How to play
1. Match the letters to the pictures.
2. Stack the blocks on top of each other to make a 6-letter word, with their matching pictures stacked next to them.
3. Look at the pictures and read the poem. What do you learn?
4. Please scramble the pieces when you are finished!
With very young children, you can stack the blocks to make a picture on each narrow side.
Question: Spot the differences between the two sides – what does this tell us?
The red side shows a world where our energy comes from fossil fuels, gas and petrol.
The blue side shows the same world, but where our energy comes from renewable sources, the sun and the wind.
Question: Which world would you rather live in?
Start with a picture puzzle. Stack the larger blocks (the ones with pictures) to make a picture along the narrow side of the blocks (this is an image of a house and road).
Now match the pictures to the letters. One of the picture and letter matches has already been done (N is for Newt).
Below are some hints/questions you can ask to help solve the puzzle, starting with the second letter and moving up.
The second letter from the bottom is O for Ocean.
Hints you can use if a child guesses the following words from the pictures:
Sea: What are other words for the sea? Boat: What does a boat float on?
Whale: Where does a whale swim?
The next letter in the stack is B for Bog.
Hints:
What sort of ground is wet and soggy?
What word for wet ground rhymes with soggy?
There is also a picture of a bird in the image – B for Bird works too.
R is for Ring.
You can ask what type of ring it is Answer – diamond, which is made of CARBON.
A is for Air.
If the word Balloon is guessed from the picture, you can ask:
What does the balloon fly in?
What kind of balloon is it?
The first letter and top of the stack is C for Coal.
Hints:
What is being burned (it is a kind of hard black stone).
What kind of fuel was used in the Industrial Revolution?
If the answer comes as charcoal, you can ask:
What are other kinds of fuel that are similar to charcoal, but that are buried in the ground and have to be dug up, or mined?
Turn the pieces over so just the blue side with the words show.
Look for the rhyming couplets on the small blocks.
Match the ends of the phrases to their beginnings on the larger blocks.
Once you are finished, you can stand the blocks up to see the word and pictures.
Hear recordings of the poem and see translations into multiple languages here.
What are the chemical structures shown on the letter blocks? (The images show molecules).
How do they relate to the images related to the letters?
(Answers can be found below).
Please scramble the blocks so the next player can solve the puzzle!
1. Match the letters to the pictures.
2. Stack the blocks on top of each other to make a 6-letter word, with their matching pictures stacked next to them.
3. Look at the pictures and read the poem. What do you learn?
4. Please scramble the pieces when you are finished!
With very young children, you can stack the blocks to make a picture on each narrow side.
Question: Spot the differences between the two sides – what does this tell us?
The red side shows a world where our energy comes from fossil fuels, gas and petrol.
The blue side shows the same world, but where our energy comes from renewable sources, the sun and the wind.
Question: Which world would you rather live in?
Start with a picture puzzle. Stack the larger blocks (the ones with pictures) to make a picture along the narrow side of the blocks (this is an image of a house and road).
Now match the pictures to the letters. One of the picture and letter matches has already been done (N is for Newt).
Below are some hints/questions you can ask to help solve the puzzle, starting with the second letter and moving up.
The second letter from the bottom is O for Ocean.
Hints you can use if a child guesses the following words from the pictures:
Sea: What are other words for the sea? Boat: What does a boat float on?
Whale: Where does a whale swim?
The next letter in the stack is B for Bog.
Hints:
What sort of ground is wet and soggy?
What word for wet ground rhymes with soggy?
There is also a picture of a bird in the image – B for Bird works too.
R is for Ring.
You can ask what type of ring it is Answer – diamond, which is made of CARBON.
A is for Air.
If the word Balloon is guessed from the picture, you can ask:
What does the balloon fly in?
What kind of balloon is it?
The first letter and top of the stack is C for Coal.
Hints:
What is being burned (it is a kind of hard black stone).
What kind of fuel was used in the Industrial Revolution?
If the answer comes as charcoal, you can ask:
What are other kinds of fuel that are similar to charcoal, but that are buried in the ground and have to be dug up, or mined?
