Climate Change Lesson Plan for Kids
Length: 60 minutes
1st Part: Creation Story
Begin with the creation story from your faith tradition. I accompanied the creation story with pictures from Flickr Creative Commons. The children loved looking at the pictures and really connected them to the creation story.
Then, I had a few photos about pollution and climate change. My youngest child was 6, so I needed to be careful. I had pictures of a huge trash heap, men trying to fish in polluted water, a cracked and dry lake bottom, and two children drinking out of a puddle in Africa. We talked about what we have (water, land, food) and how other kids don’t have that. We talked about how we contribute to the problem by not using resources well and by not sharing.
2nd Part: Dividing Resources
This led to the first blanket exercise. Get a blanket and two pieces of twine. Have everyone stand on the blanket. Tell them the blanket represents resources like clean water, land, and fuel. With one piece of twine, give one child a large chunk of the blanket. Discuss fairness and America’s overuse of resources. Next, give another child a piece of twine and tell them that they can divide up the remaining resources. (This is pretty interesting.) Finally, give the America child their twine and ask them to divide the blanket more fairly. Then discuss why sharing is fair (kids are pretty clear on this concept!)
3rd Part: Working Together
This leads to the second blanket exercise. Take a blanket – not too big, based on how many kids. Have everyone stand on one side of the blanket. Tell them that this side represents the current state of the world – unsustainable and polluting. The other side of the blanket represents a sustainable, caring, clean world. Tell them that they have to flip the blanket and get to the other world, but everyone has to be on the blanket at all times. No stepping off and no putting one foot on the floor outside the blanket. Everyone must stand on the blanket at all time, although you can stand on one foot. (This is why the blanket needs to be the right size – if it is too big for the number of kids, it is too easy. This should be challenging.) It will take them a few tries and a lot of laughing, but they should be able to do it. Then ask what the moral is. (When I did it, one child says, “It is hard, but we can do it if we work together.)
4th Part: Make A Poster
To finish up, talk about different ways they could make a difference at home and have them create a poster about their ideas to display in your house of worship.
