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This is a really strong, inquiry-based sequence – it starts from children’s own ideas and lived experience, then moves into evidence and finally into action. For the final part, you might want to get the children to make advice posters for staying safe in heatwaves, come up with ideas for water-saving at home and school and creating “heatwave emergency kit” list for vulnerable neighbours
This turns their learning into something practical and empowering.</p>How can we reduce the amount of food waste and packing waste each day at school?
I picked this topic as our school has had the hot school lunch scheme for 3.5 years. The school has chosen to move providers with the aim of improving the quality of food but also decreasing the packaging. However, there is still much excess each day.
We would begin our detective work by monitoring the bin and seeing what is left. We would organise into good food, compost and packaging. They will weigh each section with a scales and organise it onto a class large sheet. There will be different roles – weighers, counters, recorders, photographers, graphers.
We will then send home a class written letter asking parents to limit the childrens orders to what they actually need. Some children bring in a lunch but also order one. We will ask parents to listen to their children and order food they like and will eat. We will discuss healthy food choices.
I will work out the average weight per week and we will graph it to see if there is an improvement after the discussion/class letter to parents. They will work like CLimate Detectives.
The class could then spread their findings with other classes in the school. They could present the information to the principal and come up with some suggestions.
Hi John, learning and discussing these proverbs is a very good way to discuss old Irish traditions and life before technology. This is also a very nice way to link up with Irish and learning some as gaeilge. You could use simple visuals to record the weather each day. At the end of 100 days at school, you could then tally, how many days were sunny, cloudy, rainy etc.
Having engaged with the Nose High Up in the Sky resource, I found it to be engaging, well-structured and accessible for primary pupils. The activities encourage curiosity and allow children to investigate scientific concepts through observation, prediction and hands-on learning. I would definitely use this resource when teaching topics related to weather, air or the atmosphere.
The resource offers excellent opportunities for cross-curricular links. Pupils could record and interpret data in Mathematics and engage in discussion and written reflections in Literacy. Designing and creating their own rockets would provide a meaningful STEM activity that integrates Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Students can test their rockets to see how high they go into the sky. I have seen this done with a plastic 2 litre bottle and a foot pump.
CHildren could utilse ICT and google maps to compare rural and urban areas. This could create an interesting debate and vote in my locality as there are a mix of children living in both types of communities.
Hi Fionnuala, I like your idea of linking your class agreement up to the Paris agreement. This debate of what is included and not, and how far you bring your targets is like the different governments do when they come together. The student council can explain how their meetings are like this and how it runs like a democracy with votes.
I found the video HOME to be a powerful and visually rich film that demonstrates how human activity impacts our planet. The footage makes abstract global issues clear, but the full film would be too long and potentially overwhelming for my 3/4th class. I would use short clips of 2-3 minutes as visual hooks.
I would begin by showing a brief excerpt and asking, “What did you notice?” to encourage discussion. I would then follow with the Paxi video to explain greenhouse gases in an accessible way. Pupils could use a simple prediction tool or classroom simulation to test “what if” scenarios. Local examples, such as recent weather or changes in the school grounds, would make the learning relevant.
To build empathy and class morale, I would include a brainstorming session on small, achievable actions, such as reducing energy use or setting up a compost bin. One idea could become a class project. At the student council meetings, the class could bring up some of the bigger ideas like collecting rainwater and being recycling bin monitors. I would scaffold emotionally by allowing time to express concerns and differentiating tasks through drawing, role-play or data work.
Pupils could record a short response on Seesaw, describing one thing they learned and one action they could take. A short Kahoot quiz would review key ideas and identify misconceptions. For assessment, an exit task would ask pupils to draw or write one cause, one effect and one action they can take.
Hi Leanne,
I like your idea of using ‘best case’ and ‘worst-case’ for keeping childrfen engaged and having a focus during the video. I agree with your idea of focusing on local issues like flooding or the summer heatwave. They will certainly all be able to connect with the heat and fine weather this summer! I like the idea of creating energy saving monitors as a hands up-follow on STEM like activity. I have multi-grade class next year so will be doing lots of these tasks.
I would begin this unit of learning with a focus on weather, the sun, and energy before moving onto the green house effect and Paxi. This could all be covered under SESE and STEM lessons. I will have a 3rd/4th class split so this will be great resources and take the focus away from this being 3rd class content or 4th class content.
I would begin by showing the children the school’s new solar panels and a quick walk around the front of the schools to see the amount of houses in the locality with solar panels. Then we would return to the classroom and would show the children the video by Paxi on Greenhouse gases. This is a child friendly video which is a great resource. I would write key vocabulary on the board as it comes up and ask children to do the same with their mini whiteboards. Questioning would follow. I would create a Kahoot based on the content. The children could create a seesaw post based on what they had learned. I believe the content in the Paxi video is excellent but in isolation it would be quite difficult content for middle level primary school.