Turn the pieces over so just the blue side with the words show.
Look for the rhyming couplets on the small blocks.
Match the ends of the phrases to their beginnings on the larger blocks.
Once you are finished, you can stand the blocks up to see the word and pictures.
Hear recordings of the poem and see translations into multiple languages here.
What are the chemical structures shown on the letter blocks? (The images show molecules).
How do they relate to the images related to the letters?
(Answers can be found below).
Please scramble the blocks so the next player can solve the puzzle!
Hints
To help you work out which letter matches which picture, there are hints in the poem.
The word that matches the letter is written in capital letters.
For example – B is for Bog.
When the puzzles are stacked in the right order, a picture comes together along each narrow side.
Please scramble the blocks so the next player can solve the puzzle!
Choose from the options on the left
To help you work out which letter matches which picture, there are hints in the poem.
The word that matches the letter is written in capital letters.
For example – B is for Bog.
When the puzzles are stacked in the right order, a picture comes together along each narrow side.
Please scramble the blocks so the next player can solve the puzzle!
Answers and learning
CARBON
Carbon is a building block of life. We are all made of carbon. It is perfectly natural!
There is nothing wrong with carbon, or the carbon dioxide we breathe out.
The problem is when we put too much, too fast into nature. This causes problems such as climate change and acidification of the oceans.
There are only three root causes of all environmental problems, based on our understanding of how the Earth works as a system.
This is a system of cycles, where materials like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen flow around in balance.
One of the three root causes of environmental problems is: OVERWHELM natural cycles with perfectly ‘natural’ stuff.
More detail:
Carbon (and in particular carbon dioxide) is a major example of this. It is a building block of life; there is nothing wrong with it itself – without carbon there would be no life. But when we produce carbon dioxide too much, too fast, it builds up in the atmosphere, and ends up causing problems – in particular, the climate crisis.
Another example of a building block of life is nitrogen. Nitrogen is food for plants. But too much nitrogen in water causes nutrient overload (eutrophication). Algae grows very quickly due to too many nutrients, then dies, and oxygen is lost as the algae decomposes. This causes fish to die.
Sulphur is also a building block of life – and too much sulphur, such as sulphur dioxide from burning coal, causes acid rain – and forests and lakes to die.
Instead of OVERWHELMING (with too much, too fast), we need to BALANCE our flows of natural materials. This means we need to stop burning fossil fuels (petrol, diesel, coal, oil, gas).
We need to learn to use renewable energy – the free energy that the sun and wind gives us.
More detail
We also need to make sure that nutrients, like fertilisers and poo, return to the soil and don’t end up polluting lakes, rivers and the sea.
The red image that comes together when you stack the larger, picture blocks, shows what we are doing to harm the Earth.
The blue image that comes together when you stack the letter blocks shows the same world where we change how we do things and stop causing those problems.
More detail
The main differences between the two sides are about how we make and use energy – and the problems it causes when we burn fossil fuels.
On the red side, where we are causing problems, we are burning oil and gas to move our cars, heat our homes and make electricity. This fills the air with carbon dioxide – which is the same stuff that we breathe out, but when there is too much of it in the sky it starts to cause problems such as the world overheating and floods, when there is far too much water and it gets into people’s houses.
On the blue side, this shows the same world, but with a different type of energy – energy from the sun and wind. We have also made it easier to cycle, walk and take public transport – so we don’t burn as much fuel in cars.
When we use renewable energy, we don’t put carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This means we have cleaner, healthier air where we live, and we are not contributing to climate change through build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The picture on the back is of a carbon atom – with 6 electrons in the shells around the nucleus.
CO2 -Carbon dioxide (the same gas that we breathe out, and that trees breathe in)
O – Oxygen (this is what we breathe in, and what trees breathe out)
N – Nitrogen (a nutrient for the soil, and a building block of life)
This image shows photosynthesis. Plant cells use sunlight and air to make food.
The tree ‘breathes’ in carbon dioxide and ‘breathes’ out oxygen. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide – this is a cycle.
The full chemical formula is:
6 CO2 + 6 H2O → C6H12O6 + 6 O2
What are the chemical structures on the letter blocks?
