Environmental Education – Class II

Scheme of Work 2021 - 2022

Our Philosophy

We believe that awareness and knowledge of the environment including the relationship of humans to the natural world fosters the understanding, skills,
attitudes and motivations needed to make informed decisions and take responsible action to protect and preserve the environment.

Environmental education is a process that promotes an appreciation and understanding of the environment, it allows learners to explore environmental
phenomena and develop a deep understanding and appreciation for nature and the beauty that lies therein.

Significant Aspects of the Environmental Education (EE) Scheme of Work:

In order to implement the Environmental Education curriculum effectively the attainment targets are clubbed under three strands:

 Our Beautiful World

 Our Living World
 Our Physical World.

The SOW is divided into smaller units of work identifying the sub-strand and the scientific topic to be explored.

Each strand has a number of sub-strands to explore and raise awareness of environmental issues and concerns. The main purpose of EE is to bring about
significant, fundamental individual and social change, therefore children need to develop knowledge and skills related to scientific topics and resources that have
a direct impact on a specific environmental issue. Through scientific topics, children are led to understand human impacts on the environment (land, air, water,
ice) and current problems the environment is facing (e.g. global warming, acid raid, ozone hole, overfishing, etc) through the misuse of earth’s resources.
Each unit of work comprises attainment targets, scientific content, environmental issue and concern, environmental and scientific enquiry activities to help
learners develop different ideas and ways of working. These units of work ensure that learners cover all three EE strands along with three dimensions of Science:
scientific knowledge; scientific skills and scientific attitudes. The activities ensures that over a period of time, learners are observing, seeking patterns,
identifying, classifying and grouping similar observable features and developing an interest and an ecological mindset to care and protect the environment. The
learners are also given the opportunities to research environmental challenges.

When planning an EE unit, teachers are advised to follow the mastery approach to learning. The mastery approach to learning is a teaching strategy which is
deeply rooted in the belief that all learners can succeed, given the right input, support and practice. Mastery learning ensures learners can move on to the next
element of learning only when they have achieved a prescribed level of understanding of that existing environmental and scientific content, are secure in their
knowledge of the environmental and scientific concept and are competent in the environmental and scientific skill encompassed in that EE content.

1
Teachers may consider these key elements of mastery approach to learning while planning an EE unit:

Mastery Approach

Effective
Introducing new Practice and Synthesising
assessment for Apply and re-apply Reflect
ideas and skills Consolidation Information
learning

Content adapted from Hodder Cambridge Primary Science (2017) to design the Mastery Approach flowchart.

It is significant to consider the level of skills, individual learners need to develop while identifying the learning outcomes to be achieved. The principles given in
Bloom’s revised taxonomy may be helpful. Once the level of skills is determined within the unit, ensure that there is a logical progression from low to high levels
of skills.

Teachers may adopt all or select from the suggested teaching strategies in order to develop students skill and knowledge of scientific concept.

Scientific Knowledge: Scientific Inquiry

 Make suggestions for collecting evidence.
 Use first-hand experience for making observations and collecting evidence.
 Ask questions and suggest ways to answer them.
 Ask questions and try to find answers through contributing to discussions.
 Recognize that questions can be answered in different ways.
 Try to answer questions through collected evidence.
 Make predictions about what will happen before deciding what to do.
 Recognize that a test or comparison may be unfair.
 Talk about risks and how to avoid danger.
 Suggest ideas and follow instructions.
 Use simple information sources.
 Take simple measurements to obtain and present data.
 Make and record observations. (such as melting ice, measuring heights, lengths, observing, taking images, exploring online interactive information sources etc)
 Record stages in exploration, observations and in the work undertaken.
 Make comparison.
2
 Identify simple patterns or associations.
 Compare what happened with predictions.
 Talk about predictions (orally and in text), the outcome and why this happened.
 Model and communicate ideas in order to share, explain and develop them.
 Communicate ideas in a variety of ways including ICT e.g. in speech and writing, by drawings, tables, block graphs aid pictographs.
 Review and explain what happened.

