Activity: Create an Energy Saving Alphabet

Quick summary: Students investigate energy saving tips by looking at what things in their classroom use energy and how these things could be used less. Students are then each assigned a letter of the alphabet and are asked to create a poster of an energy saving tip starting with this letter. Posters can be displayed in the classroom or compiled into an energy alphabet book.

Activity developed in partnership with  

Hydro Tasmania has been at the forefront of clean energy innovation for one hundred years. It is Australia’s largest producer of clean energy – generating hydro and wind power – and the largest water manager. Hydro Tasmania has 55 major dams, operates 30 hydropower stations and has built some of Australia’s largest wind farms.

Hydro Tasmania also sells energy in the National Electricity Market through its retail business Momentum Energy, and sells its expertise internationally through its consulting business Entura. Visit the Hydro Tasmania website to learn how the business is working towards Australia’s clean energy future.

Learning goals:

• Students recognise the ways they use energy in the classroom.
• Students understand ways to use less energy.
• Students write energy saving tips using letters of the alphabet.

General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking, Literacy.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.6.

Australian Curriculum content description:

Foundation English

• Recognise the letters of the alphabet and know there are lower and upper case letters (ACELA1440)
• Create short texts to explore, record and report ideas and events using familiar words and beginning writing knowledge (ACELY1651)
• Produce some lower case and upper case letters using learned letter formations (ACELY1653)

Year 1 English

• Create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and diagrams (ACELY1661)
• Write using unjoined lower case and upper case letters (ACELY1663)

Year 2 English

• Create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using growing knowledge of text structures and language features for familiar and some less familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose (ACELY1671)
• Write legibly and with growing fluency using unjoined upper case and lower case letters (ACELY1673)

Syllabus outcomes: ENe-2A, ENe-3A, ENe-4A, EN1-2A, EN1-3A.

Topic: Hydro Tasmania, Energy.

Time required: 60 mins

Level of teacher scaffolding: High – oversee activity, facilitate discussion, assist students in creating and writing tips.

Resources required: Sheet of A4 paper for each student, drawing and writing materials.

Digital technology opportunities: None.

Homework and extension opportunities: Includes opportunities for extension.

Keywords: Energy, tips, alphabet.

Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.