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Patricia NewmanPatricia Newman
Sibert Honor Children's Book Author & Environmentalist
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children-conservation-sustainability

LitLinks: Show kids how to make choices for a sustainable world

September 4, 2024 LitLinks, LitLinks-Grade 3-5, LitLinks-Grade 6-8, LitLinks-High School No Comments
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GUEST BLOGGER LAURA PERDEW


Your-Sustainable-World-cover

Your Sustainable World is a book about choices and how everyone can play a role in protecting the planet, including kids. The book’s reading level is grades 3-5, but this activity can be adapted for all students!

What is sustainability?

  • Introduce sustainability to students. Discuss its meaning and why we need to focus on living more sustainably, making the connection between our everyday choices and the health of the planet. Conversations about climate change, overharvesting of natural resources, and the pollution of air, water, and soil will vary by grade level.
  • Ask students what they think sustainability in action looks like. These actions can be large or small – from organizing a school-wide clothing swap to unplugging devices – it all adds up.
  • Discuss other key vocabulary terms including fossil fuel, carbon footprint, food miles, and upcycling.

Read and take notes

  • Read Your Sustainable World in pairs, individually, or section-by-section as a class, based on the needs of the students.
  • After each section, students will discuss and list actionable steps and tips about how to live more sustainably.

Take action!

  • Create a class list of actionable steps kids can take to live more sustainably. 
  • Using the list, each student will identify one sustainable choice they can make to change a habit in their own life or in their family’s life. It might be a commitment to walk or bike to school, to upcycle a piece of clothing, or to stop using plastic straws. Allow students time to share their plan of action with others.
  • For one week, students will journal each day about their sustainable choice and how they are changing a habit for the good of the planet.
  • During the week, students conduct further research about their sustainable choice and how it makes a difference. This allows students to further understand the connection between their actions and the world around them.
fashion-sustainability
leftovers-sustainability
footprint-sustainability

From Your Sustainable World: A Kid’s Guide to Everyday Choices That Help the Planet by Laura Perdew (Capstone, 2024)

Sharing activities      

After students have spent a week putting their sustainable choice into action, it’s time to present what they’ve learned. The goal is to share what they’ve done and inspire others to consider making the same sustainable choice. Activities can be adapted to meet the age and ability of students. Here are a few ideas:

Poster – A call to action

    Students use their own experience and their research to persuade others to take the same action they did. Posters might include tips, how that sustainable choice makes a difference, or resources to use.

    Collection of poems

    Using their experience and research, students create a collection of poems that promote their sustainable choice. This might include a haiku about switching cloth napkins instead of paper, a limerick about loving your leftovers, or an ode to the earth.

    Do the math

    Students assess their week of action and research, and express it mathematically to highlight how even small sustainable actions add up. This might be a graph, pie chart, or bar graph. It could also include calculations. If a student used a refillable water bottle five days that week, how many plastic bottles would they save in a month? A year? What if the whole class started using refillable water bottles? Students will also write a short essay explaining their graphic.

    Write a graphic novel

    The graphic novel format is a great way for kids who love to draw to communicate what they know. Using their own week of action and their research, students write a short graphic novel to show how their sustainable choice makes a difference.

    Podcast

    Using the podcast format, students plan and record a short podcast session that highlights their sustainable choice based on both their own experience and research. Bonus points if they interview an expert!

    Challenge!

    Once the projects and sharing are complete, challenge students to stick to their first action and to make another sustainable choice.

    Featured image credit: “Children actively participate in conservation work in Kwale landscape, located in Kenya coastal forests. Wherever little they do locally, have Global impact.” by wwfunitedkingdom is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.


    Laura-Perdew-headshot

    Laura Perdew is a mom, author, writing coach, presenter, and former middle school teacher. Her passion for nature and the environment not only led her to move to Colorado decades ago, but also steered her toward writing for children. She writes both fiction and nonfiction for kids, including dozens of books for the education market. One of those, Biodiversity: Explore the Diversity of Life on Earth (Nomad Press, 2019) is on the Booklist editor’s list of the Top 10 Books on the Environment & Sustainability for Youth 2020. She lives, plays, and writes in Boulder, Colorado. Connect with her online:

    • Website: www.lauraperdew.com
    • Twitter: @lmperdew
    • Facebook: @authorLauraPerdew
    • Instagram: @authorlaurap
    • Pinterest: @lauraperdew
    • Bluesky: @lmperdew.bsky.social

    Click for more LITLINKS STEM + Literacy activities

    Tags: STEM+LiteracySTEM+Literacy Natural Science
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    • Home
    • Books
      • Sharks Unhooked: The Adventures of Cristina Zenato, Underwater Ranger
      • Giant Rays of Hope: Protecting Manta Rays to Safeguard the Sea
      • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
      • Planet Ocean
      • Eavesdropping on Elephants
      • Neema’s Reason To Smile
      • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
      • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
      • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
      • Ebola: Fears and Facts
      • Jingle the Brass
      • Nugget on the Flight Deck
      • Surviving Animal Attacks
      • Elite Operations series
      • Energy Lab series
      • QuickReads Fluency Library
      • Books for English language-learners
      • Writers write all kinds of things
    • Author Visit Programs
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      • Teacher Guides
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    • Writer Resources
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      • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
      • How I got my start
    • Who is Patricia Newman?
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      • Stay In Touch
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