Term I
Strand Our Living World
Sub – Strand Life Processes
Unit/Topic Attainment Targets Suggested Activities Resources
Unit 1: Life Students will: Introduction to Environment:  Learner’s book 3
Processes  Describe environment.  Ask students ‘what is an environment’? Take their responses  Workbook 3 – pages 5 -
 Know more about the two major living and build on it by explaining that environment is everything  Unit 1 slides: Slide 1,2,
(4 Weeks) things that impact the environment. that surrounds us, including the weather, the landscape, the 3
 Describe and compare things that are plants, and animals.  Visuals 1 – 7.
living, that were once alive and that  Show learners a range of environments through  Unit 1 Flash cards
have never lived. photographs/PPT/Videos, including for example mountain,  Unit 1 Audio
 Explore four life processes common to desert, underwater, forest, polar region, jungle, pond. Ask  Photographs of clean
plants and animals, including humans learners for description of what they are like. Encourage and dirty/spoiled
namely nutrition (food and water), learners to use words such as ‘hot’, ‘dry’, ‘cold’ and ‘wet’ as a environment.
movement, growth and reproduction. starting point. Ask what the weather would be like there? Ask  Unit 1 video clip: Herd
 Analyse the difference between living about the animals, including humans that live there. Ask them on the move.
and non-living things using knowledge to describe one of the environment where living things are  Unit 1, Worksheet 1:
of life processes. found. Life processes
 Begin to sort living things into two  Discuss in detail how animals, including humans impact the  Unit 1 Worksheet 2:
groups’ vertebrates and invertebrates environment (allow students to choose one from the range of Life Cycle of a frog
using simple features. environments that you have shown). Talk in detail. Talk about  Website for browsing:
 Describe and compare that offspring of what precautions they need to take in these environments. https://kids.nationalge
different animals grow into adults,  Use pictures showing how the environment is being spoiled and ographic.com/
including humans, birds, frogs and wasted for instance, any hill station or area littered with rubbish  Website for browsing:
butterflies. or huge buildings built after chopping lots of trees and thick https://www.natgeokid
 Explore the life cycle of a vertebrate. green area etc. Build talk on it…ensuring that students realize s.com/uk/
how the environment is impacted both positively and  Website for Puffefish –
negatively by living beings. https://www.nationalg
3
 Link your talk to knowing more about animals and humans as eographic.com/animals
they are two essential beings of the environment. Link it to /fish/group/pufferfish/
various reasons and it is easy to relate to them if we know more  Video- Which animals
about their physical and other aspects. hibernate from link –
https://youtu.be/P60c0
Alive, Never Alive: GFHJBc
 The purpose of this segment is to reinforce the concept that  BBC Earth videos on
living things need air, water, can move, grow, breathe, use their animals and
senses need and suitable food to survive and be defined as hibernation
living beings. Point to a chair and ask a question from students,  NatGeo Wild videos on
‘You are a living thing, how do you know that’? Generate a animals and
discussion. Point to the chair and use it as a prompt to consider hibernation
what living things can do, that non-living cannot do. For  National Geographic
instance Alive things are cat, child, snake and a plant (reinforce videos on animals
how plant is a living thing). Emphasise that a chair is ‘Never  Discovery Channel
been alive’ because of the reasons that children gave. videos on Animals
 Show them a few pictures such as a cat, child, car, mobile  Video – Hibernation of
phone, plant, snake and a ruler and ask whether they are alive Animals. Why do
or have never been alive. Ask them what do alive things do that Animals hibernate from
make them alive/living? Take their responses. Similarly give link -
sticky papers and a flip chart to students in groups and ask https://youtu.be/1KlDr
them to use sticky notes to write their responses to two DOy9hg
questions: ‘how do they know that something is a living thing  Video – Hibernation.
(alive)’ and ‘write what living things need to stay alive.’. let The Dr. Binocs Show
them work in groups. Display their flip charts or make them from the link –
present. https://youtu.be/FonC
q9YJJxw
Living and Non-Living things:  Information on
 Talk about living and non-living things. Ask them to sort living vertebrates from the
and non-living things such as wooden spoon, fish, car, plant, link
baby, rocks, monkey, coin and an insect. Use a table to make https://www.britannica
them classify. Tell them to describe the features and reasons for .com/list/5-vertebrate-
classifying between living and non-living things. groups
 Use Unit 1, slide 1: What do all living things do to start a
discussion about living things. Wrap up by telling all living things

