Bring your students on an underwater adventure into the coral reef ecosystem! Whether you're exploring the vast beauty of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia or diving into the rich, biodiverse waters of Indonesia, coral reefs are some of the most vibrant and important ecosystems on Earth.
✨ Perfect for grades 3–8, here’s what you need to bring ecosystems to life:
- Iconic BBC Videos: Share the clips on this page to introduce the location, plants, animals, and climate of the coral reefs. (Don't miss the tusk fish and octopuses!) Brought to you by world-class BBC programs like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Animal Babies, and Life.
- Free Printable: Use the Coral Reef Brochure Template to help students pull it all together in an ecosystem report with facts they’ve learned (and a little extra research).
It’s everything you need to make ecosystems easy to teach and truly memorable for your students.
If you’ve ever wanted to ask Brussels sprouts… just… why? Well, you may be able to get pretty close. There’s an exhibition called Talking Plants at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, where visitors can talk to plants! Well, anyone can always talk to plants. But, in this greenhouse, artificial intelligence is being used to get the plants to respond.
The exhibit features a variety of plant life to go with 20 AI personalities a Cambridge professor, Sam, and his team created for the garden. With a QR code and a phone, visitors can come in and engage with the plants, ask them questions, and listen to their responses. Each plant has its own name, personality, and based on where in the world it's from, and some can speak multiple languages. They can even tell jokes!
In JoJo and Gran Gran Visit the Community Garden, JoJo and her grandmother head to the local allotment, or community garden, to harvest some vegetables. Real-life children visit a community garden to see the vegetables that grow there. This video is excerpted from BBC’s JoJo & Gran Gran, a children's animated television series following JoJo, an inquisitive and cheerful 4-and-a-half-year-old girl and her loving Gran Gran, who always has something new to teach her.
In JoJo and Gran Gran Grow Flowers, Jared gives JoJo a daffodil plant to grow. When they get home, JoJo gives the plant what it needs to grow and then gets impatient when it’s not growing fast enough. Real-life friends plant seeds in pots. This video is excerpted from BBC’s JoJo & Gran Gran, a children's animated television series following JoJo, an inquisitive and cheerful 4-and-a-half-year-old girl and her loving Gran Gran, who always has something new to teach her.
In JoJo and Gran Gran Build a Scarecrow, JoJo and her friends are working in the community garden. When pigeons come to eat the vegetables, they build a scarecrow to scare the birds away. Two real-life children make a bird feeder from an apple and seeds. This video is excerpted from BBC’s JoJo & Gran Gran, a children's animated television series following JoJo, an inquisitive and cheerful 4-and-a-half-year-old girl and her loving Gran Gran, who always has something new to teach her.
G glugs! Say and write her sound. Draw the glasses. Glug... glug... gone! Make the garden grow. Draw and color some green grass for the goat!
Watch full episodes of Alphablocks on their official YouTube channel!
Dive into the dazzling world of coral reefs! From Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the vibrant reefs of Indonesia, these underwater cities are alive with color, movement, and incredible creatures. After watching our videos, challenge your students to become ecosystem experts by creating their own colorful report filled with fascinating facts. (They’ll need to dig deeper with extra research, too!) Inside the brochure, students will uncover and share:
- Location of the ecosystem on a world map
- Adjectives that describe the ecosystem
- Three animals that live in the ecosystem
- Three plants that grow in the ecosystem
- The climate of the ecosystem
- What makes the ecosystem important
- Their favorite fun facts
Your students will summarize the most important details in their own words while keeping it clear and easy to understand. As they choose what to include, they’ll sharpen their ability to evaluate and combine information from different sources. Best of all, they’ll show off their creativity and communication skills by designing a brochure that’s as fun to read as it is informative!
In How One Town Celebrates Spring With Snowdrops, people from the town of Shaftesbury celebrate the first signs of spring with a special festival. They planted over 500 snowdrop flower bulbs in a garden, helping these pretty white flowers bloom year after year. Kids also create big snowdrop lanterns, lighting up the night. The festival ends with a fun dance to wake up the "Green Man," a symbol of spring, and welcome the new season! This video is excerpted from BBC’s Countryfile, which explores rural life and traditions of the countryside.
