Sustainability Teaching Resources
Make teaching sustainability easy this school year with printable worksheets, activities for kids, lesson plans and more — all created by teachers for your primary classroom.
This teaching resource collection is aligned with the Australian Curriculum cross-curriculum priority to help your students build a more sustainable future!
Each resource was designed to help your students understand how they can implement sustainable practices in the classroom and at home.
Our teacher team has carefully reviewed and curated each resource to ensure your students will be armed with information on everything from composting to conservation, as well as how to reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink, and repair.
Tackling this topic for the first time in your classroom? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Is Sustainability? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Sustainability is a cross-curriculum priority in the Australian Curriculum and for a good reason. Primary school is an important time to begin talking to students about sustainability as we can instill these practices early and make them into lifelong habits. But explaining this concept to kids can be tricky.
Here's a kid-friendly sustainability definition we like to use to explain its meaning to our students:
Sustainability is the ability to meet someone's current needs without hurting the ability of people in the future to meet their own needs.
On a more technical level, sustainability represents a holistic approach to addressing environmental, social and economic challenges in a way that supports long-term well-being and resilience.
This often includes practices such as reducing carbon emissions, conserving natural resources, and promoting social equity.
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What are Natural Resources? PowerPoint
A teaching presentation that explores what natural resources are and where they come from.
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Earth Watch – Drowning in Plastic Reading Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article about plastic pollution in our oceans.
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Earth Watch: Protecting Native Plants and Animals – Comprehension Worksheet
Build comprehension skills and learn about human impact on ecosystems with a reading passage and worksheets.
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Natural Resources Word Search
Review the different natural resources with a word search.
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Rubbish Bin Sorting Activity
Learn about recycling, composting, and sustainable practices for waste management with a fun sorting activity.
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Caring For Country and Place in Sustainable Ways PowerPoint
Explore how Indigenous peoples care for Country and Place in sustainable ways with a teaching presentation.
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Deforestation Infographic Comprehension Activity
Read and learn about deforestation with an engaging infographic and comprehension worksheet.
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Renewable vs Non-Renewable Energy Sources – Worksheet
Discover the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy sources with a comprehension passage and worksheet.
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Material World PowerPoint - Processed and Natural Materials
Discover the difference between processed and natural materials with an instructional slide show.
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Comprehension Worksheets - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Read to learn about the Great Pacific Garbage patch with a printable reading comprehension worksheet pack.
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My Ecological Footprint - Reference Sheet
Teach your students about the things we do that affect the Earth with an ecological footprint reference sheet.
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Sustainability Activity - Caring for the Environment
Promote sustainable living with a sustainability sorting activity.
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Where Do Natural Resources Come From? Worksheet
Discover where Earth's natural resources are located with a pair of differentiated Natural Resource Worksheets.
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Types of Materials - Printable Anchor Charts
Introduce your students to the different types of materials with a pack of printable anchor charts.
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Develop a Habitat - Garden Project
A project-based assessment task for students to demonstrate their understanding of how habitats can be preserved and protected in and around where people live.
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Renewable or Nonrenewable? Earth's Resources Task Cards
Identify natural resources and the types of renewable energy with 24 renewable and nonrenewable resource task cards.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink and Repair Posters
Explain the concepts behind reducing, reusing, recycling, rethinking and repairing waste with a set of printable sustainability posters.
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Water is Life - Instructional PowerPoint
Learn about the importance of water to life on Earth, along with where water comes from, with an instructional slide deck.
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National Tree Day – Environment Word Search
Print a word search to use on National Tree Day or Earth Day to help your students learn about conservation.
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Waste Management Investigation - How Much Waste Do We Throw Away?
A practical investigation related to sustainable waste management.
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Helping the Earth Flipbook
Use this printable recycling flipbook with your students to teach them about ways to help Earth.
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Sustainability Quotes Poster Pack
Inspire sustainable practices in the classroom with a pack of printable Sustainability Quote posters.
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Natural Resource Use in the 21st Century PowerPoint
Explore how natural resources are used by humans in the 21st century with an instructional slide deck.
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Solving Global Problems - Design an Invention Workbook
Help your students discover how innovation and invention can solve global problems with an invention project workbook.
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Save the Planet - Kids Mini Book
Teach your students to reduce, reuse, and recycle with a printable Save the Planet kid's book.
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How to Save Water Poster and Worksheet Pack
Teach your students ways to save water with a printable poster and worksheet pack.
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Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources – Sorting Activity
Identify resources as either renewable or nonrenewable with this 24-card sorting activity
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Water Conservation Foldable
Display different ways to save water with this water conservation foldable.
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Renewable and Non-renewable Energy Sources Poster Pack
Display and examine renewable and non-renewable energy sources, including wind, hydro, solar, natural gas, oil and coal.
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Human Impact on the Environment-Research Project
Uncover how humans positively and negatively impact the different biomes around the world with a guided research project.
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What Can We Recycle? Cut and Paste Worksheet
Remember what to recycle with a cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Changes to the Environment – Worksheet
Learn about environmental changes and how they affect living things with this worksheet.