4
 are living because they grow, have babies, move and need
nutrition’.
 Ask students to complete workbook page 5.
 Talk about life processes and facts about a blue whale. Let
students explore life processes of animals. Use National
geographic website for kids to make students browse animals
and facts about them. Ask them to make a ‘fact file’ about the
animal they have browsed.

Life Processes:
 Introduce the aspects that living things do i.e. grow, move, have
babies, and need nutrition as four life processes: movement,
nutrition (food and water), reproduction, and growth. Link it to
their existing understanding of living and non-living things. Ask
them to go back to living and non-living things that they
identified and analyse them in the light of these four life
processes.
 Show a picture or a video clip of an unusual animal (such as a
sea horse or sea cucumber) and ask small groups to explain why
it is a living thing using the life processes.
 Use Unit 1, slide 2: The gelada baboons to recap and further talk
about life processes. Use activity 1 and 2 in the learner’s book to
check and consolidate their understanding of the concept.
 Explain that sometimes it is not possible to identify a thing as
living or non-living. However analyzing them in the light of the
four life processes helps classify them as living or non-living. Use
the example of a Pufferfish to explain. Tell students that puffer
fish are also known as blowfish.
 Show the slide show and fact files of Pufferfish from National
Geographic website and develop a talk on the facts about the
Pufferfish. Ask them to complete the table given in the learner’s
book to identify the facts about the life processes of a puffer
fish. Ask students to find facts about another fish that is unusual
or any animal that is unusual and available in our country.
 Tell students that we can sort objects into three groups: Living
Things (Alive); Not alive (dead) and Never been alive. Play a

5
 game: Hold up pictures of different things and ask students to
say: Alive, Not Alive, Never alive! Choose different pictures and
make them anlayse in the light of the four life processes.
 Ask students to do Activity 1 and 2 of the learner’s book.
 Ask students to collect data about things that are alive, not alive
and never been alive within their school, house and community.
Encourage students to share the criteria used for classifying
things that are alive, not alive or never been alive. Make them
analyse things in the light of the four life processes. Encourage
students to share their data with each other. Find
commonalities within their data.
 Ask students to complete workbook page 6 – Life processes.

Life Process: Movement

 Start a discussion on the life process: Movement. Explain how
animals move from one place to another place for different
reasons. Some of these reasons are for food, water, to live in a
new habitat or to avoid danger. Gauge students’ knowledge
about animals that move from one place to another.
 Gauge student’s knowledge about how animals and humans
move. They run, jump, walk, swim, fly, crawl, trot, some even
roll (e.g. beetles), some move by kiting or ballooning (e.g
spider). Ask them to recall their movements in the previous day
and make a list of all types of movements that they made from
the time they woke up to the time they went to sleep. Ask them
to identify reasons along with these movements.
 Share random animals and types of movements such as swim,
jump, run and fly. Encourage students to analyse and match
type of movements to different animals. You may not show the
options and ask them to tell you how these animals move? Let
students share their knowledge about the movements of
animals.
 Display, show or share scenarios, pictures, videos of the
movements of different animals. Ask students to view and guess
what could be good and logical reasons for these movements.

