Design Your Future

Lesson Plans

Grades3, 4, 5English Language Arts

Scientist Reviewed

Provided by ClimateScience

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What it is

This class activity will help students imagine a hopeful future for themselves and our world.
The teacher's guide provides samples of themes that will guide the writing, which focus on climate change and environmental issues.

Teaching tips

Positives

This lesson helps students process emotions about climate change and remain hopeful about the future.

Additional Prerequisites

The teacher will need to make printed copies of the activity sheet for the students.

Differentiation

The completed student handouts could be displayed around the classroom or throughout the school.
This activity could be used at the end of a climate change unit to help students reflect on their thoughts and feelings in an optimistic way.
Other lessons that help students process feelings about climate change include Solve Climate Change While Acting and "Kids Can Change the World".

From the scientist review

This is a quick activity aimed at helping students remain hopeful in the face of climate change. It is recommended for teaching.

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At a glance

Grades: 3, 4, 5
Subjects: English Language Arts
Other types: Activity - Classroom, Worksheets
Format: PDF
Language: English
Location: Earth
Provider: ClimateScience
Authors: ClimateScience
Published: April 27, 2021
Last updated: July 16, 2026
: Reviewed by our climate scientists How we review

Standards alignment · W.3.4 + 3 more

Wisconsin Climate Education Hub

English Language Arts

W.3.4With support from adults and peers, produce writing in which the development and organization are culturally sustaining and rhetorically authentic to task and purpose.
W.4.2Write text in a variety of modes: a) Opinion pieces in which the student introduces the topic or text they are writing about, states an opinion, and creates an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer's purpose. List reasons that support the opinion; b) Informative texts in which they clearly introduce a topic, group related information in paragraphs and sections; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aid comprehension. Use facts, definitions, and details to develop points; c) Convey events, real or imagined, through narrative/short stories which orient a reader by establishing a real or imagined situation and introducing a narrator and characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.
W.4.3Create writing that utilizes: a) Organization: include an introduction that establishes a purpose and provides a concluding statement related to the body of the composition. Structure of text reflects the purpose; b) Transitions: use of phrases to signal event order and to link and build connections between ideas, text, and events; c) Word Choice (including domain-specific): experiments with words to provide emphasis, addition, contrast, or order to connect themes and ideas.
W.5.3Create writing that utilizes: a) Organization: include an introduction that establishes a purpose and engages the reader. Text builds to a concluding statement appropriate to the mode of writing and related to the body of the composition; b) Transitions: use a variety of transitional words and phrases that logically connect and develop ideas; c) Word Choice (including domain-specific): creatively selects unique words for emphasis, addition, contrast, or order.

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What it is

Teaching tips

From the scientist review

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