5 - 7 Years (Key Stage 1)
Our lesson ideas are intended to enhance learning and embed sustainability into your teaching.
They are ideas designed to inspire and provoke further questioning and investigation by young people into social and environmental issues. They can be adapted in a variety of ways to suit your needs.
To see which subject areas the lesson ideas cover and how they link to the curriculum download our KS1 curriculum grid. To find out how they fit with the Eco-Schools nine topics, download our Eco-Schools KS1 topic grid.
Can't find what you're looking for? We have some more Key Stage 1 resources based around global citizenship and community cohesion developed in partnership with the Love Where You Live campaign. Visit our campaigns area to find out more.
There are also lots more free teaching resources on the Pod at www.jointhepod.org
Lesson Ideas
1. Design a car of the future (download pdf)
To design the Car of the Year 2050 to gain an understanding of how cars are powered, different types of fuel, and the natural resources that are used to make cars and the fuel they require.
2. An eco package for my cookies (download pdf)
To design packaging for some biscuits or cookies (you may have made them) to gain an appreciation of the use of resources (materials) and the resulting waste.
3. A bedroom for the future (download pdf)
To design your ideal bedroom, to gain an appreciation of its purpose, and in the process reduce the amount of energy you would use in it.
4. Making music (download pdf)
To compose a percussion accompaniment to the music. To listen and respond to the musical anthem Breathe. To discuss its significance and meaning and the moods it evokes. To look at a range of recycled materials that could be used to make an instrument and appreciate why we should use them.
5. Recycled crafts (download pdf)
To design and make a papier-mâché bowl and other items for a recycled craft exhibition to highlight how materials can be reused and recycled and waste reduced.
6. Healthy picnics (download pdf)
To design a balanced picnic meal that looks at the different foods we need to lead a healthy life.
7. You are what you eat (download pdf)
To produce a list of foods containing fat and review what you eat at home and what gives you energy to gain an appreciation that fat is an essential part of a healthy balanced diet.
8. Let's get fit! (download pdf)
To devise a simple exercise routine that would take five minutes at the start of the morning and afternoon school sessions that encourages us to exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle.
9. Wrap up (download pdf)
Design a sleeve that will prevent a bottle of warm water from cooling.
10. What fuel do you use? (download pdf)
To create charts that show the “fuel” we need if we are going to produce the energy that will get us to school. To develop an understanding of the sources of energy that are sustainable.
11. Sculpture trail (download pdf)
To produce a sculpture trail, either inside or outside, based on the theme mini beasts or sculptures of your chosen genre, to gain an understanding of the different types of mini beasts.
12. My playground (download pdf)
To investigate the playground and produce an action plan for improvement to create an inspiring and enjoyable place and environment in which to play and learn.
13. It might look good... but is it safe to drink? (download pdf)
To conduct an experiment to show how different materials dissolve in water and mount an exhibition showing our understanding of water and how we use it.
Download all our lesson ideas as a .zip file