Climate Change Project Winchester Cathedral 2021

Through this project, Year 5 has been exploring the impact humans have had on our changing climate and the effect on biodiversity.  It has been shocking to see how in such a short space of time in the history of our planet, what a devastating impact we have had. 

We started off exploring climate change during lockdown. We discussed, using WWF resources and David Attenborough documentaries what climate change is and the difference between climate change that happens naturally over time, and the rapid acceleration that has happened over the last 200 years, and particularly over the last 50 due to human activity. The children produced posters to raise awareness around the issues of climate change and wrote news articles, highlighting the threats to certain animals.

Through science, we investigated renewable energy, the benefits, and drawbacks of different types of energy production and why it is so important to put an end to our reliance on fossil fuels. Through our work on biomes in geography, we explored the impact of climate change, particularly on the polar and tundra regions of the world.

The children have researched animals that are most affected by climate change, from microscopic zooplankton up to the enormous blue whale. They have written e-mails addressed to humankind from the point of view of their species, based on the LiteracyShed text ‘Dear Humans’. The aim has been to try and educate people on the effect that climate change is having on the natural world and to alert people to the irreversible consequences of our actions. We have thought about how the way we live our lives with our insatiable appetite for more ‘stuff’ and the thirst for energy this is causing. We have also explored some of the main causes of climate change; our dependence on fossil fuels, deforestation for agriculture and palm oil and the effect this is having on the land and marine environments.

Totem Poles

The children have been studying proportion in art to create accurate representations of their researched animals. They started by sketching their animals, looking at them from different angles.

They then created pottery sculptures to bring their animals to life in 3-D. We talked about techniques for attaching clay including scoring and slipping

We then used chicken wire, cardboard and newspaper and chicken wire to create a frame for Modroc-ing their animal which was used to create our totem pole.

We carefully then painted the models, using a black base coat, and then carefully built up colours to create the effects and textures we wanted to make the animals as realistic as possible. As well as doing this as part of whole class art lessons, we also had children give up their time to come in after school to help us complete the project.