Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources Teaching Resources
Teach your students all about renewable and nonrenewable resources this school year with printable worksheets, activities, vocabulary guides and more created by teachers for your elementary science lessons.
Aligned to the NGSS, this collection of teaching resources has been created with differentiated options and editable versions to make your lesson plans easier to create and save you time! Each resource in this collection has been thoroughly reviewed by a member of the Teach Starter teacher team to ensure it's ready for your lesson planning and your students.
New to teaching this section of the elementary science curriculum or looking for fresh ideas to explain the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources and why these are so important? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Are Natural Resources?
In order to explain renewable and nonrenewable and the differences between them, students first need to understand what it means to have a natural resource.
Natural resources are materials or substances that are naturally occurring in the environment and are valuable to humans for their economic, environmental, or cultural benefits. These resources are generally classified into two categories — renewable and nonrenewable resources.
What Is a Renewable Resource?
Need a kid-friendly way to explain this concept? Try this one: A renewable resource is a natural resource that we can use over and over again without running out. It's sort of like having a cookie jar that never runs out of cookies. Only in this case, the "cookies" provide the energy we need for things like heating our homes and running the electrical items in our schools.
Sometimes renewable resources will be regenerated naturally, while others require human intervention (for example, tree planting replenishes the supply of wood but requires people to do some work!).
What Are Some Examples of Renewable Resources?
Some examples of renewable resources include:
- Sun — The sun is one of the most abundant renewable resources in the US, and it is used to create energy with the help of solar panels.
- Wind — Wind turbines harness this renewable resource, generating electricity as gusts of wind move through them.
- Water — Hydroelectric dams are often used to create energy with this renewable resource.
What Is a Non-Renewable Resource?
As the prefix "non" would indicate, nonrenewable resources are essentially the opposite of the renewable type. These natural resources used to create energy cannot be easily replenished or replaced.
Some may be used up entirely over time, and once they're gone, they will be gone for good. Others may come back, but the time it takes to come back is so long that it won't happen for thousands or even millions of years, which means we will run out too quickly.
Many nonrenewable resources create other issues, such as the harm that burning fossil fuels represents to the environment. Nonrenewable resources are often considered unsustainable, and their use is a major contributor to environmental degradation, climate change, and other global issues.
What Are Some Examples of Nonrenewable Resources?
Some examples of nonrenewable resources that you can share with your students include:
- Fossil fuels — Nonrenewable fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas are used for electricity and heat but would take millions of years to regenerate.
- Minerals — Gold, silver and copper are all minerals that are mined for use in electronics, jewelry and more, but they won't just replenish naturally.
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Comprehension Worksheets - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Read and learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with a reading comprehension passage and worksheet pack.
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Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint - Poster
Display this poster when learning about sustainability.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - Environmental Word Wall
Help your young students learn about recycling and conservation with an illustrated word wall.
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Why Plant a Tree? Infographic Analysis Activity & Posters
Teach about Arbor Day or Earth Day with an infographic poster and a cloze note-taking worksheet about the importance of trees in our environment.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - Brainstorming Sheets
Brainstorm All the Ways to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle with a pack of printable brainstorming worksheets.
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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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Earth Watch: Drowning in Plastic - Comprehension Worksheet
Practice reading comprehension skills and learn about microplastic pollution in our oceans with a reading comprehension activity.
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Classroom Practices to Promote a Green Future - A Teacher's Guide
Create a more sustainably-friendly classroom with this 18-page teacher's guide.
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Environmental Awareness Flip Book - Earth Day Activity
Use this flip book to build awareness of actions that are good and bad for the environment.
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Ocean Pollution Art Activity
Inspire discussions about ocean pollution and environmental impact with an Earth Day art project.
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The Recycling Process Poster
Show your students the process materials go through when they are recycled with printable recycling posters.
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Earth Day Word Search - Printable
Identify environmental terms with this Earth Day word search.
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Recycling Word Search
Build your students’ vocabulary around the topic of recycling with this recycling-themed word search.
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Amazon Rainforest Facts - Reading Passage
Read and learn about conservation with a reading passage and comprehension worksheet on the Amazon Rainforest.
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Natural and Built Environments - Information Sheets
A set of information sheets for selected natural and built environments.
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Water is Life - Instructional Slide Deck
Learn about the importance of water to life on Earth, along with where our water comes from, with an instructional slide deck.
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Man-made vs. Natural Features - Sorting Activity
A sorting activity to help students identify the natural and human features of environments.
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Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources – Vocabulary Mini Book
Reinforce science vocabulary by creating a booklet to reference when studying renewable and nonrenewable resources.
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Natural Resources Task Cards
Answer questions about natural resources and their uses with this set of 16 task cards.
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Changes to the Environment – Worksheet
Learn about environmental changes and how they affect living things with this worksheet.
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Is It Sustainable? Evaluating Sources of Electricity Worksheet
A worksheet for considering whether an energy source is sustainable.
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Water Conservation Foldable
Display different ways to save water with this water conservation foldable.
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Deforestation-Infographic Analysis Activity
Read and understand an infographic about Deforestation with a thought-provoking poster and comprehension questions.
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What Could Happen? - Environmental Changes Worksheet
Explore the effects of environmental change on plants and animals with a printable science worksheet.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - Earth Day Foldables
Display different ways to conserve resources with a set of fun recycling–based foldable interactive notebook templates.
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Water is Life Resource Pack
Discover the world of water with a 15-page resource pack of posters, worksheets, and activities for teaching about how we use water and where it comes from.
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Where Do Natural Resources Come From? Differentiated Worksheet
Explore where natural resources are found with a pair of differentiated natural resource worksheets.
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Comparing Energy Sources Worksheet & Graphic Organizer
Compare and contrast different types of renewable energy sources with a printable graphic organizer.
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Great Barrier Reef - Comprehension and Note Taking Worksheet
Learn about The Great Barrier Reef with a comprehension and note-taking activity.
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Protecting Native Plants and Animals – Comprehension Worksheets
Build comprehension skills and learn about human impact on ecosystems with a reading passage and worksheets.
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Renewable vs. Nonrenewable Energy Sources Worksheets
Discover the difference between renewable and nonrenewable energy sources with a comprehension passage and worksheet.
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Our Built and Natural Environments - Poster Pack
Showcase the features of natural and man-made environments with printable anchor charts.
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources Worksheets
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources Posters
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources Templates
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources for Kindergarten
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources for 1st Grade
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources for 2nd Grade
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources for 3rd Grade
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources for 4th Grade
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources for 5th Grade
- Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources for 6th Grade