6
 Which are not a good reasons? Make students rationalize their
reasons.
 Talk about how from a baby to a child their movement has
changed. Talk about rolling, crawling, walking to jumping,
skipping, hopping, running, swimming etc. Make them realize
that flying like birds is one movement they are not able to do.
They can fly in an airplane or glide or other machine that can
make them fly, but flying as a bird is not a movement that we
humans have achieved.
 Plan a game of ‘Simon says’ for children. Make students bend,
hop, run, run in place, jump, jump high, walk fast, crawl etc. As
you make students make the movement, ask whether animals
can make these movements?
 Ask that cars, washing machine and robots move also. Does this
mean they are living things? Ask them to rationalize their
reasons.
 Play Unit 1 video clip: Herd on the move, which shows a
wildebeest herd migrating across the Mara River in Africa.
Discuss with students the reasons the wildebeest in the video
have to move. (Wildebeest migrate to search for greener
pastures that will feed them during the dry season.) Make a list
of their ideas on board/LCD.
 Ask students to complete the workbook page 7 – How do they
move? and workbook page 8 – Sorting Criteria.
 Introduce ‘hibernation’ and ‘migration’. Explain hibernation on
following key aspects: reasons and factors for animals to go into
hibernation. How long they stay in hibernation? Which animals
hibernate? Talk about how some of the life processes such as
growth, reproduction, and movement becomes dormant during
hibernation. Explain dormant, that these life processes stop for
a while. Give examples of chipmunks, bears, lemurs, and
hedgehogs that go in hibernation. Similarly explain migration
with the help of examples and reasons.
 Choose one animal and present a ‘fact file’ in the form of a
presentation with pictures and videos on the chosen animal to

7
 children. The presentations includes reasons for hibernation,
time of the year they go into hibernation, part of the world they
live in, preparation for hibernation, where do they hibernate,
life processes that become dormant during hibernation, when
do they wake up and why?
 Play the video: Which Animals hibernate from NatGeo or any of
the other videos given in resources on hibernation and their
reasons. Ask students questions based on the video.
 Ask students to research an animal that hibernates. Make a
‘fact file’ on the animal listing reasons for hibernation, time of
the year they go into hibernation, part of the world they live in,
preparation for hibernation, where do they hibernate, life
processes that become dormant during hibernation, when do
they wake up and why?

Life process: Growth (Living Things Grow)

 Start discussion on the second life process: Living Things Grow.
Ask students how they have grown up since they were a baby.
Make them analyse how their weight, height, movements, arm
lengths, hand span, types of food, ways of talking, things/actions
have developed or grown over a period of time.
 Ask them to bring photographs of themselves at various stages,
from baby to now. Ask them to describe how they have changed.
Ask them to play the game guess who with their class fellows
(guessing who the baby grew up to be). Include or bring baby
photographs of adults in the classroom (the teacher and any
other) to work who the baby grew up to be.
 Ask them what they can do now which they could not do last
week, last month, last year…gradually working back in time.
Discuss why they can do more now as compared to past? Ask
how they have learnt new things? Who taught them? Build you
talk to help them understand that we all change in our features
as we grow older. You may talk about crawling and walking.
 Build the same talk about animals and explain how animals
young also change as they get older. Ask them if they have pets
8
 and how have they changed as they grew older over a period of
time? Talk about how a chick gains proper feathers and the
kitten’s fur has become less fluffy and coarser. Some students
might think that some of the pets had larger eyes as pups etc.
Some students may comment that animals no longer look cute
or cuddly…explore the idea as well as to why do they think so.
 Talk about another feature that develops as we grow older:
height. Tell them that scientist say we get taller as we grow.
Make them create a ‘memory diary’ about their own growth.
(Activity 1 in learner’s book). Let students examine and question
the content of each other’s Memory boxes. Let them look for
similarities and differences. What most surprised them?
 Talk about how growing encompasses a lot of changes and
developments that a person goes through. It is not just
restricted to movements, but includes diets, habits, strength
etc. Now make them think on the flip side of this notion. Ask
students what would happen if they stopped growing. Make two
columns on board titled ‘Positive (good)’, ‘Minus (not so good)’
and ‘Interesting’. Take their ideas on what would be good about
it and what would be not so good about it and what would be
an interesting idea. Take their feedback on board under two
columns.
 Share growth charts of random children and ask them to
interpret information from it. Ask them questions based on the
information presented in the chart. For instance what was the
height/weight of child X when he was 4 years old? Would you
consider X as a tall child or a short child? Predict the height of
child X in another 3 years.
 Ask students to complete worksheet 1 on life processes. (digital
material resource)

