Teach & Learn
Resources for teachers and students of all ages!
Activities for Home and Classroom
If your child asks you about climate change, consider it an invitation to connect more deeply with earth's systems: the air, clouds, sky, soil, plants, water, bugs, bees, animals. If you don't know what to say to your chlid, don't sugar coat what's happening. "The earth needs our help, and there are a lot of amazing people working to help the earth. People like you and me can help our earth too, starting right here at home. Here's how."
Browse below for activities for kids and classrooms; dive deeper into resources for teachers below!
Listen to the Climate Sentinels!
Climate sentinels are species, places or events that help us understand problems with the environment and climate. What do you learn when you listen to them? Can you investigate your own climate sentinel? We'd love to listen to and learn from YOU!
Older kids: Read through the full Climate Sentinels StoryMap. Think about sentinels in your own neighborhoods or city.
Younger kids: Listen to the climate sentinels by clicking below. Think of how listening to the world around you changes your understanding of what's important. What can you listen for?
Teachers: This is a great project to do with a class. Have them brainstorm about climate sentinels and indicator species, work in groups to draw, map, and sound out what it means to prioritize nonhuman species!
The Regenerative Alphabet
Older Kids: Read "The Regenerative Alphabet", an A-Z adventure through the creative power of life on Earth. And check out the Twelve Principles of Regeneration." Write your own A-Z alphabet to bring abstract ideas of climate action into concrete focus.
Younger Kids: Read "Twelve Principles of Regeneration for Kids of All Ages" to learn how to think about the world in a different way. Can you see these principles in action on your playground or in your neighborhood? What ideas do you have to put these ideas into action?
Teachers: Use either or both books depending on learning level and goals to tailor brainstorming projects with your students! Base these in classrooms, campus, neighborhood and beyond!
A Feasible Utopia
Organized as a periodic table, this artwork asks viewers to consider which elements belong in our ideal societies. Create, download, and submit your own elemental symbol to be added to the utopian table.
Older kids: Wrap your heads around the elements in the Feasible Utopia. Brainstorm with a class or with friends about what elements you would create...then name them!
Younger kids: Think about your recipe for a better world--a happier, kinder, playful, and fun place that is also fair to everyone. Pretend you're a scientist or a chef and say what you'd include in your potion or meal. Then make those elements using our app!
Teachers and Parents: Feasible Utopia is a fun class exercise you can link into any classroom that empowers kids to think about the world they want to see. Use legos, Minecraft, drawings. Tailor to the different learner groups you work with. Look up the words "Feasible" and "Utopia" and have your learners translate them into kid language. Kids always have the best ideas, and we'd like to hear them!
SoCal Biodiversity True or False
How much do you and your class know about biodiversity in Southern California? What is an ecotone, anyways? Click here to test yourself on eight true/false SoCal questions.
We have lots of other flip games in the site! Explore the topic pages to play games about hydrogen, sea level rise, water, or the carbon cycle.
Band-Aids vs. Faucets
Memes are the highest art form of the Internet. Explore gifs, graphs, and ideas to expand awareness about climate change - and submit your favorite climate-related memes to add to our collection.
The Regenerative Countdown
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Planetary Boundaries
Teachers and older kids: Do research around the concepts in each element of the countdown. Translate these concepts for younger children so they can be part of the discussion too! Can you make more regenerative principles with more numbers, shapes, or letters of the alphabet? What about other symbols?
Ollie Cards: More Like This!
Here are some. Make up your own. Send them to us!
For kids of all ages: What do you think these cards mean? Do you know what the plasticine is?
Teachers: Introduce kids to the four community first, climate first principles.
- Partner with the earth instead of dominating it;
- Build community and connectivity to build climate resilience;
- Prioritize the most vulnerable people, species, and places for the benefit of all;
- Use climate change as the North Star for decision making.
These principles are embedded in the cards below and talking about them and designing new ones is great opportunity for a class to unpack these ideas. Have kids vote on their top four or five and then have them figure out what they mean, how to act on those principles, and discuss what we might need to change or learn to help them happen. Have them write two or three of their own.
The Story of SoCal Earth
Teachers and learners of all ages: Watch this video to see the roots of SoCal Earth--what inspired us, what got us started, and how you can get involved. Discuss what some of these ideas mean for your neighborhood or school.
Teacher Resources
Activities and Resources
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CLIMATE & HEALTHY COMMUNITIES
PLANTS & ANIMALS
WATER
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