5 Ways to Teach Natural Resources to Kids (They will Love)

Natural resources are one of those topics that students hear every year so it can sometimes be hard to come up with engaging natural resources activities and ways to teach about them. You don’t want to repeat what a teacher may have done the year before or bore your kids to death with the 3r’s. This post has a list of ideas to help you teach about natural resources.

Fun Lesson Plans

When planning out your lessons, first take a look at the standards your grade has to cover. I normally leave myself a week to teach about a general topic in science because I am a realist and know I probably won’t get it all done. (I never get it all done – too many meetings).

If you’re looking to save some time, my natural resources activties pack has premade lesson plans already made and ready to go!

Vocabulary Activities

Since I teach in Texas and there are a lot of ESL learners where I am from, I always start a new topic with vocab words and an anchor chart. Monday we work on our vocab activity and the kids copy down the anchor chart that we make at the beginning of the unit.

Here is a picture of the vocab cards we use in my class.

Engaging Worksheets

Worksheets can get a bad wrap but it’s all about how you use them. Here are some simple ways to make a worksheet purposeful and fun.

Give students a clipboard and a worksheet and have students walk around the room and survey other students for answers.
Pair students up with a partner and have students fill in the worksheet with two different color pencils (this allows you to make sure both partners are doing their fair share.)
Pass out clipboards and take students outside to enjoy a different environment.
Play Showdown – make groups of 3-4 and have one student read the question while the others race to write the answer. Kagan Education
Write the questions on flashcards and have students play Quiz, Quiz, Trade – Students can walk around the room and quiz other students. When all of the questions have been answered pass out the worksheet for students to fill out the answers. Kagan Education

Videos About Natural Resources

Here are two of my favorite videos on natural resources. Videos are great natural resources activities your students will love. The first one is great for younger grades and the second is perfect for students who want to dig a little deeper.

2 Types of Natural Resources on Earth *EXPLAINED* Science for Kids

In this video, students learn that natural resources are found all over the earth. They also learn that there are two different types of natural resources- renewable and nonrenewable.

I love Crash Course videos on Youtube. The host talks fast, but they go into a lot of detail and the graphics and images are always very engaging.

I love using QR codes in my class. My students work so well independently when they get to use them! These are in my Natural Resource pack.

Books about Natural Resources

Here is a quick list of books I love that are perfect for engaging ways to teach about natural resources. These are also great to own for Earth Day.

The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling – The Adventures of an Aluminum Can: A Story About Recycling – One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia – The Water Princess – Don’t Throw That Away!: A Lift-the-Flap Book about Recycling and Reusing – I Can Save the Earth!: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Art With Natural Resources

If you are anything like me, you may have a problem throwing things away! Every class I have taught in I always have a box somewhere in the room where kids “throw away” any extra art supply or scrap paper.

On rainy days or when we have extra time, I let the kids go through the box and make “art” using the leftover resources. You would be surprised how much my students love this. Something about getting to just create anything they want using scraps of paper brings them tons of joy. It is also really fun to see what your kids can create!

art car using left over natural resources

This is a bit of an extreme example, but in Houston every year we have this crazy festival called the Houston Art Car Parade. Our school had a celebration where every class used recycled or leftover material to create an “Art Car”. My students had such a fun time making this. We used a large cardboard box and A LOT of hot glue!

Free Natural Resource Worksheets and Vocabulary Activities

I hope you were able to grab some quick ideas to add to your lesson plans. Be sure to grab a few of my natural resources activities for FREE HERE! If you are looking for my full natural resources activities pack you can grab that in my shop. Also, be sure to follow me on Instagram and Teachers Pay Teachers for more ideas and flash sales.