Year 4 Spring half-term Homework Project: ‘Our Footprint on the Earth’

We have used ‘This Morning I Met A Whale’ to launch our project about the footprint humans are leaving on the planet.

We brainstormed many different ways this can be seen, including:
Global warming (rising temperatures)
Deforestation (cutting down too many trees for farms and raising animals for food)
Coral reefs dying
Plastic floating on the seas and being eaten by birds and other wildlife
Endangered animals
Humans fighting other humans
Pollution

We have also looked at some of the good things people are doing to try and ‘soften’ our footprint:
Trying to help the Thames Whale survive
Renewable energy like wind, solar and hydro (water) for less pollution
Protecting endangered animals
Recycling
Being better friends and understanding others to get along better

We have begun collecting our research in school and for homework.

Here are some helpful websites for our project:
Thames Whale News story
and
CBBC Newsround

Find out about carbon footprints here

Here is a guide to different types of energy

Press Pack Reports tell about what children across the UK think about the environment. Here, 11 year old Zahaib from Halifax has his say.

First News - a newspaper for children

National Geographic for Children

Message in the Waves is a website from the BBC Natural History Unit showing environmental challenges in the Hawaiian islands, especially difficulties faced by birds, sea life and people.

Zero Footprint Youth Calculator (follow the questions to see how you can help the environment)

To create a newspaper for your project, you can use the printing press template from Read Write Think. Click here to get started. You will need to print it once you've finished.