Lesson video

Hello everybody, Miss Hughes here.

What's your name? Great to meet you all.

I'm out at sea today, and I'm looking out onto one of the beautiful oceans on planet earth.

Oceans are the large bodies of water that cover most of our planet.

You can see one behind me.

But our oceans are in trouble.

They are in danger of getting polluted.

That means that harmful chemicals and gases and smoke are getting into our oceans and harming them and the animals that live there.

So this lesson is about understanding what we can do to look after our oceans and to understand what steps can be taken to combat, to stop polluting the ocean.

There are three lessons on looking after our oceans.

The first with me, the second with Miss Sidenius, and the third with Mrs. Garrard.

In this lesson, we will listen to a story, look at things we can do to look after our oceans, and then we will make some ocean playdough.

You're going to need some things from the kitchen today.

So make sure to check with your grownup before getting any of these things.

And they will need to help you with measuring them out and making the playdough.

You'll need flour, salt, blue food colouring or paint, lemon juice, and vegetable oil.

Pause the video to get what you need, and restart when you're ready.

Great.

Let's begin by listening to a story.

And the character in our story is slightly unusual because the character in our story is made of plastic.

Here are some plastic things on the screen.

We use plastic a lot of the time.

Plastic is a manmade material.

It's something that's made by humans.

And it's made for lots of different reasons.

When do you use plastic? Tell your screen, "I use plastic for." You've named lots of reasons.

There are lots of plastic bottles, bags, and food packaging that we use.

But plastic can harm the oceans because plastic doesn't break down in the ocean, which means that it can pollute it.

It can release harmful chemicals and be dangerous or poisonous to the animals that live there.

So I'm going to introduce you to a little character called Polly Plastic.

Everyone say, "Hello, Polly Plastic." And Polly Plastic's got a bit of a sad story because nobody wants Polly Plastic.

Get comfortable, and I'll begin the story.

I'm Polly Plastic.

I'm a plastic bag.

And I was useful once.

I carried all of the food from the supermarket to the beach for a family.

I loved my new family, but when they finished their picnic, they left me on the beach and went home.

I thought nobody wanted me, but then two children came along, and they used me as a giant football.

It wasn't very nice, but I was pleased that somebody wanted me.

But then they kicked me out to sea.

I thought nobody wanted me, but then a little boy who was out fishing with his dad reels me in.

Finally, I thought, "I've got a new home." But the little boy took one look at me and threw me back into the ocean.

Away I floated.

And eventually, a sea turtle got trapped inside me.

I thought I'd made a friend, but the sea turtle didn't want me either, and wiggled and squiggled trying to get out of me.

But the sea turtle was trapped.

I felt really worried because I didn't want to harm the turtle.

It wasn't my fault that I was in the ocean.

But then, in I was reeled again by a fisherman.

"Here we go." I thought.

"Back out to sea, I'm thrown." But this fisherman was different.

This fisherman has an idea.

Gently, the fisherman pries the turtle apart from the bag and threw the turtle back into the ocean where the turtle was happy and swam away.

I thought I was going to go back into the ocean and upset some more turtles.

But the fisherman's idea was to turn me into a flag, a flag that would fly high on his fishing boat.

Now, I get to see the whole world and I've been recycled into something that someone wants.

The end.

Your turn.

I'm so glad that Polly Plastic got recycled, got turned into something new at the end of the story.

We use plastic for lots of important things, but when we throw plastic out, it can be really dangerous.

So it's a good idea to try and recycle, to reuse plastic as much as we can so that we don't need to make much more.

So now that we've heard Polly Plastic's story, let's think about some ways that we can look after our oceans.

The oceans are the big bodies of sea all around us.

Can you spot the oceans on our planet? This is planet earth where we live.

Point to the oceans.

Well done.

The oceans are all the blue parts.

They make up about 70%, over half, of the globe.

So the oceans are really important.

And the oceans are teeming with wildlife.

There are so many creatures that live there.

It's their habitat.

And oceans are important for lots of different reasons.

They produce oxygen, which helps us to breathe, and they help to regulate the climate, the weather patterns in the earth.

So oceans are super important part of earth.

But the oceans have a bit of a problem.

