Fun activities

For Children and Families at Home – and, in fact, Anyone.

Questions and fun activities for children to do while they are restricted by Coronavirus (COVID-19). They relate to 2 out of 3 short films about climate change called ‘Beautiful Earth Trilogy’.

So thinking caps on and search engines to the ready for some fun!

Troubled Planet

Troubled Planet shows the difficult effects of global warming across the world. A lot of people are now working very hard to bring our beautiful world back to good health, and things are beginning to improve.

Walking with nature

CARELESS FOOTPRINTS… heavy on the earth

Questions (A) – view answers

  1. Why are cars a problem to the environment?
  2. Name the fossil fuels.
  3. Why are they called fossil fuels?
  4. Overfishing is putting pressure on the seas. This needs to be stopped and the seas allowed to return to health and flourish. Parts of the sea now only have very limited fishing to allow the sea to recover. What are these places called?
  5. Pesticides are killing off the bees. What is growing crops without using chemicals called?
  6. What greenhouse gas do cows produce?
  7. What is eating without using animal products called?
  8. Rainforest is cut down to provide land for farming animals. Why are rainforests important to our atmosphere?
  9. Trees are also cut down to produce paper. How do we daily use a lot of this paper?
  10. What alternatives could we buy that cause less trees to be cut down?

Activities

  1. Make your own poster about how to deal with climate change and put it in the window.
  2. Make up a song about any of the effects of climate change.
  3. Look up how fossil fuels were formed.

GET IN STEP… with the natural world

Questions (B) – view answers

  1. What does it say on the banner that the walker at the front is carrying?
  2. What banner is the walker at the back carrying?
  3. What Is fuelling the trains and trams?
  4. What is a bicycle with one wheel called?
  5. What is a bicycle with three wheels called?
  6. What is this film suggesting we aim to do?

Activities

  1. Draw a bicycle.
  2. Make a list of forms of public transport.
  3. Find out which are available in you area and if any of them run on electricity rather than fossil fuels.
  4. Look up rickshaw.

WALK AS ONE… and make a difference

Questions (C) – view answers

  1. What instruments are playing?
  2. What do you call a group of 5 brass players?
  3. Which instruments play the high notes?
  4. Which instrument plays the lowest notes?

Activities

  1. Draw your favourite instrument.
  2. Make a simple instrument, for example: tissue paper over a comb; rubber bands of different tightness on a plastic food tray; different amounts of water in glasses with something you can tap them with.

TREAD LIGHTLY… and leave little trace

Questions (D) – view answers

  1. What fruit has the girl picked in the woods?
  2. The orchard has produced 2 different colours of apple. What are the colours?
  3. At the agricultural School there are some bound leaflets on the table where a boy is sitting working. What is written on the cover?
  4. In the small garden in China is a creature is lying on a twig. What sort of creature is it?

Activities

  1. There are a lot of different varieties of apple, Some are very old heritage varieties. Look it up and make a long list of them.
  2. Cut an apple in half across the middle. Draw it and name the parts.
  3. Look up organic gardening and growing in small spaces.
  4. Think where you could grow something to eat at home. If you have no garden, you may be able find a sunny window sill.
  5. Cook something vegan:

    Biscuit Recipe

    Ingredients

    • 100g vegan margarine (spread) but not palm oil
    • 50g sugar
    • 150g flour

    Method

    1. Use your hands to work the mixture to a dough.
    2. Wrap in greaseproof paper and put in fridge for 3/4 hour.
    3. Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/Gas 3 and. Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.
    4. Put the dough onto a well-floured board and roll out till 4mm/1/8 ins thickness.
    5. Cut into any shapes you fancy or use a medium cutter.
    6. Cook around 15 mins or until golden-brown.
    7. Cool on rack then enjoy. Store in airtight tin.

TAKE BIG STRIDES… and bring about strong actions

Questions (E) – view answers

  1. The families are planting trees in Russia. How many trees are there in Russia?
  2. Which country has the most trees?
  3. The second part of the film is a lady growing trees in Kenya. Where is Kenya?
  4. She has planted these trees. Name another crop she is growing.

Activities

  1. Look up some trees native to your country.
  2. Draw a beautiful picture of trees.
  3. See if there is anywhere near you where people are planting trees. Join in!

Healing the earth

JAGGED PATH… to repair and recovery

Questions (F) – view answers

  1. What instruments play in a string quartet?
  2. As the music starts, there is a message. What is it?
  3. How many starfish are there?
  4. Look for the leafy sea dragon. Why is it hard to see?
  5. What is unusual about the frog fish which is the reason for its name?
  6. What is the message written on blue sheets at the end of the movement?

