Quite an ambitious week-long initiative for us with five schools and more than 420 Key Stage 2 pupils and their teachers on board! At this point, thanks must go to Tewkesbury Rotary Club for funding two school places, namely for children at The John Moore Primary School (https://www.thejohnmooreprimary.org/) and Tirlebrook Primary School (https://www.tirlebrook.co.uk/) within the town. These schools were joined by children and teachers from Vernon Primary School in Cheshire (https://www.vernonprimaryschool.com/), Brimington Junior School (https://thelearnerstrust.org/brimington-juniors/) and Dronfield Junior School (https://www.dronfield-jun.derbyshire.sch.uk/), both located in Derbyshire. All the youngsters impressed us greatly.
After formally welcoming everybody and introducing myself and Marcella, as well as sharing the aims of the workshop and proposed format for the sessions, we moved on to our ‘starter’. I launched Digimap for Schools and projected a map of the UK to pinpoint our locations and explore our connections with these places (https://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/). Never miss an opportunity to enhance pupils’ locational and place knowledge!
Our first task was to challenge any misconceptions that pupils had. We asked them what they thought Brazil was like and where they believed the Amazon was located. Some interesting comments were added to the chat feed (yes, football did gain a mention!). We then played an animation, which the children watched intently: https://stepintotheamazon.co.uk/resources/
Next, the children attempted a true or false quiz based upon a series of images and statements about the tropical rainforest biome, e.g. its climate; soils; fauna and flora. When revealing the answers, further detail was provided about this fascinating biome and anecdotes added from Marcella’s first-hand experiences of the Amazon rainforest.
We needed a change of state, so the below activity was instigated. When challenged by their teacher and ourselves, pupils were able to justify their positions well.
Afterwards, we considered the importance of the Amazon together. We touched upon its biodiversity, the number of resources it contains, its role as a carbon sink and a climate regulator, why it is also known as a ‘pharmaceutical wonderland’ and as a home to many indigenous communities.
Break called. On our return, we contemplated some of the issues facing the Amazon through a think-pair-share and 5Ws+how activity. It was wonderful to witness so much interaction and lively discussion taking place in their classrooms.
Next, we attempted a rather challenging jigsaw puzzle and questioning activity in pairs or small groups to stimulate further higher-order thinking. Youngsters embraced this activity enthusiastically and had some profound responses to share via the chat feed. Well done to the group in Kestrel Class at The John Moore Primary School who completed the puzzle first.
We then played a ten minute movie clip, created using audio and visual footage that both Marcella and Adriana had captured during their time spent with the Kambeba indigenous community within the heart of the Amazon. The children were asked to think about how the Kambebas live in harmony with their natural surroundings and what we can learn from them in order to lead more sustainable lifestyles. Pupils were mesmerised and offered many thoughtful responses to my questions.
We also mentioned about Taissa’s experiences of COP28 in Dubai and COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, where she spoke with great confidence, conviction and passion (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCiMH64vjvS/?igsh=OGUzbW5jd2RzcjM0).
Two optional extension tasks were set for teachers to complete with pupils over the next couple of days should they wish.
In fact, many pupils engaged whole-heartedly with both activities and the results shared with us throughout the week were very moving. On the Friday afternoon, we questioned the youngsters from the Kambeba indigenous community, who had joined us in ‘real time’. Marcella and a close friend of hers, Olivia Pires Zamprogna, proficiently translated the Kambebas’ responses to the questions that UK pupils had posed to them. Individuals, both in the UK and Brazil, were also encouraged to share images of objects or places special to them and explain why this was the case. Whilst there were many differences due to their contrasting locations, there were, however, several similarities; this task really emphasises what matters to us all. Having pupils in the UK connecting with children of a similar age from the Amazon was truly heart-warming and rather magical too.
Our final activity of the afternoon encouraged a degree of reflection.
Pupils were able to recall lots from the information drip-fed throughout the week and listed many actions that they now intended to take in order to reduce their impact on our planet and contribute to its sustainability. The link between local actions and global impact was also reinforced.
Teachers were asked to complete a short online feedback form with the children so that we could capture some staff and pupil voice; this is important to us at Step into the Amazon as it enables us to perfect our workshop content and delivery.
Some of their ‘concluding comments’ can be found below:
Thank you, had a great morning.
Thank you so much from Brimington.
Thank you so much. We have loved taking part.
Thank you so much, we have had a brilliant time. 🙂
Thank you so much for such a great couple of sessions!
Thank you so much! We really enjoyed meeting the children. 🙂
Thank you for two amazing sessions!
It gave the children an interesting insight into life in the rainforest.
Our next virtual multi-schools event will take place in late March/early April. See the below flyer for further details or contact Emma Espley directly to reserve a specific date (emma.espley@gmail.com).