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 Planet: 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.
There are lots of fantastic tools within Purple Mash that can be used in relation to World Wildlife Day's 2024 theme, 'Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation.'
Children could use 2Survey to find out how much their classmates know about a particular species, or what they know about conservation in general. Results could then be organised in 2Graph. Students could also collect data from research and create graphs to highlight particular facts. This could then be collated in 2Blog to raise awareness.
Students may want to investigate wildlife in their local area, and represent this on 2Count or 2Graph.
Children could create a class database of endangered animals using a shared 2Investigate file, based on research they have completed.
Children 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 pupils 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! Don’t forget, if your class enjoy making computer games, they could enter the Purple Mash Games Design Competition, where this year's theme is Around the World.
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.
Due to this year's theme, the annual World Wildlife Day International Youth Art Contest allowed digital art to be entered. Sadly, it is now closed, but you can still encourage students to create a digital artwork that matches the brief:
'We ask that participants choose a species that benefits from innovative technologies, such as camera traps, tracking collars/tags, and more. The art does not need to portray these devices, just highlight the species for which these methods are in use ... Once the artist has decided on a species, they may depict it as an individual animal portrait or in its native habitat.' World Wildlife Day International Youth Art Contest
Children can use Purple Mash's paint tools 2Paint and 2Paint a Picture once they have chosen their animal species.
We would love to see any artwork created for World Wildlife Day - please do 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