C: This shows the amorphous structure of carbon in coal, which is basically fossilised, dead plants formed roughly 350 million years ago.
A: This chemical symbol is carbon dioxide (CO2), the most significant human-produced greenhouse gas that is causing the climate crisis when it builds up in the atmosphere.
R: This image shows the crystalline structure of carbon in a diamond, which is pure carbon formed under
B: This chemical symbol is methane (CH4). Bogs and wetlands store huge amounts of methane, which is released when they are drained. Each molecule of methane in the atmosphere causes 25 times more global warming than a molecule of carbon dioxide.
O: This chemical symbol is calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). This is one of the major ways that carbon dioxide is stored in the ocean – in the shells of marine creatures that sink to the ocean floor, and eventually form seabed’s chalky rocks.
N: This image shows DNA, which encodes the genetic information that creates all different forms of life on earth. There is carbon in the sugars that form part of the chemical sequencing of DNA.
Putting stripes on the blades makes it easier for birds to see the turbines, so they are less likely to fly into them.
The bird flying in the sky is a skylark.
The bird in the bog is a heron.
The newt is a great crested newt.
The whale is a humpback whale.
Choose from the options on the left
CARBON
Carbon is a building block of life. We are all made of carbon. It is perfectly natural!
There is nothing wrong with carbon, or the carbon dioxide we breathe out.
The problem is when we put too much, too fast into nature. This causes problems such as climate change and acidification of the oceans.
There are only three root causes of all environmental problems, based on our understanding of how the Earth works as a system.
This is a system of cycles, where materials like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen flow around in balance.
One of the three root causes of environmental problems is: OVERWHELM natural cycles with perfectly ‘natural’ stuff.
More detail:
Carbon (and in particular carbon dioxide) is a major example of this. It is a building block of life; there is nothing wrong with it itself – without carbon there would be no life. But when we produce carbon dioxide too much, too fast, it builds up in the atmosphere, and ends up causing problems – in particular, the climate crisis.
Another example of a building block of life is nitrogen. Nitrogen is food for plants. But too much nitrogen in water causes nutrient overload (eutrophication). Algae grows very quickly due to too many nutrients, then dies, and oxygen is lost as the algae decomposes. This causes fish to die.
Sulphur is also a building block of life – and too much sulphur, such as sulphur dioxide from burning coal, causes acid rain – and forests and lakes to die.
Instead of OVERWHELMING (with too much, too fast), we need to BALANCE our flows of natural materials. This means we need to stop burning fossil fuels (petrol, diesel, coal, oil, gas).
We need to learn to use renewable energy – the free energy that the sun and wind gives us.
More detail
We also need to make sure that nutrients, like fertilisers and poo, return to the soil and don’t end up polluting lakes, rivers and the sea.
The red image that comes together when you stack the larger, picture blocks, shows what we are doing to harm the Earth.
The blue image that comes together when you stack the letter blocks shows the same world where we change how we do things and stop causing those problems.
More detail
The main differences between the two sides are about how we make and use energy – and the problems it causes when we burn fossil fuels.
On the red side, where we are causing problems, we are burning oil and gas to move our cars, heat our homes and make electricity. This fills the air with carbon dioxide – which is the same stuff that we breathe out, but when there is too much of it in the sky it starts to cause problems such as the world overheating and floods, when there is far too much water and it gets into people’s houses.
On the blue side, this shows the same world, but with a different type of energy – energy from the sun and wind. We have also made it easier to cycle, walk and take public transport – so we don’t burn as much fuel in cars.
When we use renewable energy, we don’t put carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This means we have cleaner, healthier air where we live, and we are not contributing to climate change through build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The picture on the back is of a carbon atom – with 6 electrons in the shells around the nucleus.
CO2 -Carbon dioxide (the same gas that we breathe out, and that trees breathe in)
O – Oxygen (this is what we breathe in, and what trees breathe out)
N – Nitrogen (a nutrient for the soil, and a building block of life)
This image shows photosynthesis. Plant cells use sunlight and air to make food.
