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Tatia continues Earth month by discussing the use of picturebooks with an environmental focus in primary English teacher education. Rather than discussing a specific picturebook, Tatia lists some of the opportunities informative eco-themed picturebooks, such as the series by Stacy McAnulty, illustrated by David Litchfield: Mars!, Moon!, Sun!, Earth!, Ocean! and Our Planet!, can offer student teachers.

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Informative eco-themed picturebooks…

1) provide a natural stepping stone for student teachers to recognise possible cross-curricular links to subjects such as geography, science and biology thus supporting a CLIL approach;

2) offer the possibility to integrate aspects of intercultural citizenship education when discovering our planet;

3) encourage student teachers to think beyond the classroom by creating, for example, small school-based ‘green’- initiatives;

4) deliver factual information in a creative bite-size format thus stimulating student teachers to rethink how to share such information;

5) inspire student teachers and children to interpret information and connect it to their context and experiences.

How have you used eco-themed picturebooks with your student teachers and/or children? Let us know – thanks Tatia Gruenbaum