Caring for Our Surroundings Protect the World Around You

The environment is the natural world around you the air, water, land, plants, and animals. Everything in nature is part of your environment. You share this environment with people, animals, and plants in your community.

Before learning about caring for your surroundings, you may have already explored Shared Resources and the Local Environment Natural Features and Human Structures. These topics help you understand what you are protecting and why it matters.

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

You can follow the three-R rule every day. Reduce means using less so you make less waste. Reuse means using something again instead of throwing it away. Recycle means turning old materials into new ones.

For example, you can use a reusable lunch bag and water bottle at school. You can decorate an old jar and use it as a pencil holder. You can put paper and plastic bottles in the recycling bin.

Sorting Your Waste

You sort your waste by putting it in the right bin. An apple core goes in the compost bin. A plastic bottle goes in the recycling bin. A broken toy that cannot be fixed goes in the garbage bin. Sorting waste properly helps protect Canada's environment.

Composting

Composting means collecting food scraps like fruit peels and vegetable cuttings. These scraps break down and turn into rich soil for gardens. Many Canadian cities have green bin programmes to make composting easy for your family.

Saving Water and Energy

You can save water by turning off the tap while brushing your teeth. You can save electricity by turning off lights when you leave a room. These small actions help protect Canada's natural resources every single day.

Picking Up Litter

When you see litter in a park or on the playground, the best thing to do is pick it up and put it in a bin. Litter can harm animals and make shared spaces unsafe. Keeping parks clean protects wildlife and helps everyone enjoy green spaces.

Planting Trees and Native Plants

Trees clean the air and give animals a home. Planting flowers and native plants in your garden helps birds, bees, and butterflies find food and shelter. This supports the wildlife in your Canadian neighbourhood.

Protecting Canada's Special Places

The Great Lakes hold a huge amount of the world's fresh water. They provide drinking water for millions of Canadians. You help protect them by never pouring chemicals or paint down a drain or storm drain.

The Canadian Shield is a large rocky region covering much of central Canada. It is home to thousands of lakes, forests, and wildlife. The Canadian Arctic is home to polar bears, Arctic foxes, and other unique animals that need your protection.

Learning from Indigenous Peoples

First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples in Canada teach us to respect nature by only taking what is truly needed. Their wisdom helps all Canadians understand how to care for the land, water, and animals around us.

Environment: The environment is all the natural things around you the air, water, land, plants, and animals.

Reduce: Reduce means using less of something so you create less waste. For example, taking only the paper you need.

Reuse: Reuse means using something again instead of throwing it away. For example, using an old jar as a pencil holder.

Recycle: Recycle means making new items from old materials like paper, plastic, or glass.

Composting: Composting means turning food scraps like fruit peels into rich soil that helps gardens grow.

Compost bin: A compost bin is where you put food scraps so they can break down into healthy soil.

Recycling bin: A recycling bin is where you put materials like paper and plastic bottles so they can be made into new things.

Litter: Litter is garbage that is left in the wrong place, like on the ground in a park or on the street.

Reusable bag: A reusable bag is a bag you use over and over again instead of using a new plastic bag each time.

Stewardship: Stewardship means taking care of the earth so it stays healthy for everyone now and in the future.

Air pollution: Air pollution happens when harmful things get into the air, like smoke from burning garbage, making it hard to breathe.

Natural resources: Natural resources are things from nature that people use, like water, trees, and clean air.

Wildlife habitat: A wildlife habitat is the natural home where animals find food, shelter, and raise their young.

Solar energy: Solar energy is power that comes from the sun and can be used to run homes without making pollution.

You can make a big difference with small actions. Pick up litter, sort your waste into the right bins, and use reusable containers in your lunch. Turn off taps and lights when you do not need them.

You can also join a community clean-up event with your family to help care for Features of Our Community and the places you share with others. These habits connect to your role as a responsible citizen, which you will explore more in Civic and Environmental Duties People and Planet Stewardship.

You have already learned about Shared Resources, which shows you that the water, parks, and land around you belong to everyone. You also explored the Local Environment Natural Features and Human Structures to understand what makes up your community's natural and built spaces.

You have also looked at People and Places to understand how people and their environments are connected.

Caring for your surroundings connects to many other important ideas. As you keep learning, you will explore Protecting Our World and Caring for Our World, which build on the habits you are practising now.

You will also discover how people affect nature in Human Effects on Nature and how each person plays a role in Individual Environmental Responsibility. Your whole community works together, as you will see in Community Environmental Protection Values.

You will learn how businesses and industries affect the environment in Natural Resource Industries Mining Forestry and Energy Production and Environmental Consequences of Economic Activities. You will also explore how outdoor activities can impact nature in Recreational Environmental Impact Outdoor Activities and Ecosystem Effects.

As communities grow, the environment changes too. You will find out more in Population Growth and Community Development, Water and Sewage Treatment Infrastructure Impact, and Small vs Large Communities Environmental Impact Analysis.