Sept. 26, 2022
Big Green Week is the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. Taking place between 24th September and 2nd October, it aims to ‘unleash a wave of support for action to protect the planet. Last year there were over 5000 community events up and down the UK and this year they hope to see even more.
There’s lots you can do to take part. You can find events near you on even apply to host your own on Great Big Green Week’s website (link below).
For Purple Mash subscribers there are plenty of activities to try with children throughout Big Green Week and beyond. With topics ranging from climate change to deforestation, The Environment area is a great place to start.
To start with, there’s a Climate Change Slideshow that you can use in class to teach children about all sorts of topics from the Carbon Cycle and the Greenhouse Effect to energy saving tips. After going through the slides and stimulating discussion with children, you can put their knowledge to the test with one of the 2 climate change quizzes.
Recycling is one of many ways we can all protect the planet.
You can start with a debate, posing the question, ‘should people recycle their household waste?’ Use our worksheet to prepare a debate on the issue and encourage critical thinking. Other writing projects address circular, linear and recycling economies and the main waste issues we face, giving children an opportunity to express what they know about them. All writing projects come with structural cues, sentence starters and extension activities to keep everyone involved and these can all be edited in teacher mode too.
After your debate, why not create a poster to encourage others to take action to move towards more recycling and eventually a circular economy. There is plenty of clipart to choose from and children can upload or even draw their own images.
Alternatively, your class could design posters promoting recycling or warning of the dangers of littering. Just remember, think before you print! If you want to display them, you can build a digital display board right there, within Purple Mash itself, and make it available for friends and family to see.
Serial Mash subscribers can read The Litter Wish, which sees Emily greeted by a magical surprise while taking out the recycling. How will she react? There's only one way to find out! All 6 chapters are available in the library and like all Serial Mash books, they each come with a collection of comprehension exercises and writing activities.
If you’re not a subscriber, you can try Serial Mash free for 14 days.
There’s a wide variety of water conservation activities in the Environment area. Children can educate others about water conservation by designing a poster. If leaflets are more their style, there’s a template for that too, where children describe what they’d miss if they had to collect their own water. Younger learners might prefer the water jigsaw or decorating their own watering can.
Whatever type of activity you’re looking for during Big Green Week, there’s plenty more to explore in the Environment area.
We’d love to see what you get up to for Big Green Week. You can share your work with us on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
