• In this fun classroom activity, students write and perform a 2-minute speech pretending they are world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. 

Positives

• This activity empowers children to speak boldly and publicly about the urgency of the climate crisis.
• The teacher guide includes example speeches from the climate activists Alexandria Villaseñor, Greta Thunberg, and Severn Cullis-Suzuki.

Additional Prerequisites

• Teachers can use the example speeches to provide a guide for students and inspire them in their own speech writing.

Differentiation

• Students could write their speech from the perspective of children in another part of the world. This would help grow their knowledge about climate issues in other regions.
• The students should be encouraged to write with emotion. Classes could discuss the feelings climate change evokes like anxiety, frustration, hopelessness, etc.
• Students could vote on their favorite speech and the best ones could be published in the school's newspaper or other publications.
• Students could do a peer review to help improve their speeches before presenting to the entire class.
• Teachers could organize a virtual tour of the United Nations building in New York City.
• Other speeches that could be used as examples for students include Greta Thunberg's speech at COP25, this speech by Chiamaka Obilo at a rally in Boston, and this speech by Maxine Jimenez.

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.