Lesson video

This lesson is called deforestation.

In this lesson, you will learn what deforestation means.

Animals affected by deforestation, the human activity towards deforestation and you will prepare the speech.

In this lesson, you will need some paper or an exercise book, a pen or a pencil, your speaking mouths and your eco-warrior brains.

Pause the video, collect your materials and come right back.

Hello their children.

Let me introduce myself.

My name is Mrs. Walsh and I am an explorer.

Today we're going to be talking about deforestation.

Don't worry if you don't know that what that means yet, you soon we'll find out.

But for now, hold on to your seats.

Cause we are going on a journey around the world.

Let's find out where we are off to.

Oh, this looks interesting.

Can anybody tell me where that yellow star is? You can use the flag as a clue.

Who said Russia? Ah! give yourself a pat on the back.

Today children, we are going to Russia.

But let's find out why.

How beautiful does Russia look children? Look at those blue skies and that luscious greenery.

Here are some top facts about Russia.

Woof! nearly 50% of Russia is forest land that's hof.

In Russia they have the largest area of forests in the world.

Deforestation is a major problem.

There's an estimated 22,000 kilometre square of deforestation each year.

That is the size of London eight times.

That is massive.

So before we get started, it is important to know what deforestation means.

Let's take the word we have a prefix, De.

Can you think of any words that have the prefix De in them.

Decompose, excellent! Anymore? Degrade.

Anymore? Devalue.

So now let's take the root word, forest.

Who can tell me what a forest is? Absolutely.

The forest is a huge area of woodlands and trees.

Look at this beautiful forest land.

Look at how beautiful and luscious the trees are.

Did I hear somebody say who needs trees? Ah, but we need trees don't we? Okay, children, it's challenge time.

You have got 20 seconds to write down the many reasons as you can think why we need trees.

Are you ready? 3,2,1 go.

5,4,3,2,1, put your pens down children.

Okay, throw them at me, want to figure out.

What reasons have you put down that we need trees? Paper.

Excellent one.

We all use paper and we all need paper.

And paper comes from trees.

Anymore? Hmm! to make things, I like that one.

What kind of thing do you think in? Sheds, in your garden.

Yeah, I like that one.

Okay, look at my reasons why we need trees.

And if you don't have these in your list, just add them in.

Paper, somebody's already said that one.

Oxygen.

We need trees for oxygen don't we children.

Trees absorb harmful carbon dioxide.

Trees also preserve the soil and give nutrients to plants and trees provide homes for many animals and that is the area that we're going to focus on right now.

I want you to pick up your pens again.

And think of as many animals as you can, in 20 seconds.

So as many animals as you can that need trees to live in.

You ready? 3,2,1 go, 5,4,3,2,1, put your pens down children.

Okay, shout them out to me.

What did you get? Birds.

Koala bears, like that one, they cute, Snakes, are supposed to live in trees in the jungle, don't they? Oh, and in the woods as well.

Yes, of course.

Silly me.

Anymore? Bears live in the forest only.

Okay, let's take a look at what I got and see if you got the same.

I got spiders.

Not just spiders, other arachnids as well.

Oh, orangutans, owls, I love owls, lizards and parrots or any type of bird really Yes, did you get those as well? Fabulous.

Okay, so now we know what beautiful animals live in the forest.

It's important to look at deforestation and also fight for the cause because there are many, many people who are tearing down our beautiful forests across the world.

Look at this picture.

This was once a beautiful forest.

And because humans are wanting the land, for their cattle, on the farms, or to build new houses, they are tearing away our beautiful forests.

They're also chopping the trees down, for paper.

I know we need paper, but, it's important that we also save our trees.

Human activity is the reason why our forests are disappearing very quickly.

Look at these luxury items. What can you tell me about them? Look closely.

Absolutely.

They're all made of wood.

So all luxury items, the ones that we absolutely love, just bear in mind that they come from trees.

That is one action that is the cause of deforestation.

So what are we going to do about this children? Because we can help.

There are quite a number of things we can do.

We can reduce our paper use any scrap paper, we can turn that into a scrapbook or Notepad.

We can all plant a tree, we have to make sure we recycle paper.

And we can look at alternatives to firewood, talk to your parents and carers about that one.

There are lots and lots of community projects going on in England, you could have a look to see how you could get involved.

And you can raise awareness.

And that is your activity today.

So what I would like you to do is I would like you to prepare a one minute speech on deforestation.

So you have to focus on all the things we've discussed.

So we know how precious trees are.

We know that animals live in trees.

And we need to think of solutions to this.

So you prepare your one minute speech on deforestation, and include, why it is important.

Other alternatives that we could use? Or, if there are no alternatives, what we could do to reduce the amount of wood that we use.

Do you think you could do that? Excellent.

Here is your success criteria.

Plan what you are going to say in your speech, keep it factual, and be persuasive.

Your second step is to state the problem.

Connect with your audience and use eye contact.

Your third step is to practise.

Practise your speech until you know it off by heart.

Use little notes to help you.

I can't wait to see video recordings of your speech.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and hashtag learn with Oak.

Good luck!.