The term ‘environment’ covers all the elements of the natural world, from the earth, the oceans, the air and the climate to the plants and animals that live there. It also relates to where we live, how we live and the people that surround us.

You will find many resources and activities related to the environment on LearnEnglish Kids. These resources will help children to learn more about our world and the problems that our planet is facing. It is likely that many children will also be learning about these issues at school as part of the curriculum. By using the resources on LearnEnglish Kids, your child will not only be learning new words and phrases in English but will also be extending their knowledge too.

You can find resources about the environment on this page:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-environment.htm

With these materials your child will:

			practise words and phrases related to the environment (for example, global warming, recycling etc)
			learn how to talk about things we should and shouldn't do to help the environment
			learn and write about endangered animals
			learn about one of our most important resources - water
			learn about environmental problems facing our planet
			learn what they can do to be greener at home

This topic involves words and ideas that can be quite complex. For this reason, many of the activities in this topic are for learners who have a higher level of English. Activities are marked with a symbol on the topics webpage (http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-environment.htm) to indicate the best age group and level. Look at these when you choose which activities to use with your child.

Many older children will be interested in the environment, and may have opinions about this topic. Older children could try the 'How green are you?' quiz - and you could all try being greener as a family!

Younger children will probably enjoy activities about animals in danger, and will be able to do the 'clean and green' activity. Can they find the rubbish and put it in the right recycling bin? This is a great way to get children thinking about why we need to recycle - you can discuss this in your own language of course!

SOMETHING YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR CHILD

One of the worksheets that you can download and print is the 'endangered animals' worksheet:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-print-endangered-animals.pdf

			look at the pictures of the animals - what animals are they?
			read each sentence together (you can help your child with any words that they don't know, or you can look them up together in the dictionary) and together guess which animals go with each sentence. Make sure that the activity is seen as an interesting 'guessing' game rather than focussing on English words.
			download the answers and check your guesses. How many did you get right? http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-print-endangered-animals-key.pdf

You could also try an online activity about polar bears:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-gapfill-polar-bears.htm

In this activity, children will find sentences about polar bears. Each sentence has a gap. Children should use their mouse to put the words in the right places.

If your child can write in English, then you could make a poster about other endangered animals. The poster could have pictures and facts about the animals. You could use the activity about polar bears as a model for some of the sentences.

For information about endangered animals, visit the kids section of the UK's World Wildlife Fund website:
http://www.wwf.org.uk/gowild/index.asp

This website has lots of activities for children. Allow your child to look at what they like, and do some of the activities together.