With the current energy crisis in full swing, and costs rising at an alarming rate for schools who are already struggling to cover costs, it’s more important than ever to teach children about how to conserve energy and not use more than we need.
But how can you engage children in wanting to save energy and help them understand the current crisis…without causing undue fear or anxiety?
Set up a game in which children have to spot anything around the classroom or school that is wasting energy (e.g. a light left on, a device on charge unnecessarily, a TV on standby…) Children could be given a point every time they spot one of these happening. The winner is the person with the most points at the end of the week! You can use this FREE Be Energy Aware Poster Pack to remind children what to look out for.
Children could design and make their own board game to encourage saving energy using these FREE Blank Board Game Templates. For example, on one of the squares it might say ‘You left the light on when you left the room - move back 3 spaces’ or ‘You remembered to turn the tap off when you were brushing your teeth. Move forward 2 spaces’ etc.
This could be a great wet play activity, or even a DT lesson. You could challenge children to use CAD to design their board game and the packaging for it, and construct nets for the box or question cards (if they decide to use question cards for their game).
Get into the habit of noting in your class when you have a lesson that doesn’t involve using any energy, such as a PE lesson or any other lesson that doesn’t need an interactive whiteboard, computer, tablet or other electronic devices. Mark down how many of these lessons you have a week. You could challenge older children to work out what percentage of your lessons were energy-free and work to build up that figure.
You could extend this into other areas too, such as having energy-free wet playtimes or energy-free assemblies.
Recycling is so important because it uses much less energy than creating things from scratch every time. Talk to your children about this and get the children involved with sorting the recycling in and around your school. For more in-depth lessons on recycling, check out our Finite Planet lessons for KS1 and KS2.
Spend some time brainstorming ideas as a class for ways to save energy at home as well as at school. Children could then write a persuasive letter home suggesting some ways in which they can save energy, and therefore money, at home as well as at school.
It is really important to show children through your own actions how important it is to save energy. If you don’t practice what you preach, children are unlikely to do so either! Making a few small actions become part of your everyday classroom routine will really help children embed these important energy-saving strategies into their lives both at school and at home.
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