They're in trouble because they're getting polluted.

But what does pollution mean? Well, pollution are the gases, chemicals, and smoke that are harmful to our environment.

Pollution is harmful.

Pollution is, pollution is harmful.

So we want to try and stop pollution in our oceans.

Some of the pollution that is happening is on the screen.

I can see that a plastic bottle has been thrown and left in the ocean here.

What else can you see that is happening to our oceans? Tell your screen.

That's right.

Lots of rubbish is entering our oceans.

And lots of smoke and gases are being released into the air, which means that the fumes and the smoke are going into the ocean and polluting it.

But why is this a problem? Well, ocean pollution can be a problem for different reasons.

Ocean pollution, like rubbish, can be poisonous to the animals that live there.

Here, you can see a bird trying to eat a packet of crisps.

Do you think birds like crisps? No.

They don't want to eat the packet.

But because it's bright and colourful in the ocean, the bird thinks it's food.

That might make the bird really sick.

It can be poisonous.

Pollution in the ocean can also be dangerous.

This seal is trapped in a net that has been left and not put in the bin.

The poor seal might get hurt if he doesn't get any help.

So where is this pollution coming from? Well, pollution comes from rubbish and gases and smoke.

Tell your screen, "Pollution comes from rubbish and gases and smoke." So pollution in the ocean is bad news.

But don't worry.

There are lots of things we can do to look after our oceans.

And one thing we can all do is recycle.

We can recycle! Recycling means we find a way to reuse things that we would have otherwise thrown out.

That might be putting our rubbish into different bins.

Putting some rubbish in the plastic bins, some in the cardboard bin, and some in the glass bin.

Or it might be turning it into something new.

One thing we can all do is recycle.

We can also think of ways to use less machinery like cars.

We may choose to cycle or walk, if we only have a short distance to go on a journey.

I think that after listening to this lesson, I am going to try and use plastic bottles less.

I am going to try and always remember my refillable bottle.

What are you going to do to look after our oceans after this lesson? Tell your screen.

Wow.

It's lovely to hear so many of you are thinking of being more vigilant, thinking more carefully about doing some recycling.

Now, we're going to replicate the ocean.

We're going to make our own ocean.

And we're going to do this by making ocean playdough.

Now, the first thing we're going to do is measure the ingredients for the playdough.

You must be supervised by an adult to make this playdough.

We're going to be using a microwave, which would make the water very hot.

So if your adult is not available, you must not try this on your own.

You can instead pretend to make the playdough by following along with my instructions.

First, measure a cup of flour, 1/4 of a cup of salt, 3/4 of a cup of water, three tablespoons of lemon juice, a tablespoon of vegetable oil, and some blue food colouring or paint.

Pause the video here to do that, and restart when you're ready.

Great.

We're going to make some ocean playdough.

That means some blue playdough that looks just like the ocean.

And the first step is to heat the water and the lemon juice in a heat proof bowl.

It will take two minutes in the microwave, and this is a job that your grownup must do.

Number one, heat the water and lemon juice.

You can pause the video here if you want to do it one step at a time, or watch my instructions, and complete it at the end.

Number two, in a separate bowl, mix together the flour and salt.

Number three, when the water is hot, ask your grownup to add some food colouring or blue paint to the water.

Make sure that you do not touch the hot water as it might hurt you.

Number three, add the food colouring to the water.

Number four, now you're going to ask your grownup to help you mix the hot water together with the flour.

It will start to get a bit thicker.

Keep stirring it until it gets nice and thick, and then it will be time for step number five, to add to the vegetable oil.

You can drizzle a tablespoon across the top.

Then your playdough should start to form into a little ball.

And there, you have playdough that looks just like the ocean.

Now, if you want to practise your recycling, you might like to put some bottle tops or small bits of plastic in the playdough and practise picking them out so that you can say you have helped to stop pollution in the ocean.

Here are the steps on the screen.

If you need to, you can pause them here, and follow them along while you make the playdough with your grownup.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging Oak National and #LearnwithOak.

It's been great learning about ways to look after our ocean with you.

I feel so much clearer about the steps that I can take to help look after our oceans.

I hope you have a lovely rest of your day, and I'll see you soon.

Bye.