Resources for Teachers and Classroom Presenters

Jane Goodall Institute, Roots & Shoots

Founded in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is a youth service program for young people of all ages. Its mission is to foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs, and to inspire each individual to take action to make the world a better place for people, other animals, and the environment.

Leaders from the playground to the boardroom hold the key to shaping the world. To make the world a better place, we have to change the way we make decisions. We need leaders who care about how their actions affect the world we all share. Roots & Shoots empowers young people to become the type of leaders who will make right choices to build a better world. The Roots & Shoots program allows young people, or people of any age, to join or start their own community-oriented programs to benefit animals, people, and the environment. Programs are designed to build compassion and character, developing future leaders.

Curriculum Based Service Learning Lesson Plans

It also offers classroom lesson plans for elementary, middle, and secondary school grade levels.

Use these sample lesson plans independently or alongside the Roots & Shoots Formula Toolkit. These lesson plans have been aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

	Animal Community	Human Community	Environment
Elementary	PDF, Lesson Plan	PDF, Lesson Plan	PDF, Lesson Plan
Middle School	PDF, Lesson Plan	PDF, Lesson Plan	PDF, Lesson Plan
High School	PDF, Lesson Plan	PDF, Lesson Plan	PDF, Lesson Plan

Roots & Shoots also has other tools for educators including the ability to invite a guest speaker to classrooms via Skype from experienced young people, part of Roots & Shoots National Youth Leadership Council. This extraordinary group of young people can help to introduce Roots & Shoots to your students and share their own project’s successes and challenges. Members of the NYLB can present their experiences and be the youth voice to help inspire your students by talking about the impressive work they are doing to help their communities and people, animals, and the environment.