Feb. 21, 2024
On March 3rd, it is World Wildlife Day, a time to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants. The theme for World Wildlife Day 2024 is ‘Connecting People and Plant: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation’, and the focus is on how digital conservation technologies can help wildlife conservation. There’s a wide range of educational resources available within Purple Mash that support the theme that you can use to celebrate World Wildlife Day.
Students could research and write about a variety of endangered animals using writing templates, from the Sumatran Orangutan and the mountain gorilla to the poison dart frog and golden lion tamarin. They can discuss what they think might happen if people keep cutting down trees in the forest. Let them imagine they are visiting the rainforest and then write a postcard about their experiences using our Rainforest Template. They could also use our Rainforest Leaflet Template to create an informative leaflet to present their internet research on rainforests and what we can do to preserve them.
To help students with their writing projects, there are fantastic non-fiction texts about animals by DK Learning on Purple Mash! They include:
If you are a Serial Mash subscriber, you will also have access to full DK Learning non-fiction books, with some being perfect for World Wildlife Day.
There are also many lovely stories about wildlife within Serial Mash. Our recommendations are:
As well as DK Learning texts, Purple Mash also includes Resources on Popular Texts, so if you're reading a novel in class, check to see if there are resources for it there! Our newest resources are for Kensuke's Kingdom, which discusses gibbons and orangutans, so the book and resources work well for World Wildlife Day.
For a fun activity, try the Rainforest 2DIY 3D game. Can your students collect all the endangered animals before the chainsaws get to the trees and chop down their habitat? Once they complete the level, they could use 2DIY 3D to edit the game, adding more levels, different animals, more obstacles and even a tense backing track!
Away from forests, you could think about the rhino. Rhinos once roamed many places throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa and could be found in tropical forests alongside other habitats before they became critically endangered due to persistent poaching. You could make an informative poster to promote Rhino conservation using our poster template.
However you celebrate World Wildlife Day, please share your work with us on Facebook and Twitter.
World Wildlife Day information and posters
WWF endangered species information, including the rhino, tiger, and orangutan
