Lesson video

Hello everybody, Miss Hughes here, what's your name? Great to meet you.

Behind me is our beautiful planet Earth.

We live on planet Earth.

Can you see the blue oceans on Earth? And can you see the land on Earth? It is where we live, but something bad is happening and Earth is in trouble.

Earth is going through something called climate change, where the planet is getting destroyed.

So in this lesson, we'll learn about climate change and understand the impact of cutting down trees on the rainforest.

There will be three lessons on climate change.

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

In this lesson we will listen to a story, learn what climate change is, learn about deforestation, the cutting down of trees in the rainforest, think of things that we can do to help and make some recycled art.

You're going to need some thick cardboard, old newspapers or magazines that you would be throwing out anyway and some scissors and glue.

Make sure that when you are handling or using scissors, you are always supervised by an adult because they can be dangerous.

Pause the video here, get what you need and we will begin.

Great.

Let's start by listening to a story.

This story is called "Greta and the Giants" by Zoe Tucker and Zoe Perisco.

The character in this story is called Greta.

Everybody say, "Hello, Greta." And Greta is based on a real person called, Greta Thunberg, who is striving to save planet Earth.

So I'm going to go back into Earth now and find a nice comfy seat to tell you the story.

"Greta and the Giants." "There was one girl who lived at the heart of a beautiful forest.

Her name was Greta." Her name was? "One morning, things weren't quite as they should be.

Greta stepped out into her garden and there, huddled together in the shadow of the trees, were all the animals in the forest.

A soft silvery-brown wolf stepped forward, with his tail low to the ground.

'Please help us,' he whispered.

'The forest is broken and we don't know where to go.

The Giants are running our home.

' The Giants had always been there, for as long as Greta could remember, but now they were worse than ever.

They were huge, lumbering oafs and they were always busy.

They chopped down trees to build homes.

Then they chopped down more trees and build bigger homes.

The house grew into towns and the town square into cities.

They built factories and shops and cars and plane.

They worked all day and all night, until eventually, there was hardly any forest left.

But the greedy Giants had forgotten how wonderful the forest was.

They didn't see all the little birds and bugs and butterflies and bears that trembled in the shadows.

And no one told them to stop because everyone was scared of them.

Everyone except Greta.

'Will you help us?' asked the wolf.

Greta looked around her.

The animals looked tired and sad.

She had to help them, but how? Then Greta had an idea.

The next morning, Greta went to the middle of the forest and waited for the Giants to come.

She stood alone, holding a big sign.

The sign said stop." It said? "She waited and waited.

On the first day, the Giants didn't see her and lumbered on by.

And on the second and third too.

But on the fourth day something strange happened.

A little boy who had been watching Greta made a sign and came and sat down next to her.

He didn't say much, but Greta knew he felt like she did.

Soon more people and animals saw what they were doing and joined in too." They've made lots of signs.

One says, save our forest! Stop! Action now! "Before long, a huge crowd filled the forest, stretching out to the city and the roads beyond.

They stood together and waited.

The crowd was so huge that the Giants stopped in their tracks.

'Please stop,' Greta cried.

Your greedy behaviour is spoiling our home.

You've broken the trees and trampled the flowers and now the bees and birds have flown away.

These are animals are homeless and our forest is dying.

' After Greta had spoken, everything was silent.

But then, everyone in the crowd began to shout.

'The smoke from your fires is choking the air.

' 'And please stop cutting down trees.

' 'You can help plant some new ones.

' 'And mend my home.

' 'We need to take care of our forest and live together.

Will you please try?' they all said.

The Giants shuffled and fidgeted and stomped their feet on the ground.

They were embarrassed and a little bit sad.

You see, the Giants was so busy building, they didn't see what they were doing to the forest or the animals that lived there.

The Giants felt terrible.

'We're sorry,' they said.

And they promise to try harder.

So from that day on, the greedy Giants weren't so greedy.

They slowed down and learn to sit quietly.

They stopped working all the time and instead took up new hobbies.

They stopped chopping down trees and learned all about gardening and living in the forest.

They cooked, repaired, tidied and shared and before long the forest became more beautiful than they could ever have imagined." The end.

Your turn.

The end.

That was a story about a little girl who noticed that the rainforest were getting damaged.

What were the Giants doing to damage the rainforest? Tell your screen.

That's right, the Giants were cutting down trees.

They were producing lots of smoke and it was cutting down the homes of lots of animals and polluting, clogging up or choking the air.