Life Process: Nutrition

 Begin by asking students to tell you what they had for breakfast.
From their response build a talk on healthy diet. Talk about
nutrition is about getting the right food for health and growth.
Mention how some foods (quite popular in market and with

9
 kids) might not be providing the right nutrition. Focus on two
essential elements that a right nutrition provides. Talk about
how the right food provides energy to play and work all day.
Talk about how the right food helps repair us by healing injuries
and helping in growth. Lastly focus on the importance of fruits
and how variety of fruits provide all the necessary nutrients to
the body.
 Gauge students understanding of the right kind of food to eat.
Ask about foods that they get from plants and animals. For
example say ‘I ate a chapatti and meat for my lunch’. The
chapatti is made of wheat and comes from a plant whereas
meat comes from an animal. Make them analyse their breakfast
and lunch. Do their breakfast/lunch contain fruit? Is it from
animals or from plants? What would happen if they had only
one kind of food? What would happen if they only ate their
favourite food all the time? Or they don’t eat much? What
would happen to animals or humans who do not eat? Have they
seen stray cats and dogs who do not have food to eat? How do
they look like? How healthy are they? Generate a good
discussion on these questions and relate them to realizing
whether these foods would provide energy and help repair.
 Talk about importance of food and water for animals and plants.
Discuss how plants make their own food. But animals either rely
on natural resources, on us (if they are living within our
community) or hunt to get their food. Talk about what food
different animals eat. Tell them that different animals feed on
different foods, such as grass, seeds, nuts, fruits, leaves and
other animals, including insects, fish and birds. Make them
analyse what do animals such as goat, monkey, lion, frog etc
eat. Take their responses and build on the importance of
nutrition for all living beings.
 Ask students to find out the most common breakfast in the
class. They could plan and carry out a survey. They could also
conduct a survey on the most favourite food in the class and
why. Make a cross curricular link with Maths and ask them to
create bar charts of the results of the two surveys.

10
 Ask students to pick one animal of their choice and research
what it eats. How does it move? Ask them to make a poster or a
mini scarp book of their chosen animal and its diet. Make cross
curricular links to English and have them draft, edit and proof
read their text before using it in their final booklet. Help them
research through internet, books and magazines.
 Play Unit 1 Video 2: food Choices to prompt a class discussion on
making healthy food choices.
 Ask students to complete workbook page 9 – How have I
grown? And workbook page 10 – Nutrition.
 Talk about Science in Context: Professionals who use science in
their profession. Talk about Animal Nutritionist: People who
help animals have a healthy diet. Talk about Nutritionists for
Humans as well. Discuss what an Animal Nutritionist and a
Human Nutritionist need to do. Try making students guess or
share from their experience.
 Use unit 1 slide 3 which shows an animal nutritionist at
Guadalajara Zoo during the Covid-19 pandemic in Guadalajara,
Mexico, on May 27, 2020. He is wearing a face mask while
preparing food for the animals. Make students answer the
questions on the slide.

