Our teachers have told us that a topic based learning approach to the curriculum, choosing topics such as animals, habitats or conservation projects, can really inspire their students to become the zoologists and conservationists of the future.
Since rainforests are always a popular subject in schools, and we have a zoo full of animals (who are from the rainforest), and a team of experts (who spend lots of time working in the rainforests), this is an obvious choice for us.
We have created a lots of short videos to help your students answer the big conservation questions like…
- Where in the world are rainforests?
- Which animals live in the rainforest?
- Why rainforests are important?
- What is deforestation?
- What is palm oil and why should I care?
- What is the climate like in the rainforest?
Explore all our rainforest resources
And that’s not all! We’ve got a database of FREE learning resources that you can search by topic, key stage, subject or keyword. We can guarantee you will find plenty to help you create a fantastic topic based learning lessons for your students.
Our tips for a topic based learning approach
- Collaborate with your colleagues – share ideas, develop resources and activities together and reflect on you and your students learning journey. (NB Brainstorming is a great way of sparking ideas of each other, and spider diagrams are a great way of connecting all of your ideas together)
- Think creatively – you can combine science with art, design technology, geography, and history – as well as English and maths.
- Topic based learning works best when it happens over an extended time frame – so why don’t you consider spending the whole day, week or even term on the topic.
- Include the whole school – use differentiation to ensure that your ideas and activities are developed to suit different key stages and abilities, and allow progression.
Once you’ve immersed your students in the rainforest habitats in the classroom, why not bring your students to Chester Zoo to explore our indoor rainforest habitats. We guarantee that it will help bring their learning to life!
Here’s everything you need to know about a school visit to Chester Zoo.