GRADE: ESAM: K-2

CONTENT STANDARD: Environmental Science

CONTENT TOPIC: Environmental Education

CONCEPT: The environment must be kept clean in order to be usable in the future.

CONTENT OBJECTIVE: H1.00 To understand how people affect their environment

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES: The learner will:

1.01 tell what is meant by the environment.
1.02 describe ways people affect their environment.

I. Definition of Environment
II. Ways we affect our environment

TN COMPONENT OF SCIENCE: Unifying Concepts of Science

TN GOAL:

To enable students to acquire scientific knowledge by applying concepts, theories, principles and laws from life/environmental, physical, and earth/space science.

2.5 CHANGE - Interactions within and among syatems may result in changes in the properties, position, movement, form, or function of systems.

2.5a Everything is constantly changing; rates of change vary overa wide scale with a great variety in patterns of change.

BENCHMARK: Some things may stay constant while ohers change.

2.5b Cycles of change can be extended in scales of time, space, and material.

BENCHMARK: Changes occur in various ways and may be altered by controlling some variables.

TIME REQUIRED:

30 minutes

Pictures of: a rain forest, Los Angeles, desert, beach (polluted and non-polluted), globe, U.S. map, magazines

(Display picture of a rain forest. Try to find a picture that includes animals. Ask the children to tell what they see. Make a list of their responses.) This is a picture of a rain forest. You can see many things in the picture. All these things make up the environment. Today we are going to learn what an "environment" is (Write the word on the board. Use extended arms to sweep the area all around you every time you use this word.) and ways that we change it.

Your environment is everything around you. It is where you live and with whom you live. It is all the plants and animals that are around you. It is the ground, air and water. Even the weather is part of your environment. Now lets look at our list of environmental things in a rain forest. Is there anything else we need to add? (You may need to add rich soil, clean air, hot, rainy weather conditions.)

A rain forest is a rich environment full of plant and animal life. But every day, hundreds of acres of rain forest are cut and burned. Thousands of animals lose their homes and plants are destroyed. Much of the land is being turned into cattle ranches or developed into towns. (The big book Where Forest Meets The Sea, by Jeanine Baker, Scholastic is a wonderful to use here!)

(Display a picture of a desert.) Now let's look at a different environment closer to home. Here is a desert environment. (Locate a desert on the map.) Who can name something that is part of a desert environment? (List responses on board - be sure to elicit sandy soil, little water, hot, dry weather conditions.) (Now display pictures of smoggy Los Angeles.) Over a hundred and fifty years ago, this city was just part of a desert. Then people began moving in. How did they change the environment? (List responses. Be sure to include dirty air and water.) Some days the air is so dirty that the radio station tells elderly and sick people to stay inside.

I have told you that your environment is everything around you. Now lets look around our room and name things that are parts of our own environment. (Make list of their responses. Tell the children to close their eyes and put their heads down and keep them down until you tell them different. Make changes in the room. Examples: throw books on floor, overturn the garbage can, turn over chairs, scribble on the board, create chalk dust or turn a record up loud.) Now raise your heads. What has happened to our environment? (response) Can we use our environment the way it is? (response) Why or why not? (response) How can we make our environment cleaner and safer? (response) (Have all the children help clean up the room.)

What is the big word we learned today? Right! We have been studying the environment. Now, let's spell this big word together. Show me, with your arms, your environment. Now, let's look at a beach. Name the things that make up this environment. (responses) (Show the polluted beach) How was this environment changed? (responses) What could you do to make it cleaner and safer? (responses) Write a story about the rain forest, desert or beach. Will your story have a happy ending? WhatÍs going to happen to your environment?

1. Find a picture of a polluted environment in a magazine. Cut it out and glue it on one-half of a sheet of paper. On the other half, have the student draw a picture of how he/she could clean up the environment.

2. Place in a center, a dishpan of sand in which bottle taps, candy wrappers, and other debris have been hidden. Have the students carefully remove the litter and place it in a small trash can.)

Where the Forest Meets The Sea, Jeannie Baker, Scholastic

50 Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth, The Earthworks Group

This is the time this file has been accessed since 03/01/2004.

The University of Tennessee at Martin is not responsible for the information or views expressed here.

Environmental Science Activities Manual: K-2 Home Page

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