Aim
- To begin to explore the concept of sustainable development
- To start thinking about the many and important ways wood impacts on our lives
What we need
- Copies of the Guardian of the Forest story, enough post-its for 2 per pair.
What to do
- This activity works best if pupils can be sat in a circle or away from desks. The best option would be to take the pupil’s outside and read the story under a tree.
- Ask pupils if they have visited a forest? What was the purpose? (walk / activity, etc.) Why do other people visit forests? Do they know any food that grows in the forest? Are there any other products that forests provide?
- Read the story to the pupils. When you have finished hold a discussion on the concept of fairness and sustainability using the teacher prompts below.
- In pairs ask half the class to think about what questions they would like to ask the tree and the other half to think about what questions they would like to ask the boy. Give each pair 2 post-its and ask them to write 1 question on each.
- Gather the questions from the pupils’ and group them by theme. As a group, select 1 question for the tree and 1 question for the boy. As a group, discuss the question and the different responses the boy and the tree might give.
- Hold a plenary discussion using some of the reflection points below.
- An alternative story to use is the Lorax by Dr Seuss which chronicles the plight of the Lorax who speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler. At the end the Lorax is given the last truffula tree seed by theOnce-ler and the story ends positively with the hope that the forest will renew itself.
Teacher prompts
- What did the Guardian provide for the boy?
- What were the things the boy took which could not be renewed? Which things were renewable?
- What were the consequences of the Guardian giving so much?
- Was there anything the boy could have done to look after the wood better?
- What message does the story have about the resources we need to live?
- The story is an allegory, what meaning might the story have in terms of our world?
Reflection and evaluation
- Ask pupils to look around the room at all the things they ‘use.’ Where do these things come from? Do we use them up or are they renewable? Are they from this country? In the story which things that the boy used were renewable and which were not?Explain that this story is an example of one wood but it can illustrate what is happening to many of our forests across the world.
- Encourage the pupils to think back to the Web of Lifeactivity in section 1. What roles can humans play in this web? Do they have a positive role in the web? Are there different roles they can play? In terms of this story, what role are people playing in the web? What are the consequences of this locally / globally?
Homework ideas
- Pupils can research and share stories or fairytales which are set in forests or are about trees.
- Visit www.treeaid.org for further ideas around writing tree fables – Tales from beneath the Baobab
A good follow up activity to this is What is sustainable development? which explores sustainable development in more detail and is suitable for more able pupils.
