Standard V – Environmental Education

Contents

Section I: The Environment – Near & Far………………………2

• Introducing the Environment…….…………………….………….2
• Plants and Animals………...………………………………………3
• Adapting to the Environment………………………..………..…...3
• Plants & Animals of the Desert……………………....……………3
• Plants & Animals of Cold Regions………………………………...3

Section II: The Environment & A Child’s Needs….……………4

• Dependence on the Environment…..……………………...………4
• Cloth & Clothing……………...…………………….……………..4

Section III: Care & Protection Of The Environment…….……....5

• Looking After Our Home………………………………………….5
• What Can We Do?…………………………………………………5

Some Useful Websites……………………………………………..6

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 Standard V – Section I: The Environment – Near & Far
Introducing the Environment !
The environment is everything around us. It includes the sky and the birds, a rock or a
river, your “Smokin Joe’s” pizza and the box it came in and even other people. The
environment is made up of living and non-living things. While rocks and sand and non-
living things, a parrot flying from tree to tree is a living thing. In fact, all plants and
animals are living things.
The Seven Characteristics of Living Things :
1. They need to take in food from the environment for energy.
2. Show some kind of movement (it may be internal or external).
3. Exchange gases with the environment (breathing).
4. Excrete & remove waste from the body.
5. All living things grow.
6. Sensitive to changes in the environment around them (feel).
7. All living things reproduce.
Sometimes it is not so easy to decide what is living and what is not. A car moves, but it is
not a living thing, while a tree doesn’t seem to move, but it is a living thing. Strawberry
jam came from a living plant but it is not a living thing.
See if you can distinguish between Living & Non-living. Label each of the
images below as a) living, b) always non-living c) non-living but once part of a
living thing.

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 Standard V – Section I: The Environment – Near & Far
Plants & Animals
Plants and animals are the two main
groups in living things. There are many
differences between plants and animals
but the main difference is that plants can
produce their own food while animals
cannot.
Can you think of more differences
between plants & animals. List them
in the table below.
Plants Animals
Plants & Animals of the Desert
Plants and animals of the desert have to
adapt to hot and dry conditions. There is
where little rainfall in the desert and so
the most important thing is conserving
water.
Shown below is a desert plant & a
desert animal.
How have they adapted to the hot
and dry desert condition?

Adapting to the Environment

The Earth has many different kinds of
environments. Some of them are cold
like the Himalayas while other are very Plants & Animals of Cold Regions
hot, like the Thar desert in India. In
order to live in these very different Plants and animals in cold regions have
places, plants and animals need to adapt to adapt to freezing temperatures, ice
to their surroundings. Sometimes the and snow.
environment may change so quickly that Shown below are 2 very different
living things are unable to adapt and die animals from a cold region. How
out. This may happen if there is a have they adapted their environment?
volcanic eruption or a meteor impact,
and it may also happen when humans
change the environment like burning a
forest or polluting a river.

Write examples of ways in which

people have changed nature in your
area & so have prevented plants &
animals from living in it

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Standard V – Section I: The Environment & A Child’s Needs
Dependence on the Environment
All living things depend on the environ-
ment in one way or another. The most
important things that the environment
gives us are food & water. While plants
are capable of producing their own food
animals like humans have to go in search
of food, or grow it as people do.
There are four kinds of food:
1. Carbohydrates (sugars)
2. Fats
3. Proteins
4. Minerals and Vitamins.
Carbohydrates and fats are energy foods,
they give us the energy to work, play and
move around. Proteins are foods that
help the body grow and repair itself.
These foods are very important for
children. Finally, minerals and vitamins
help our bodies function and are needed
for healthy tissues.
Assignment: A Food Diary
Write a diary of all the foods you eat for
breakfast, lunch and dinner for five days.
Put each food item into one of the food
categories shown above. Bring your
diary to class and within your group
discuss which foods from your diet are
healthy and which are not.
Cloth & Clothing
As human beings we also depend on the
environment for other things, things that
most animals and plants don’t need. One
of these essential products is cloth.
Cloth is used for a variety of things but
one of the most important uses of cloth
is to create clothing.
Can you think of some other uses
for cloth? List these uses in the space
below:
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
There are many different kinds of cloth.
Most of them, like cotton is natural and
comes from a plant or animal, but other
materials like nylon are synthetic and
are man-made.
Match the natural cloth shown
below to its plant or animal source:
Cotton
Wool
Linen
Silk
Hemp/Jute
(Image References: Wikipedia, USDA, GFTCL)
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Standard V – Section III: Care & Protection Of The Environment
Looking After Our Home
Although the earth provides us with all
the things we need, food and water,
cloth, and materials for building houses
and offices, human beings have begun to
abuse the environment by either taking
more than we need (over-exploitation)
or destroying natural resources through
pollution and the destruction of natural
habitats.
Label the images below that show
some of the ways in which people
harm the environment
It is now very important that we learn to
take better care of out environment.
Successful protection needs responsible
governments & industries to implement
laws and policies to protect the natural
world. However, there is a lot that we
can do to help protect our planet Earth.
Assignment: Pollution Watch
Everyday, even if we don’t realize it, we
take part in different activities that cause
pollution. Try and find out how much
pollution you and your family create in a
day by making a table (like the one
shown below) of your activities. Try and
think of ways in which those activities
may have been avoided.
Time Activity Pollute? Alternative
8 am Breakfast NO -
10 am Car to School YES Bus
6 pm Ate wafers, YES Use a bin
threw packet
What Can We Do?
There are many different things, that we
as individuals can do to help protect and
look after our environment.
Some of these things include:
♦ Conserving water when we have a
bath or when we brush our teeth
♦ Taking public transport or forming
carpools
♦ Saying NO to plastics, using cloth or
paper bags.
♦ Recycling and reusing paper
♦ Not buying products made from
endangered plants and animals
Can you add to this list?
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 Standard VI – Some Useful Websites
‰ Food & Agriculture Organisation of the U.N
This UN site contains information on the environment, pollution and waste.
http://www.fao.org/

‰ U.N Environment Programme

Information on environmental issues and waste.
http://www.unep.org/

‰ Kids Against Waste

Information on waste generation and management.
http://www.kidsagainstwaste.org/#

‰ Recycle City (EPA – U.S.A)

A great website for students who want to learn more about waste and the three R’s.
http://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/

‰ Energy Hog
A fun website on energy and its conservation.
http://www.energyhog.org/childrens.htm

‰ Wikipedia
An online encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia