Explainer: Why do we need to conserve our environment? [KS1]

Narrator: The environment gives every living thing a safe place to live. Which is why we need to look after it.

Take this little bean. These usually grow in the ground but they can also grow in your classroom. They need soil, or a paper towel, sunlight and water.

If we give it too much or too little sun or water, it won't grow. If we eat all the beans we grow, we have no more beans. But if we plant some of them and don't take more than the environment can give us, we could have an endless supply of beans!

We call this sustainability.

Plants and animals live in a balance in nature too. This tree is the perfect home for things like birds, squirrels and bugs. It cleans the air we breath and it can grow thanks to the soil, water and sunlight it gets.

This worm lives in the soil below the tree, where it has a great time just digging around, chomping up the dead leaves and keeping the soil healthy. And just here is the perfect place for this fish to live, surrounded by insects and pondlife.

When everything is in balance, we get to enjoy the environment. If we disturb this balance it can be a problem for the things that live there.

Maybe, we plant a load of beans where they wouldn't normally grow. They could take over where things already live. Or maybe we chop down the tree. Or maybe we put a building where the pond was. But we still need to build things like houses, hospitals and schools.

We just need to think about our environment when we're doing it. If we make sure there are spaces for plants and animals, we can protect these ecosystems.

That classroom bean could be the start of a vegetable patch in a school garden. And having more nature around us, makes us happier and healthier too!

We all depend on the environment around us to live, so if we all help conserve a little piece of it, together it will make a huge difference.