Hi Niamh, I like how you talk about thinking about how aanimals adapt to the weather. Role play for discussing the weather works so well in the infant classroom. It is a topic they discuss with their family and vocabulary is at quite high levels in the infant classrooms.
Having read the ESA Weather and Climate teacher guide and completed Activities 1 and 2, I found them effective for developing pupils’ scientific thinking, observation and data-handling skills. The European Space Agency uses satellite technology to observe Earth, weather and long-term climate patterns, making these resources meaningful for classroom learning.
Activity 1, Is it Weather or Climate?, helped me distinguish between short-term weather conditions and long-term climate patterns. I would connect the sorting task to local examples and traditional sayings such as “Red sky at night.” Pupils could interview grandparents about traditional weather predictions and discuss their reliability.
Activity 2, Weather Detectives, would develop observation and recording skills. With 5th class, I would make a homemade rain gauge, using set jelly in the bottom to create a flat, stable base. They could compare the effectiveness to a shop bought rain gauge. Pupils could record rainfall daily for a month, create charts and identify patterns.
Hi Catherine, I would love to see a rainwater collection tower invested in and built in my school. What a super way to save water and use it to water plants, hanging baskets and any other indoor trees/plants. Seeing local people sell fruit and vegetables is so important. I have planted radishes with my classes in the past and they get great enjoyment from uploading their Seesaw images of their dinners and getting creative!
Sustainability is strongly promoted in my local area of Ennis and Clarecastle through community involvement, education and practical action. Both communities have a proud TidyTowns tradition, with local people working together to keep the area clean, attractive and environmentally friendly. This demonstrates how small actions, when carried out by many people, can make a significant difference.
There has also been investment in protecting and maintaining the local marine environment, including the River Fergus. Roche, a local multinational company, has supported initiatives that help raise awareness of the importance of caring for our waterways and surrounding environment. Another excellent local example is Hurst Botanicals, whose drinks are produced and sold in Clarecastle. They create small-batch kombucha using traditional fermentation methods and are recognised as Ireland’s only Fairtrade-certified drinks producer. I would be interested in enquiring about a tour for pupils, as this could help them learn about local food production, Fairtrade, fermentation and sustainable business practices.
Our school has achieved five Green-Schools flags, reflecting the commitment of pupils, staff and families. The Green-Schools Committee monitors recycling and composting, carries out electricity and water checks, and creates reminders such as using a half flush and turning off the tap while brushing teeth.
I would encourage pupils to investigate sustainability in our school and local community through litter surveys, water-use checks, interviews and poster campaigns. This would help them understand that sustainability involves everyday choices and that they can actively protect their local environment.
Hi Niamh, I really enjoyed reading your reflection and agree that teaching children about nutrition from an early age can help them make healthier and more informed choices. I particularly liked how you connected seafood to Science, SPHE and Geography, as this allows pupils to explore not only the health benefits but also where food comes from and how it affects the environment. It is easy for us adults to forget too how scientific and the benefits of eatting the correct foods are. Activities such as analysing food labels and designing balanced meals would make the learning practical and relevant to their everyday lives.
The ARC lesson on the Nutrition of Seafood has helped me recognise how useful seafood can be when teaching children about healthy eating and making informed food choices. I could begin by revising the main food groups and asking pupils to identify where seafood fits within a balanced diet. Pupils could then bring in or examine food labels from their school hot lunch programme and taste/examine foods which are available to them daily such as tuna and fish goujons. They could compare ingredients, protein, salt and fat content, and discuss how cooking methods can affect the nutritional value of food.
The lesson also highlighted the nutritional benefits of mussels, including their iron content. This was particularly meaningful to me because I have recently discovered that I have an iron deficiency and am now considering adding more mussels to my own diet. It could also encourage sensitive classroom discussions about the importance of iron for energy and health, while recognising that children’s dietary needs are different. This would be appropriate only with older classes.
I would encourage pupils to try suitable fish options in school lunches, such as a tuna sandwich or fish goujons, while respecting allergies, cultural preferences and individual choices. Practical experiments could include comparing food labels, investigating how seafood changes when cooked, or designing a healthy seafood lunchbox.
I was also interested to learn that salmon can provide a significant amount of the recommended daily vitamin D intake, with the exact amount depending on the type and portion size. Oily fish, including salmon, is recognised as a good source of vitamin D. It is interesting for children to learn that playing outside in sunshine helps them with intake of this vitamin also!
Hi Shandon, I like your idea of using coding activities to help learn about marine life. Perhaps students could programme a Beebot to move around a grid and catch different seafood (previously drawn in an art lesson). More challengeing versions could be created with older classes using scratch. Personally I find pupils engagement to be much higher when we use hands on learning experiences as such.