The tree ‘breathes’ in carbon dioxide and ‘breathes’ out oxygen. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide – this is a cycle.
The full chemical formula is:
6 CO2 + 6 H2O → C6H12O6 + 6 O2
What are the chemical structures on the letter blocks?
C: This shows the amorphous structure of carbon in coal, which is basically fossilised, dead plants formed roughly 350 million years ago.
A: This chemical symbol is carbon dioxide (CO2), the most significant human-produced greenhouse gas that is causing the climate crisis when it builds up in the atmosphere.
R: This image shows the crystalline structure of carbon in a diamond, which is pure carbon formed under
B: This chemical symbol is methane (CH4). Bogs and wetlands store huge amounts of methane, which is released when they are drained. Each molecule of methane in the atmosphere causes 25 times more global warming than a molecule of carbon dioxide.
O: This chemical symbol is calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). This is one of the major ways that carbon dioxide is stored in the ocean – in the shells of marine creatures that sink to the ocean floor, and eventually form seabed’s chalky rocks.
N: This image shows DNA, which encodes the genetic information that creates all different forms of life on earth. There is carbon in the sugars that form part of the chemical sequencing of DNA.
Putting stripes on the blades makes it easier for birds to see the turbines, so they are less likely to fly into them.
The bird flying in the sky is a skylark.
The bird in the bog is a heron.
The newt is a great crested newt.
The whale is a humpback whale.
Ideas for action
Every time we turn off the lights, or turn down the thermostat, we save energy. This means that we need to burn less fossil fuel to heat and light our homes – reducing climate change.
If we insulate our houses, and close the curtains and use draught excluders, we can save energy as the house stays warm.
We can swap to renewable sources, such as solar and wind, to meet our energy needs. Can you swap energy providers to a company that produces renewable energy instead of using fossil fuels?
We can use heat pumps, that use a small amount of electricity to heat our homes.
Instead of using a car to get to work or school, can you walk, cycle or use public transport?
Instead of buying in fertiliser for the garden, we can compost our food waste and use it to feed the plants.
Redesign buildings to heat and cool themselves
We can think about how to orientate our houses, so we capture as much sunlight as possible in the winter, and shade houses in the summer. We can learn from nature and design houses that use natural ventilation, like a termite mound for cooling in the summer.
Design for active transport
We can design our neighbourhoods and cities to make it safe, quick and easy to move around by bike and walking. https://www.sustrans.org.uk/
Large-scale renewable energy
We need to massively scale up our use of renewable energy – and learn to live from the energy provided by the sun!
Did you know that putting solar panels on just half of the world’s roofs would provide us with all of our electricity needs? https://theconversation.com/solar-panels-on-half-the-worlds-roofs-could-meet-its-entire-electricity-demand-new-research-169302#
Every time we turn off the lights, or turn down the thermostat, we save energy. This means that we need to burn less fossil fuel to heat and light our homes – reducing climate change.
If we insulate our houses, and close the curtains and use draught excluders, we can save energy as the house stays warm.
We can swap to renewable sources, such as solar and wind, to meet our energy needs. Can you swap energy providers to a company that produces renewable energy instead of using fossil fuels?
We can use heat pumps, that use a small amount of electricity to heat our homes.
Instead of using a car to get to work or school, can you walk, cycle or use public transport?
Instead of buying in fertiliser for the garden, we can compost our food waste and use it to feed the plants.
Redesign buildings to heat and cool themselves
We can think about how to orientate our houses, so we capture as much sunlight as possible in the winter, and shade houses in the summer. We can learn from nature and design houses that use natural ventilation, like a termite mound for cooling in the summer.
Design for active transport
We can design our neighbourhoods and cities to make it safe, quick and easy to move around by bike and walking. https://www.sustrans.org.uk/
Large-scale renewable energy
We need to massively scale up our use of renewable energy – and learn to live from the energy provided by the sun!
Did you know that putting solar panels on just half of the world’s roofs would provide us with all of our electricity needs? https://theconversation.com/solar-panels-on-half-the-worlds-roofs-could-meet-its-entire-electricity-demand-new-research-169302#
