I am often asked about sustainability and gardening resources for teachers who are after ideas to use with their students. Over the years I have used a number of different websites for ideas and inspiration when planning my lessons. Here are my favourites:
Organic School Gardens
This free resource put together by the Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA) has a great range of lesson plans and ideas for school gardens. The lessons on composting and worm farming are particularly engaging for kids.
Planet Ark
This website is especially useful around National Tree Day with information on how to plan a tree planting site at your school and has a wide range of supporting lessons and ideas. It is also a good resource when exploring the concept of recycling with students.
Clean Up Australia Day
The Clean Up Australia Day site has a load of great resources when looking at issues surrounding waste and littering.
Earth Hour
The World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour site is fantastic for inspiring children to look at how collective action can create change. It is also good for finding resources to encourage people to ‘switch off’.
Gould League
The Gould League is a non-profit environmental education organisation that has been in existence for over 100 years. Their website has a number or interactive activities for students to explore, ideas on how to design a school garden and information on their programs and services.
Cool Australia
Cool Australia covers a broad range of topics relating to sustainability including news and events. Teachers can search the site for resources according to year level.
AuSSI
The AuSSI (Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative) website is an invaluable resource for all schools looking at integrating sustainability throughout their curriculum. It covers a broad range of areas including energy, waste, biodiversity, water, indigenous knowledge and sustainable purchasing.
Ollie’s World
Ollie’s World is a fun kid-friendly website that explores the concepts of waste, water, biodiversity, air and energy. It demonstrates sustainable practices and encourages children to undertake them too. There are a number of puzzles and games for kids to play and greeting cards they can send.
If you have a favourite sustainability resource for teachers please add it below.