key messages
Children need to know about the changing seasons. Weather and climate are not the same thing; we sometimes have the same weather as, for example, a rainforest (rain) or a desert (sunshine), but our climate is very different.
Pollution, and more particularly what young children and their families can do to affect it, is a trickier concept to introduce. The key message is that pollution has a damaging effect on the world, but we can make changes that will have an impact. We can tell children that:
- Pollution in the air can make it hard for humans and animals to breathe and affects plants too.
- Pollution and waste in the sea can kill animals and plants.
- Pollution and waste that seep into the ground can poison our water.
- Pollution and waste is ugly and can impact our health and wellbeing.
planning ahead – create your own landfill
Talk to children about man-made and natural objects, and examine six to eight items to decide whether they might biodegrade (rot) or not – you could choose a plastic multi-link cube, a piece of paper, a teabag, a small feather, a metal spoon, a bamboo spoon and a china cup from a doll’s tea set. Explain that some objects will rot and disappear into the soil if they were buried; for example, leaves, feathers, wood and paper.
What do children think will happen to each of your objects if you bury them? There are plenty of horrible photos of landfill sites online and you can probably find images of your nearest one.
Find a space in the garden that will be undisturbed for several months and dig a short trench, approximately 15cm deep, in which to lay each object. Take a photo, print it and mark each object with children’s ‘will rot’ or ‘won’t rot’ guesses. Fill the trench back up with soil, press it down and mark it clearly so you know where to dig later. Wait at least four or five months before digging up the trench to see what has happened to your objects. Did children guess correctly? What can we do with our waste plastic and metal instead of burying it?
See our STEM article from August on anatomy if you’d like to have a go at burying a small (dead) animal to exhume and examine later.
in the moment
Record puddles and floods. On a rainy day, chalk around the largest puddles, and measure and photograph them. Compare how big puddles get in a light shower compared with a downpour.
On a sunny day, do likewise with shadows: mark an X on the ground with chalk and draw round an object or child places on the X. Redraw the shadow each hour during the day – why is the size and direction of the shadow changing?
Carry out a survey of what objects are made of in the garden, and whether they can be recycled or re-used. Show children examples of plastic/rubber, metal, wood and clay/earth/sand and ask them to point out where they can find them. Which are made by people, and which are ‘natural’ materials?
quick wins
Demonstrate how hard it can be to clear pollution: fill a tuff tray or similar with water, then add pollutants – for example, a splash of cooking oil in one corner, a squirt of paint in another, tiny pieces of paper and short lengths of cotton or wool. Now ask children to remove these using a tea strainer, tweezers or spoon. How difficult is it to get the water clean again? Would they drink that water now? What would have happened if animals or fish had been living in that water?- Test pollution by cleaning leaves: in your setting or at a park, collect leaves from trees that are close to and far away from a road or building. Bring them back and lay them on the ground, noting where each one came from. Dipping a cotton bud into water, gently wipe a leaf to see if any dirt comes off, then place the cotton bud next to the leaf. Test each leaf and discuss what children note from the colour of the cotton buds. Where has the dirt come from? If dirt gets stuck to a leaf, what do they think happens to that dirt (pollution) when it touches their skin or is breathed in?
- Show how the wind spreads litter: give children a handful of biodegradable lightweight objects and throw them into the wind – tiny fluffy feathers and shredded paper are good examples. Watch what happens – can children tell you the direction the wind is blowing in? How far might the feathers and paper go if you don’t pick them back up? Put flour into a balloon and pop it to show the wind blowing the ‘pollution’ all over your garden.
- Make icebergs by freezing water in large food tubs. Take children outdoors and walk around the garden, deciding which parts are the warmest and coldest. Place each iceberg in a baking tray and locate them in the warmest and coolest places and a few other sites, noting down the time and the temperature. How long do children think it will take your icebergs to melt? Which will melt first and which will last the longest?
continuous provision
It is likely you already have most of what you need to allow children to investigate the weather:
Umbrellas and ponchos; if you can source a ‘glass clear’ tarpaulin, they are huge fun to sit under on a rainy day.- STEM equipment such as magnifiers, clipboards, thermometers, anemometers (to measure wind speed) and rain gauges.
- Buckets, tins, jugs; sponges, nets and strainers; drainage channels, tuff trays and dirt or sand to play with and test water run-off.
- Flags and strips of fabric to demonstrate wind direction and relative speed.
- Books and posters. For example, search online for a simple Beaufort Scale poster to print, showing how trees bend as the wind strength increases.
- Building blocks and small-world resources to build towns, roads and factories
- Litter-pickers, brushes, dustpans and bins, ideally separated into types of recycling.
enhanced provision
Use tech to stretch children’s thinking about climate, weather and waste.
On tablets, look for examples of plastic in the oceans, polluted rain falling on crops and wildfires or collapsing icebergs caused by rising temperatures. It’s so important to share and talk about these issues in a positive way so that children don’t feel powerless – can we use less plastic? Can we walk sometimes instead of driving?- Source a hand-held digital thermometer. Measure the temperature under a shady tree and then out in full sunshine. On a chilly winter day, measure the ground temperature outdoors, then aim the digital thermometer at a carpet or rug indoors. What do we have to do to make our homes and the setting warm enough to live in? How do we keep ourselves warm when we go outdoors to play?
- Source a digital luggage scale. Each time you empty a waste bin, weigh it with the scale. Note the weight and compare it to previous days and to how much other items in the setting weigh. What can you all do to reduce the amount of waste being thrown away each day?
