Living Things, Their Habitats & Environment

This week, Lessons 1 & 2 are combined.

Objectives

To understand what is meant by ‘climate’ and ‘climate change’.

To understand that the Earth’s climate is changing over time, and some of the reasons for this.

Resources

Lined paper

Today's Lesson

Main Activity

Spend two lessons on the following activities.

Look at the two words ‘weather’ and ‘climate’ with your child. What is the difference between them?

(Answer: weather is concerned with the weather conditions now; climate is concerned with patterns in weather condition over a long time, e.g. 20 years. Weather can, of course, change quickly from day to day; changes in climate are studied by scientists over a long period of time.)

Use the Climate Change PowerPoint and discuss elements of climate change that affect our environment in any way.

📊 READ - Climate Change PowerPoint

Ask your child to ask questions to find out more about climate change. Questions could include:

How would I explain what climate change is to someone else?
What causes climate change?
Which parts of the world are affected most / least by climate change? Why is this?
What does climate change look like on different parts of our planet?

Look at the websites listed below. These should prove useful to guide your child’s questioning and research:

PLAY - The Climate Change Time Machine (NASA)

READ - What is the greenhouse effect? (NASA)

READ - Greenhouse effect (Britannica Kids)

Use the diagrams below to help your child understand the basics.

Ask your child to present their questioning and research in an interesting way so that they see the significance and importance of asking questions and finding ways to answer them.

Citations

[1] www.youtube.com [2] www.youtube.com [3] climatekids.nasa.gov [4] climatekids.nasa.gov [5] kids.britannica.com