Activities

  1. I called No.1 Jagged Path because of the ups and downs in our approach to dealing with climate change issues. Can you hear how I have described this in the music?
  2. This movement is about plastic. Write down as many words as you can that end with “-astic”.
  3. Think about about what plastic is used for and how we can use less ourselves.
  4. Draw a leafy sea dragon or a frog fish.
  5. The leafy sea dragon evolved to look like seaweed to protect itself. Look-up evolution. What have we evolved from?
  6. A lot of the fish are from the islands of Australia. Name some islands off the coast of Australia and say something about them.
  7. These beautiful fish and plants are likely to suffer from climate change as the sea temperature goes up and the seas become more acid. Do you agree they are worth protecting? Think of ways you can help make this possible by lowering your carbon footprint.

GLIMMERS OF HOPE… to light the earth

Questions (G) – view answers

  1. The bridge at the beginning of the film is Sydney Harbour Bridge. What country is it in?
  2. What does the umbrella sun turn into?
  3. What is the boy in the schoolroom pleased about?
  4. What are the seats outside the re-charging hut made of?
  5. What is on the roof?
  6. What is the sun made by the people joined to?

Activities

  1. At the solar cafe, solar electricity is used for sewing as well as cooking.
    Why not take up a creative hobby? Cooking, sewing, knitting, gardening, or playing a musical instrument are just a few ideas.
  2. On the back of the recharging hut is a painting of a girl blowing. This represents wind power which can be used to make electricity by a wind turbine. Look up what other sources of natural energy can be converted into electricity?
  3. Where else at the end of this movement is electricity in the form of light being made?
  4. Wind-up torches and radios are made with dynamos to convert our energy into electric power. Various other things such as a water lift can be seen on The Centre of Alternative Energy website.

REGROWTH… bringing back rich diversity

Questions (H) – view answers

  1. What are in the branches of the tree at the beginning of the film?
  2. What crop are the children in Thailand picking?
  3. What wild flower that bees love is growing close to the first lot of beehives we see?
  4. Why are the cocoa beans laid out on the depot floor?
  5. What is biodiversity?

Activities

  1. The children in Thailand are learning to garden at school. Why not tell the teachers at your school (when you go back) that you would like to learn how to grow vegetables. Some schools grow them to use for school dinners.
  2. The cocoa beans are being grown among the native flora and fauna in the Cameroons. What does flora and fauna mean? What fauna can you see there?
  3. Bees play a crucial part in life on earth. Look up about the life of bees and the different types of bees – they are very interesting insects.
  4. Cocoa is used to make a very popular product. What is it and find out what processes the beans go through.
  5. Throw a raisin or small fruit (stoneless) into the air and catch it in your mouth like the lady at the end of this film. Don’t choke though!
  6. Name an animal, bird or fish for each letter of the alphabet.

DELICATE BALANCE… for a thriving earth

Questions (I) – view answers

  1. The garden on a balcony shows what you can grow in a small space. What is the red vegetable?
  2. A plant need 7 things in order to grow. Name 3.
  3. What do plants breathe in and breathe out?
  4. What happened to the bee on the purple flower and the bee on the yellow flower?
  5. What insect was enjoying the purple allium in the town?

Activities

  1. Make some vegetable soup using any of these back to front vegetables: ILOCCORB HCANIPS SEOTATOP SNOINO SEOTAMOT YRELEC STORRAC SAEP
  2. Draw some flowers and bees.
  3. The bees falling off the flowers represent the title of the movement – Delicate Balance – because bees are having problems surviving. This is mainly due to the use of pesticides and the lack of bee-friendly flowers. If you have a garden, find space in it for flowers to feed the bees. If you don’t you could ask your school to grow some.
  4. Look up photosynthesis.
  5. Make a list of vegetables beginning with C.
  6. Lookup the different varieties of butterflies and moths. Draw your favourite.

SMALL PRECIOUS… in the darkness of space

Questions (J) – view answers

  1. What is the earth’s diameter?
  2. How long approximately does it take to do one spin?
  3. How long does it take to orbit the sun?
  4. How far is it from the sun?
  5. What are the names of all the planets from the sun outwards?
  6. Who wrote some wonderful music called The Planets?
  7. Which planet isn’t in the music?

Activities

  1. Listen to The Planets. It’s exciting. Which is your favourite?
  2. Draw a picture of earth.