With Children Against Drought

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Description

The main idea of the With Children Against Drought methodology is to return water to the landscape, especially through the revitalisation of streams, floodplains and wetlands. The activities in the methodology guide span all areas of education, develop many key competencies and lead the pupils towards active citizenship. The target group of this methodology are first-grade primary school pupils, i.e. children from approximately 6 to 11 years of age.

The guide is divided into six chapters. In each chapter, you will find a brief description of the activity, a well-arranged list of activities, their goal, description and space for reflection. Supporting activities are highlighted in colour. There are print-ready attachments below each activity. The work sheets can be found at the end of the methodology. Individual thematic chapters are distinguished by colour.

The chapter Climate Change focuses on understanding climate change and the underlying context. The chapters Water and Me, Forest, Soil, and Water in the Landscape are aimed at exploring the individual areas described by their titles. The chapter Landscape and I guides us as we try to understand the landscape around us, learn how to orient in it, recognize what is right, which human actions disturb the balance in the landscape and what we can do about it.

It is recommended that activities be incorporated throughout the school year, preferably in the form of regular project days.

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How to use this resource

The With Children Against Drought Methodology Guidelines provide a series of themed educational activities through which students can learn about the importance of water in our local environments. This starts with their own relationship with water, building through water in different environments. 

The resource provides a series of adaptable education activities that teachers can apply in their own classrooms, providing good practice examples of place-based environmentally and citizenship-focused active methodologies. 

The resource is suitable for teachers to collaboratively synthesise to produce their own educational exercises and lesson plans for students in their own classrooms and local context.

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The resources

With Children Against Drought PDF:

The Introductory Video with English subtitles provides the rationale for the methodology and approach of With Children Against Drought:

• Methodology for environmental education at primary schools

Links to the With Children Against Drought Teacher Guide are provided below. Each themed section of the teacher guide is linked separately for ease of download:

• Introduction and Water & Me
• Water in the Landscape
• Forest
• Soil
• Climate Change
• Landscape and I

The accompanying worksheets for With Children Against Drought can be found here:

• Worksheets

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Learning Outcomes

• Elicit prior knowledge and further develop knowledge and comprehension of key Sustainability Citizenship key concepts, challenging established worldviews and values.
• Apply a range of suitable tools and frameworks to promote student Sustainability Citizenship
• Collaboratively synthesise the knowledge, tools and frameworks to create educational materials and lessons plans adapted to their own local context

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Green Competencies

• Embodying Sustainable Values: Valuing Sustainability; Promoting Nature
• Embracing Complexity in Sustainability: Systems Thinking; Problem Framing
• Envisioning Sustainable Futures: Adaptability; Exploratory Thinking
• Acting for Sustainability: Collective Action; Individual Initiative

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Creative Commons

The ‘With Children Against Drought’ resource was created by the partners of the ‘Together with Children Against Drought’ project, which was funded through the EEA and Norway Grants. The resource is reproduced here with permission from the project partners. More information about the ‘Together with Children Against Drought’ project partners and funding is available here. An overview of the project resources can be found on the Elementary School Prameny’s website.

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SDGs