Life Process: Reproduction

 Explain what reproduction means: that it is a process by which
living things produce young, called offspring. A grown up animal
is called an adult. Talk about adult animals, including humans
have babies called offspring.
 Show pictures of various animals and ask them what their
offspring are called.
 Tell students that they are offspring of their parents. They were
once a baby. Ask students to collect their photographs as a baby
put their photographs in an album and share with their class
fellows.
 Introduce how living things are sorted into plants and animals.
Explain that animals have babies that are called live young while
birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles lay eggs. Explain that the

11
 animals are then sorted into two groups: those that have a spine
or a backbone and those that do not have a spine. Make them
touch and find their spine/backbone. Introduce the terminology
vertebrates and invertebrates for animals with a spine and
those without a spine. Call out known animals and make
students tell you whether they are vertebrates or invertebrates.
 Now while talking about vertebrates, introduce Mammals and
tell them that mammals are vertebrates. Humans are
mammals. Talk about how fish, amphibians and reptiles lay
eggs. The young continue to develop inside the eggs. Finally the
eggs hatch, and the young looks like their mother and father
(adult). Introduce the scientific word metamorphosis i.e. after
hatching the young go through several stages.
 Briefly discuss invertebrates. Tell that many invertebrates lay
eggs. The young go through metamorphosis. Also tell them that
not all invertebrates go through metamorphosis. For example
snails lay eggs that hatch into mini snails.
 Give the names of a few animals and ask them to research and
tell you whether they have live young or lay eggs. For example
cat, parrot, mouse, antelope, salamander, spider, snake, giraffe,
alligator, goldfish, butterfly and shark etc. Tell them to make a
table containing 4 columns. Write animal in the first column. In
the second tell whether it is vertebrate or invertebrate. In the
third column tell whether it produces young or lays eggs and in
the last fourth column they tell whether it goes through
metamorphosis or not.
 Give names of several animals (some known and some
unknown). Ask students to tell you whether they lay eggs or have
live young. Ask them to research about the animals that they
didn’t know.

Life Cycles:
 Reinforce the scientific word metamorphosis i.e. after hatching
the young go through several stages. Talk about life cycles i.e a
diagram that shows the stages of an organism (a living thing).
Talk about the life cycle of a frog and explain how the frog also

12
 goes through metamorphosis. Use Unit 1 Worksheet 2: Life Cycle
of a frog to reinforce life cycle of a frog. Reinforce the different
stages of a frog and how it goes through different stages before it
becomes an adult frog.
 Show or display a presentation of the life cycle of a Salamander.
Talk about the different stages of the life cycle of a salamander.
Encourage students to research on the life cycle of another
animal of their choice. Encourage them to make a scientific
model of the life cycle of the animal that they researched.
 Show a presentation of the life cycle of an invertebrate such as a
dragon fly, so that students know the life cycle of both
vertebrates and invertebrates. The different stages in the
presentation should not be in a sequence. Ask students to
sequence the stages in the correct order. Make sure to include
the titles to the stages.
 Show students a range of life cycle diagrams. Ask them to work in
pairs to discuss what the diagrams show and what they all have
in common. Ask them to do worksheet 2.
 Show learners Unit 1 slide 4 and discuss the life cycle diagrams
and answer questions.
 Ask students to research on the life cycle of a frog. Give
questions to students to investigate such as:
- Where do frogs lay their eggs – on land or in water?
- What are frog eggs called? What do they look like?
- When do eggs hatch, what does the young frog look like?
- How does a tadpole change?
- What does a froglet look like?
- How is the adult frog different to a froglet?
 Ask students to research on the life cycle of a butterfly. Give
questions to students to investigate such:
- Where do butterflies lay their eggs?
- Why do they lay them there?
- What do the larvae look like when they hatch from the eggs?
- How many different stages are there in the butterfly life
cycle?

13
 Once they have researched, ask them to make a model of the
life cycle of a frog and a butterfly using recyclable material. Label
their model and share with peers.
 Ask students to complete workbook page 11 – Reproduction and
workbook page 12 – Life Cycles of animals.

14