Climate Change Activity Packet – Worksheets for Kids

Students read paired passages on climate change and global warming, then apply the vocabulary through word games, a biography of Greta Thunberg, and hands-on melting-ice demonstrations.

Grades: Grades 2–5, Elementary
File type: PDF
Preparation: Print ready

Updated Mar 12, 2022

Subject: Earth Sciences, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Science
Topic: Climate, Global
Resource types: Activities, Worksheets, Worksheets & Printables
Preparation: Print ready

From the author

About this resource

Two short informational passages, "What is Climate Change?" and "What is Global Warming?", are each followed by a reading-response worksheet, then compared directly in a paired-text activity that asks students to quote evidence from both. The packet builds a shared climate-science vocabulary through a word search, ABC-ordering task, word scramble, matching activity, and vocabulary cards, then applies it through a fill-in-the-blank passage, a KWL grid, a persuasive poster, and a letter-writing activity addressed to a Congressperson. A biography of teenage activist Greta Thunberg is included with its own reading-response questions and a coded-message decoding puzzle that has its own answer key. Two hands-on demonstration activities, using ice, water, and a freezer, model melting sea ice and rising sea levels for classroom discussion.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Explain what climate change and global warming are and how they are related
Identify human activities that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions
Compare and contrast information from two related informational texts, citing evidence
Describe at least one action an individual can take to reduce their impact on climate change

Teaching tips

Teach the two opening passages before any of the vocabulary games, since the games assume familiarity with terms like drought and greenhouse gases
Use the two freezer demonstrations as a hands-on hook, since they require materials to be frozen a day in advance
Pair the Greta Thunberg biography with the letter-writing activity to connect the vocabulary to a real-world example of student advocacy
Save the persuasive poster and KWL grid as informal formative checks on what students retained from the unit

Skills covered

Informational text comprehension — students answer reading-response questions and quote evidence from two short climate-science passages.
Text comparison — students compare and contrast the climate change and global warming passages in a paired-text activity.
Science vocabulary application — students use terms like drought, greenhouse gases, and deforestation across a word search, scramble, matching, and fill-in-the-blank activity.
Persuasive writing — students write a letter to a Congressperson and design a poster arguing for climate action.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How does the paired-text activity connect the two opening passages?

Students compare "What is Climate Change?" and "What is Global Warming?" directly, quoting evidence from each to identify which text lists effects of global warming, which lists actions to stop climate change, and two ideas mentioned in both.

What is the purpose of the two freezer demonstration activities?

They physically model melting sea ice and rising sea levels using trays, water, and a freezer so students can observe the effect before discussing global warming's impact on polar animals and coastal areas.