Lessons and activities for Key Stage 2

We all know how difficult it is to keep think of fresh new ways of inspiring children. Here at The Learning Escape we've compiled a list of useful online resources to give you fresh new ideas for your lessons. Below are a range of activities for KS2 that cover a range of curriculum areas, you can also download the full list of KS2 activities, including a table showing which curriculum area each activity covers here.

A growing enterprise

• Energy
• Healthy Living

To set up a market garden company, cooperative or social enterprise growing vegetables and selling them locally. www.keepbritaintidy.org

A room with a history and a future

• Energy
• Healthy Living

To compare and contrast a room and how it looked in the past, in the present and what it might look like in the future, taking into account social development and changes in energy, water use and the curriculum! www.keepbritaintidy.org

Better off by bike

• Transport

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Big Energy Show

• Bio-diversity
• Energy
• General
• Global Perspectives
• Healthy Living
• Litter
• School Grounds
• Transport
• Waste
• Water

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Boating lake debate

• Water

To debate if a local pond or lake should be topped up with water and by so doing look at priorities for water use locally and globally. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Bug Hotel

• Bio-diversity

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Building an ideal community

• Global Perspectives

To conduct a study into communities, their value and the role they play in local life. This is a long-term project and has a number of phases. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Degrees of Change

• General

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Designs on dance

• General
• Healthy Living

To choreograph a dance, incorporating up-cycled fashions, to accompany the anthem Breathe www.keepbritaintidy.org

Earth Day – Inspiration Guides

• General
• Healthy Living
• Litter
• School Grounds
• Transport
• Waste
• Water

Details available at www.tes.co.uk

Eco festival

• Bio-diversity
• Energy
• General
• Global Perspectives
• Healthy Living
• Litter
• School Grounds
• Transport
• Waste
• Water

To organise a sustainable event. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Electric Vehicles

• Transport

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Energy Mix

• Energy

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Flushed with Success

• Water

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Global links

• Energy
• General
• Global Perspectives
• Healthy Living
• Litter
• School Grounds
• Transport
• Waste
• Water

To set up a link with a school from another continent in order to gain an appreciation of the cultural differences and economic and environmental challenges faced by our link schools. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Goodbye Standby

• Energy

Details available at http://www.jointhepod.org/activities/7-11/energy/

How gardens grow

• Bio-Diversity
• Global Perspectives
• School Grounds
• Water

To discover that we face different challenges in different parts of the world. We are not all afforded equal opportunity. Life's not fair! www.keepbritaintidy.org

Litter hot spots

• Litter

Conduct an investigation into the effectiveness of the bin provision in the neighbourhood and what might be done to make them more effective to gain an understanding of behaviours and what communities might do to enhance their local environment. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Local solutions for global issues

• Global Perspectives

To make a presentation to the class showing the littering problems faced in particular parts of the world and the solutions, if any, being used to overcome them. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Lose your Bottle

• Waste

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Lunchtime Crunchtime

• Waste

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Mouldy dough

• General

Investigate the use of packaging and packaging design to keep food fresh to see if it is a sustainable practice. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Museum Curators AD 3001

• Energy

Your challenge is to select 10 items powered by battery or electricity and mount them as if in a museum exhibition in 3001. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Not in my back yard

• General
• Global Perspectives

Investigate a local development to see if it will damage the local environment and community or if it has a social or environmental gain. Present a ÔconsideredÕ voice that is either in favour or not of the development. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Recharge your Batteries

• Waste

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

See the light

• Energy

Discover the sources of light and investigate how it travels. Use this knowledge to assist the growth of plants that have limited access to light. Gain an appreciation that some plants need more light to thrive than others. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Solar in the community

• Energy
• Global Perspectives

To challenge schools to see if they can engage members of the local community and business groups and show off one of their projects. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Street furniture

• Transport

To undertake a survey of your neighbourhood over a period of time and make proposals for improvements in the street layout. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Streets and us

• Transport

To conduct a survey of a designated area of the neighbourhood focusing on roads and pedestrian pathways in order to gain an appreciation of the balance between vehicular and pedestrian provision. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Switch on to Switching off

• Energy

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Test a Turbine

• Energy

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

The big drip

• Water

Investigate where most water is used in your school. Discover why water is important, how easy it is to waste it and what can be done to reduce water use. www.keepbritaintidy.org

The big school warm-up

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

The community action group

To identify a need in the community and through seeking to solve it, better the local environment. www.keepbritaintidy.org

The Heat is On

• Energy

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

The investment pot

• Global Perspectives

To look at savings that have been achieved across the school by taking a more sustainable approach to running the school, and make bids on how best to spend and reinvest it in school. www.keepbritaintidy.org

The rap

• Energy

To produce a section of rap that will be heard in the middle of the song Breathe, the Eco-Schools anthem, and which could be used as the school's Eco-Code or mission. www.keepbritaintidy.org

The telephone box

• Waste

To look at why we retain features in our neighbourhood and propose an alternative use for the red telephone box. www.keepbritaintidy.org

The Yippittee

• General

Details available at www.tes.co.uk

Watt can you Power‌

• Energy

Details available at www.jointhepod.org

Who lives in a bin‌

• Bio-Diversity
• Litter
• Waste

To produce an illustrated picture book for key stage 1 (5-7 year old) children called The Bin People which raises awareness of why we have bins and the benefits to the environment. www.keepbritaintidy.org

Will wind work‌

• Energy

Details available at www.jointhepod.org