Colors of Place Systems Thinking Activity
Provided by: Children's Environmental Literacy Foundation|Published on: May 24, 2024|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Type: Activity - Outdoors
Subjects: Biology, Earth and Space Sciences
Authors: Children's Environmental Literacy Foundation
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this activity, students will make observations of an outdoor location, find something to match their assigned color, and think about how it relates to other objects in the ecosystem.
- Students will understand how living and nonliving objects work together in a system, draw their object, make a diagram of the system interactions, and discuss or write their answers to the questions.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- Students will love getting outside in a natural system.
- Allowing students to choose their paint chip color can give them a sense of autonomy.
Additional Prerequisites
- The lesson says it is for grades K-12, but the activity will likely work best for grades 3-8.
- Teachers should prepare students to go outside and observe a natural system without disturbing or hurting it.
- Students will need to know the five senses.
Differentiation
- Before doing this activity, students can create nature journals. Then, after completing the activity, students can put their paint chip and a drawing or picture of their object in their journals.
- After answering the reflection questions, students can discuss how human activities and climate change impact the community and systems they have observed.
- During Part 2 of the lesson, teachers can draw a system web as they identify how each object is connected to the other.
- Students in language arts classes can practice their descriptive writing skills by using imagery to describe the system they observed.
There is a reason we refer to it as the climate "system." What happens in the atmosphere is intricately connected to what happens on land and in the oceans. This lesson introduces students to systems thinking, which is vital to understanding the climate. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
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