This lesson asks students to consider how their communities would look and feel with and without green spaces.
Step 1 - Inquire: Students draw a community without any green space. Students think, notice, and wonder about this community and how it might feel for humans and animals to live in that community.
Step 2 - Investigate: Students learn about a community activist named Ken Sparks who turned his patio into a green space and inspired others to do the same. Then students listen to a read aloud of Bee and Me.
Step 3 - Inspire: Students conduct research to further explore the relationship between green spaces and mental health, physical health, ecosystem health, and climate change. Teacher collects student notes on a word wall. Finally, students draw another map of their community featuring as many green spaces as they would like to include.
Positives
Additional Prerequisites
Differentiation
The lesson accentuates the benefits of having green spaces vis-a-vis not having them in their community. We recommend this lesson for students to explore the benefits green spaces have on ecosystem health, mental health, and physical health. Students can also explore the maps to gain skills in urban planning. All the materials have been properly cited, and this lesson has passed our credibility process.
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