooding and landslides.

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Pupils could create a labelled map giving information about deforestation, or create a custom Google map with the information. Find out how to create a custom Google map in our other Nicola Davies learning resource on this page: bit.ly/NicDaviesResource

Paleoclimatologists HWB 1/2-19a

Nicola Davies interviews Nerilie Abram who is a paleoclimatologist – someone who studies what climate was like in the past. What other careers are out there for people who are interested in the environment and ways to care for our world? Sometimes they are referred to as Green Jobs. They span a wide range of industries and professional fields.

As a transition activity for the feeder school to your local secondary, why not plan a Green Jobs fair and invite various companies to come along to show everyone what they do and why it is important. Your class could include writing to the companies and seeking out people with related careers.

The article below will give you some great ideas to start you off: on.natgeo.com/2knAZBB

Pupils could write an application for one of these jobs, or create a video application.

British Antarctic Survey SOC 1/2-12b, SOC 1/2-13b

Nicola Davies highlights the work of the British Antarctic Survey. Have your class find out who they are and what they do. What relevance does their work have for us in school? The website has some fantastic resources for you to make use of.

https://www.bas.ac.uk/ https://www.bas.ac.uk/science/science-and-society/education/

Ask your pupils to research some other charities which are working towards sustainability, and present the work of their chosen charity to the rest of the class. They could write comic strips showing the work of the charity in action. Check out our blog series from Adam Murphy to help with creating comics: bit.ly/ AdamMurphyoncomics

Further ideasFlip Flotsam SOC 1/2=13a, TCH 1/2-14a

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Elspeth Murray is a Scottish poet and was inspired to write her poem about washed-up flip flops following a holiday in Kenya. She in turn, inspired a 30-minute film about the life of a flip flop, or pata-pata, from when it is made, to sold, to worn, to washed out to sea like so much other rubbish.

The film goes on to show that the flip flops are collected by the women of the Bajuni and are fashioned into children’s toys and craft items. The company is now known as Ocean Sole and sells worldwide. This is an absolutely enchanting film and your class will be charmed.

Read the poem out to your class, watch the film and discuss. This will no doubt lead to some interesting chat! Collect old flip-flops from your class and fashion them into little keyrings or toys.

Here is Elspeth Murray’s poem:

http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poetry/poems/flip-flotsam Watch the video about Ocean Sole here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=a7HymSjBDAE Ocean Sole website: http://ocean-sole.com/

Ask pupils to help others do the same by creating photo diaries showing how they made the keyrings or toys. You can use quadblogging to build an audience for your class blog: quadblogging.net/

The Chocolate Ice Cream HWB 1/2-35a, SOC 2-20a

Produce some choc ices for your class and give them each a small slice – or one each if you are feeling generous! Allow them the opportunity to enjoy its delicious flavours and perhaps even select their choicest descriptions of taste, smell, etc. for a short writing activity later.

When all the ice cream is gone and your class have finished expressing their love and devotion to their fabulous teacher, ask them ‘what had to happen for you to get a taste of this chocolate ice cream?’. Give them large sheets of paper and marker pens at each table and have them try to think of every process required to produce the sweet. Try to get them to think about where the raw ingredients were produced; the idea that indigenous peoples may have been displaced; cultural homelands destroyed; deforestation for farming all the way through to the transport required to get the goods to the local store; the packaging process and even the electricity for the freezer. The list is almost endless and the whole idea is for your learners to begin to think critically about their world and the demands placed on it by the consumer.

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This is an exercise in self-awareness and to help our young people appreciate that they might be able to do something to reduce the impact they have on the natural world. Watch the video from Magnum Ice Cream to get a commercial perspective.

http://www.magnumicecream.com/uk/sustainability.html http://www.globalexchange.org/fairtrade/cocoa/classroom

This may be a good follow up or lead in to the activity on page 11 where pupils investigated the production of jewellery.

UN’s Sustainable Development Goals TCH 1/2-02a/b

The United Nations has defined 17 goals to help tackle the world’s biggest problems by 2030. They address some of our most pressing global issues. Find out more and create a sustainability project around them. The British Council website holds an excellent article explaining the importance of goals and why we should teach our children about them. The article includes many links to resources which should help.

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/why-teach-uns-development-goals-and-how

Ivy and Bean What’s the Big Idea by Annie Barrows SCN 1/2-20a/b, EXA 1/2-01a

This activity is best suited for the Primary 4 classes but the ideas could be used with older children if adapted.

The book is about a class of grade 2 children in America and is a delightful observation of their learning. A group of older children come to the class to tell the youngsters of the plight of polar bears and global warming. Later their teacher tries to talk to them all about the subject for their upcoming science fair. The children act in a most despondent manner and are completely disinterested. When questioned, they asked what the point is if the world is already doomed?

Their teacher explains there are lots of things being done to help with global warming and the children’s enthusiasm returns. They all begin to plan their science fair projects around global warming. Ivy and her friend Bean begin working on their project by throwing ice cubes in the air whilst bouncing on a trampoline to cool down the atmosphere. Her older sister and friends mock them and they move to plan B. The book shows all the classmates’ projects as presented on the day and gives anyone reading it a sense of hope.

Plan a science fair where the projects are all to be based around a climate change theme. 17

Earth Hour TCH 1/2-02a

Earth Hour is an organisation which seeks to demonstrate in one simple act each year that even the smallest action can make a difference. Everyone is asked to switch their lights and other non-essential electrical items off for one hour across the world at a specific time on a specific day each year. Spend some time looking through the website for more details and order your school pack to participate: https://www.earthhour.org/

Outdoor Journeys HWB 1/2-25a

Simon Beames is a senior lecturer at the Outdoor Education Section of Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh. He is passionate about children learning out of doors and has created a learning project known as Outdoor Journeys. This type of learning has enthused those people who have had the privilege of hearing him lecture, or have tried the project out as adults. Take a look at the project online and try it out – you may be surprised at the results.

Find out more about the project here: http://outdoorjourneys.org.uk/ Find out about Simon: http://www.ed.ac.uk/education/institutes/etl/outdoor-

education/staff/programme-staff/dr-simon-beames

Other useful websites

These websites all have inspiring ideas and useful resources for teachers wanting to work on projects for Sustainability.

https://ypte.org.uk/lesson-plans https://learninglab.usgbc.org/ https://www.epa.gov/students/lesson-plans-teacher-guides-and-online-resources-

educators http://sustainableschoolsproject.org/sites/default/files/PromisingPracticesofEFS.pdf http://www.sustainableschoolsproject.org/curricula/sustainability-themed-family-

book-bags http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/sustainable-development-education/eco-

schools/

If you and your pupils loved Gaia Warriors and The Leopard’s Tail

Check out this list of books about conservation: bit.ly/9BooksConserv

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Or have a look at this list of non-fiction books about animals and insects: bit.ly/11creaturebooks

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