In Butterfly Tales, learn how butterflies bring joy and beauty to the world as they flutter into gardens and woods each spring. Dr. Bullman, a butterfly expert, shows how tracking butterflies helps scientists understand if the environment is healthy or not. She explains how to tell butterflies and moths apart — like how butterflies rest with their wings up, while moths rest with their wings flat. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Countryfile, which explores rural life and traditions of the countryside.
Take your students on an unforgettable adventure to Australia with this video playlist! Explore the buzzing city of Sydney and its world-famous Opera House, marvel at breathtaking landscapes across the continent, and meet amazing native animals like kangaroos and koalas. Along the way, your class will discover what makes life “Down Under” so unique. These clips are perfect for sparking curiosity, inspiring questions, and bringing a little Aussie magic.
Way above the noise and traffic of New York City, rooftops are being transformed into something unexpected— farms in the sky. What used to be empty, unused space is now filled with soil, vegetables, herbs, and community gardens, all with a sweeping view of the skyline.
Some of these rooftop farms use over 200,000 pounds of soil and grow around 30 different crops, turning concrete rooftops into living green spaces. Fresh food is being grown right in the heart of the city — so local it can go from roof to table in the same neighborhood.
But these gardens aren’t just about food. They help the city work better in quiet but powerful ways. They soak up rainwater to reduce flooding and ease pressure on sewer systems during storms. They also help cool buildings in the summer, which can lower energy use and costs.
And beyond the science, rooftop gardens have another impact: they’re peaceful, beautiful places that bring nature into one of the busiest cities in the world — showing that even in a concrete jungle, something green can still grow.
The article "Creating a Butterfly-Friendly Garden: Essential Caterpillar Food Plants" from BBC's Discover Wildlife explains how growing specific plants in your garden can help support butterfly populations. By planting food plants like nettles for peacock and small tortoiseshell butterflies, and cuckoo flower for orange-tips, you can encourage caterpillars to thrive and ensure butterflies have a safe space to lay eggs and feed.
Bring your students on an underwater adventure into the coral reef ecosystem! Whether you're exploring the vast beauty of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia or diving into the rich, biodiverse waters of Indonesia, coral reefs are some of the most vibrant and important ecosystems on Earth.
✨ Perfect for grades 3–8, here’s what you need to bring ecosystems to life:
- Iconic BBC Videos: Share the clips on this page to introduce the location, plants, animals, and climate of the coral reefs. (Don't miss the tusk fish and octopuses!) Brought to you by world-class BBC programs like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Animal Babies, and Life.
- Free Printable: Use the Coral Reef Brochure Template to help students pull it all together in an ecosystem report with facts they’ve learned (and a little extra research).
It’s everything you need to make ecosystems easy to teach and truly memorable for your students.
If you’ve ever wanted to ask Brussels sprouts… just… why? Well, you may be able to get pretty close. There’s an exhibition called Talking Plants at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, where visitors can talk to plants! Well, anyone can always talk to plants. But, in this greenhouse, artificial intelligence is being used to get the plants to respond.
The exhibit features a variety of plant life to go with 20 AI personalities a Cambridge professor, Sam, and his team created for the garden. With a QR code and a phone, visitors can come in and engage with the plants, ask them questions, and listen to their responses. Each plant has its own name, personality, and based on where in the world it's from, and some can speak multiple languages. They can even tell jokes!
In JoJo and Gran Gran Visit the Community Garden, JoJo and her grandmother head to the local allotment, or community garden, to harvest some vegetables. Real-life children visit a community garden to see the vegetables that grow there. This video is excerpted from BBC’s JoJo & Gran Gran, a children's animated television series following JoJo, an inquisitive and cheerful 4-and-a-half-year-old girl and her loving Gran Gran, who always has something new to teach her.
In JoJo and Gran Gran Grow Flowers, Jared gives JoJo a daffodil plant to grow. When they get home, JoJo gives the plant what it needs to grow and then gets impatient when it’s not growing fast enough. Real-life friends plant seeds in pots. This video is excerpted from BBC’s JoJo & Gran Gran, a children's animated television series following JoJo, an inquisitive and cheerful 4-and-a-half-year-old girl and her loving Gran Gran, who always has something new to teach her.
