At-home and at school learning resources from Learning for a Sustainable Future
Week 9: Hot Topic - UN Climate Change Conference COP 26
This week's LIO focuses on the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change COP 26, which takes place every November and brings together world governments and other interested parties to assess progress in dealing with climate change. 
Climate change is increasingly affecting human health, species distribution and the ability of the earth's ecosystems to sustain our economic, social and environmental needs. How we deal with the climate emergency is a crucial discussion that teachers and students should be actively engaged in. LSF and the Canadian Teachers' Federation, with support from the Ivey Foundation, launched a video competition in 2019 to hear from students and educators from all across Canada about the importance of climate change education and the steps they are taking to make a difference in their schools and community.
This week we invite you to view the videos and explore some of the suggested activities with your students. Create your own video showing what you and your students are doing at school to tackle climate change. Share your videos with us at #LearningInsideOut.
Activities
  • Learn all about reducing your carbon footprint in this What is Carbon Footprint video. Discuss ways you can reduce your carbon footprint at school and at home
  • Read Sandy’s Incredible Shrinking Footprint or listen to the story online. Discuss how Sandy’s efforts affect others around the world. Create a carbon footprint poster or a collage of reused, recycled and natural materials like in the book representing a way you can shrink your footprint
  • Have older students complete the carbon footprint worksheet to understand where emissions come from in their daily lives
  • Have younger students trace your foot and draw your footprint-reducing solutions (example here)
  • Try My Climate Actions to discover the actions you can take to reduce your carbon footprint, according to your habits!
  • Get outdoors and play Racing for Resources students learn how they can make responsible choices with the natural resources 
What did you think of Reducing Your Carbon Footprint?
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Activities
  • Watch Change the World in 5 minutes to become inspired by simple school activities that foster environment stewardship in the classroom
  • Try your hand at Climate Change Dodgeball, a great introduction activity before a climate change discussion
  • Encourage students to participate in a walk- or bike-to-school day. Use carbon calculators to measure the emissions they could save by choosing alternative transportation between their home and school
  • At least once a week, make a commitment with family to walk, bike, rollerblade, or skateboard to nearby locations instead of driving
  • Write letters to your principal, city councillor, or member of parliament about a transportation issue that the students would like to see change. Some examples include requesting more bike racks so that more students can bike to school or creating a carpool lane at the school drop-off zone. Encourage students to request things that will get more students walking or biking to school: more sidewalks, bike lanes, pedestrian-friendly intersections, and a walking school-bus program
  • Start a Walking Wednesday Club at your school to promote healthy lifestyle choices and reduce car trips to school. Here are some fun ideas to help you implement your WW Club
What did you think of What Are You Doing About Climate Change?
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Activities
  • Learn more about the Climate Emergency and the Youth Led Global Climate Strikes and how it has become a worldwide movement
  • Become acquainted with the concept of reusing and create your own reusable bags using old clothing items
  • Get outside and play Climate Balloons to learn how the North American lifestyle contributes to climate change and threatens the survival of those living in the developing world
  • Need more ideas and inspiration to take action on climate change; the Climate Leadership Toolkit offers ways to involve the whole school community in climate leadership around consumerism, waste reduction and energy consumption
  • Watch a few more videos to inspire your students to tackle climate change
What did you think of Climate Change Strikes, Leadership and Campaigns?
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Activities
  • Have students investigate buildings or homes in their area that are "off the grid." Using the Off the Grid lesson plan students learn and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of renewable and non-renewable energy sources
  • Have students design an eco-friendly home as a class. The concept of the lesson plan is to design an eco-friendly home and calculate what it would cost and which way would be the most cost efficient. As a class, map the first floor of one of the homes designed on the gym floor or outdoors, design an obstacle-course styled activity based on doing household movements for classmates to promote exercise
  • Complete the You Are What You Wear lesson plan to calculate the distance your clothes have travelled. Have students calculate the distance of the clothes they are wearing
What did you think of Renewable Energy, Eco Design and Sustainable Fashion?
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Activities
What did you think of Eco Clubs and Single Use Plastic?
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About Learning Inside Out

Above you will find a selection of activities, broken down by various grade levels. These guides will be released weekly and archived on our Learning Inside Out page, so you can always access the full catalogue.

All activities have been modified from resources on our R4R database, simplified and adapted for both outdoor learning in the school yard or at-home as needed. The activity descriptions above should contain all the information and links that you need!

If you'd like to view the full original resource on R4R, including curriculum connections for every province/territory, click the activity title.

We want this guide to work for you, so your feedback is invaluable to us.
Use the feedback button at the bottom of this Guide, or email us at info@LSF-LST.ca. We would also love to see photos of students engaging in the activities, please e-mail us any pictures or videos you have!
Let us know how this helped your learning and teaching from home or at school indoors and (hopefully) outdoors and what you'd like to see more of by filling out our brief feedback form!
Follow us on social media for continued weekly highlights & other exciting opportunities through the school year!
Please share widely with any parents and teachers in your life!
Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) is a Canadian charity with over 25 years of experience working within the education system. Our Resources for Rethinking (R4R) database is an award-winning collection of resources that are peer-reviewed by certified teachers and connected to curriculum in all provinces and territories. R4R is recommended on many Ministry of Education websites.
Learning for a Sustainable Future
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