Now climate change is a very real thing that is happening to planet Earth.

And as humans, we are all responsible for trying to stop it.

But what is a climate? We live on planet Earth, which is made up of land, point to the land, and water, point to the water.

And there are lots of climates on planet Earth.

Climates are the weather patterns.

They are the weather patterns.

And some places on Earth have a hot climate and some places on Earth have a cold climate.

Let's take a look at the rainforest.

The rainforest has a warm and wet climate, we call it a humid climate.

We call it a humid climate.

What do you think the climate is like in this picture? Well done.

This is a picture of a polar place.

It is a very cold place made of snow and ice.

What about this desert here? What do you think the climate is like in the desert? The climate in the desert is very hot and dry, it doesn't have much rainfall.

So there are lots of different climates on Earth.

And each climate is the home to different animals.

If the climate changes too much, those animals won't survive.

It might get too hot or too cold or too dry for them to survive.

But something is happening to planet Earth and that's called climate change.

Climate change is where the Earth is gradually getting hotter over time.

It's gradually getting hotter over time.

And it's getting hotter because of the things that we, us humans, are doing.

We are causing the Earth to get hotter over time.

Here are some of the things that humans do, which are causing climate change, causing the Earth to get hotter.

Look at the screen and tell your screen some of the things humans are doing which cause climate change.

You can see that lots of these things are things that we might do every day.

We do things like eating meat, some of us do, and using plastic and throwing it out.

These things are quite bad for planet Earth because it means that they're causing waste and releasing dangerous gases into the air.

We also power things like machines and factories, which let off smoke and gases, which can be really harmful to the air.

Just like the Giants did in the story.

And we are chopping down trees in the rainforest.

That is very bad for our planet because we need those trees to survive as do the animals that live there.

So humans are causing climate change in lots of different ways.

But what does that mean? Well, climate change is very bad for planet Earth.

Climate change means that the Earth is getting hotter over time.

Let's look at the reasons that climate change is such bad news.

Climate change is causing the ice caps to melt.

The blocks of ice in the Arctic and Antarctica are becoming smaller and smaller, just like you can see here.

But what does that mean for the polar bears and the animals that live in polar habitats? Well, pretty soon they will have no where to live, or it will be too hot for them to survive.

So the ice caps melting is bad news.

Climate change is bad news for the rainforest too.

The rainforest is being cut down so that the trees can be turned into other things.

That leaves animals that only live in the rainforest very vulnerable as they have less places to shelter and less food to eat.

These animals have become endangered.

My turn, endangered.

Your turn, endangered.

And endangered means there are not many left.

And if we continue to cut down the rainforest, they will become extinct, which means that will be no, none of these animals left.

Some animals that are endangered are orangutans, jaguars and toucans.

And we want them to still live, so we must think about how we can save the rainforests.

Climate change is bad news for communities all over the world.

As the planet heats up and the climate, the weather patterns change, places are at risk of having floods, where there is too much water or droughts, where there is not enough rainfall.

So climate change is not good news for anybody.

A lot of information there, so let's see what we've learned to the little quiz.

Tell your screen, is climate change making the planet hotter or colder? Climate change is making planet Earth? It's making planet Earth hotter, it is heating up.

Now, I want you to tell your screen one thing that humans are doing that causes climate change.

Well done.

You might've mentioned that they;re cutting down trees.

Or you might've said that we're using machines, like cars, which are causing smoke and gases to be released into the air.

Or you might have said, we're eating too much meat or using too much plastic.

Humans do lots of things that cause climate change.

And one type of climate change that is happening is called deforestation.

My turn, deforestation.

Deforestation is the cutting down of trees in the rainforest.

It's the cutting ground of trees in the rainforest.

The rainforest is full of trees and life and we need rainforest and the trees to be able to survive.

Trees release oxygen into the air, which helps us to breathe.

But people are cutting down trees, just like the Giants in the story that we heard.

But why is deforestation happening? Well, people are cutting down trees in the rainforest for lots of different reasons.

One of those reasons is that there are trees in the rainforest that create palm oil, what you can see here, and palm oil can be used to make plastic.

Palm oil is not good news for the environment.

People are also cutting down trees so that they can build things.

They can build towns and houses and cities.

People are cutting down trees so they can build things.

And people are cutting down trees so they can use the wood to make other things like books, and like logs, which would be used as fuel.

So deforestation is happening for lots of different reasons.

The trees have being cut down for lots of different reasons and this is not good news for the environment.

It means that animal's habitats, their homes, are destroyed leaving species endangered, not many left.

And it is causing climate change, it's making the planet get hotter.

Now that may sound a little bit scary, but don't worry, there are lots of things that we as humans can do to slow down climate change and to help save planet Earth.

Here are some of them.

One of the main things that everybody can do is recycle their rubbish.

That means put it in a special bin so that your rubbish can be used again to make something different.

You might have different coloured bins in your homes, or you might have a special recycling area.

Recycling means that not so much new plastic will need to be made.

Here are just some of the things that you can recycle in your homes.

You can recycle plastic, paper and card, and glass.

What recycling do you have in your home? Tell your screen.

It's great to know that so many of you are recycling and lots of you are thinking about starting.

So here we have some objects where you can start right now.

We have a glass bottle, a newspaper, an empty plastic bottle, a box made of cardboard and some plastic bags and these all need to go into the recycling bin.

Pause the video here and sort the recycling into plastic, paper and cards and glass.

You can do this by telling your screen or writing it down.

How did you get on? Well done, I love that so many of you are having a go of recycling.

In the plastic bin you should have put the bag and the bottle.

In the cards and paper bin you should've put the box and the newspaper and the glass bottle in the glass bin.

You are all top recyclers, well done.

Now another thing that we can do to help slow down climate change is to use fewer cars, to not go on some many car journeys.

There are other ways that we can travel instead, if we're just going somewhere close.

Like using a bicycle or walking.

Tell your screen where you could ride a bicycle or walk.

Maybe to school, maybe to your friend's house and maybe to the park.

Maybe ask your grown-up if you could walk or use a bicycle to go someone rather than getting in the car.

And of course we can use less plastic.

We use plastic for so many different things.

You may have a plastic bottle that you take to school.

You may use plastic bags when you come home from the shops or you may package your food in plastic.

But there are some things we can use instead, which last longer, I mean the plastic doesn't have to be used so much.

You may have a reusable bottle that you put your drink in.

You may take a bag to the shop, rather than having a new plastic bag every time.

Or you may choose food from which are loose items, rather than choosing pre-packaged things.

So there are lots of things we can do to help slow down climate change.

I wonder what you're going to do.

Tell your screen, I am going to start.

Wow, I'm looking forward to seeing the changes that you make.

Now, were going to have a little go with recycling right now.

And we're going to turn some old newspapers and magazine into something different, we're going to recycle it.

For our recycled art we're going to make a photo frame.

We are turning things that we would throw out into a beautiful piece of artwork.

So follow the steps and then I'll leave them on the screen so that you can have a go at the end.

Number one, we're going to cut out a frame for our photo frame.

If you're using strong cardboard, your grown-up is going to need to help you with this because scissors can be dangerous.

I've chosen a rectangle shape, but maybe you'll make an overall photo frame or choose a different shape.

Tell the screen what shape your frame will be.

Lovely.

Number one, cut the frame.

Then, number two, you're going to roll bits of paper from old magazines or newspapers that you were going to throw out.

It's a really good skill to roll paper and you have to use your fingers to do it.

It might be a little bit fiddly, so ask a grown-up to help if you need.

Number two, roll the paper.

Then you're going to stick your rolls of paper around the edge of your photo frame to make it look beautiful.

I've chosen lots of different coloured pieces of paper so that my photo frame looks colourful and pretty.

Maybe you'll choose lots of colours or maybe you'll choose one colour.

Number three, stick the paper on your frame.

And number four, the most important part, you're going to add a photo onto your frame.

I've chosen a photo of me at graduations from when I went to university and I've stuck it behind my photo frame.

I wonder what photo you're going to choose and remember to find somewhere nice to hang it.

I think I'm going to hang mine in my bedroom.

Here are the steps you need to follow to make your recycled piece of art.

Number one, cut the frame.

Two, roll the paper.

Three, stick of paper on and four, add the photo.

I'd love to see some of your recycled photos frames.

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

Well done everybody, you've made your first piece of recycled art, art from something that you would otherwise have thrown out.

I've loved our climate change lesson.

I feel I know so much more about what's happening in the world and I feel prepared to do a little bit more recycling.

I wonder what you're going to do to help slow down climate change.

Maybe a little more recycling or using a little less plastic.

Have a lovely day everyone and I'll see you soon.

Bye.