In JoJo and Gran Gran Build a Scarecrow, JoJo and her friends are working in the community garden. When pigeons come to eat the vegetables, they build a scarecrow to scare the birds away. Two real-life children make a bird feeder from an apple and seeds. This video is excerpted from BBC’s JoJo & Gran Gran, a children's animated television series following JoJo, an inquisitive and cheerful 4-and-a-half-year-old girl and her loving Gran Gran, who always has something new to teach her.
G glugs! Say and write her sound. Draw the glasses. Glug... glug... gone! Make the garden grow. Draw and color some green grass for the goat!
Watch full episodes of Alphablocks on their official YouTube channel!
Dive into the dazzling world of coral reefs! From Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the vibrant reefs of Indonesia, these underwater cities are alive with color, movement, and incredible creatures. After watching our videos, challenge your students to become ecosystem experts by creating their own colorful report filled with fascinating facts. (They’ll need to dig deeper with extra research, too!) Inside the brochure, students will uncover and share:
- Location of the ecosystem on a world map
- Adjectives that describe the ecosystem
- Three animals that live in the ecosystem
- Three plants that grow in the ecosystem
- The climate of the ecosystem
- What makes the ecosystem important
- Their favorite fun facts
Your students will summarize the most important details in their own words while keeping it clear and easy to understand. As they choose what to include, they’ll sharpen their ability to evaluate and combine information from different sources. Best of all, they’ll show off their creativity and communication skills by designing a brochure that’s as fun to read as it is informative!
In How One Town Celebrates Spring With Snowdrops, people from the town of Shaftesbury celebrate the first signs of spring with a special festival. They planted over 500 snowdrop flower bulbs in a garden, helping these pretty white flowers bloom year after year. Kids also create big snowdrop lanterns, lighting up the night. The festival ends with a fun dance to wake up the "Green Man," a symbol of spring, and welcome the new season! This video is excerpted from BBC’s Countryfile, which explores rural life and traditions of the countryside.
In Butterfly Tales, learn how butterflies bring joy and beauty to the world as they flutter into gardens and woods each spring. Dr. Bullman, a butterfly expert, shows how tracking butterflies helps scientists understand if the environment is healthy or not. She explains how to tell butterflies and moths apart — like how butterflies rest with their wings up, while moths rest with their wings flat. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Countryfile, which explores rural life and traditions of the countryside.
Take your students on an unforgettable adventure to Australia with this video playlist! Explore the buzzing city of Sydney and its world-famous Opera House, marvel at breathtaking landscapes across the continent, and meet amazing native animals like kangaroos and koalas. Along the way, your class will discover what makes life “Down Under” so unique. These clips are perfect for sparking curiosity, inspiring questions, and bringing a little Aussie magic.
Way above the noise and traffic of New York City, rooftops are being transformed into something unexpected— farms in the sky. What used to be empty, unused space is now filled with soil, vegetables, herbs, and community gardens, all with a sweeping view of the skyline.
Some of these rooftop farms use over 200,000 pounds of soil and grow around 30 different crops, turning concrete rooftops into living green spaces. Fresh food is being grown right in the heart of the city — so local it can go from roof to table in the same neighborhood.
But these gardens aren’t just about food. They help the city work better in quiet but powerful ways. They soak up rainwater to reduce flooding and ease pressure on sewer systems during storms. They also help cool buildings in the summer, which can lower energy use and costs.
And beyond the science, rooftop gardens have another impact: they’re peaceful, beautiful places that bring nature into one of the busiest cities in the world — showing that even in a concrete jungle, something green can still grow.
The article "Creating a Butterfly-Friendly Garden: Essential Caterpillar Food Plants" from BBC's Discover Wildlife explains how growing specific plants in your garden can help support butterfly populations. By planting food plants like nettles for peacock and small tortoiseshell butterflies, and cuckoo flower for orange-tips, you can encourage caterpillars to thrive and ensure butterflies have a safe space to lay eggs and feed.