100 Years of David Attenborough: A Wildlife Drama Workshop for KS1 & KS2
There are very few people in history who have changed the way an entire planet thinks about itself. Sir David Attenborough is one of them. This summer, as he celebrates his 100th birthday, Bigfoot Arts Education is proud to mark this extraordinary milestone with a brand new, immersive drama workshop that invites KS2 children to step into his world, take up his mission, and discover why the natural world is worth fighting for.
This is not a lesson about watching wildlife. It is a lesson about becoming its protector.
Step Into the Rainforest
From the moment children arrive, they are transported. With a countdown from three, the classroom disappears and a vast rainforest takes its place. Strange animals call from the canopy above. Something moves in the undergrowth. The children are no longer pupils. They are wildlife explorers, and their adventure has just begun.
Using the drama technique of tableaux, children first travel back through David Attenborough’s remarkable century of life, bringing key moments to life through freeze frames and physical storytelling. From a young boy collecting fossils on a university campus, to a pioneering broadcaster who brought colour television to British living rooms, to the naturalist who has now visited every continent on Earth, children discover the journey of a man who simply never stopped being curious about the world around him.
And then, with great ceremony, the baton is passed. Because David’s message has always been the same: the next generation must carry this work forward. Today, that next generation is in the room.
The World’s Best Wildlife Sanctuary Team
In the heart of the workshop, children become the experts. Together they form a world renowned Wildlife Sanctuary Team, choosing their own company name and taking on specialist roles as wildlife vets, conservation officers, animal care workers, researchers and education officers. The World Wide Fund for Nature has taken notice, and they want to feature this remarkable team on their website.
Each group is assigned a real endangered species and the sanctuary working to protect it. Baby elephants orphaned by poaching in Kenya. Tigers and lions rescued from captivity in the United States. Moon bears freed from cruel farms in Vietnam. Orphaned orangutans learning to survive again in the rainforests of Malaysia. Injured sea turtles recovering in Florida. Polar bears whose Arctic home is melting beneath their paws. Through discussion, drama and collaborative creativity, children explore where these animals live, what threatens them, and what human beings can actually do to help. They create a team photograph, frozen in action, showing the world exactly what they stand for.
A Mission. A Crisis. A Decision.
Just as the team settles in, a message arrives from a ranger at Virunga National Park in Rwanda. A critically endangered mountain gorilla has been caught in a poacher’s snare. There are only around 780 left on the planet. Time is running out.
What follows is drama at its most powerful and purposeful. Children must plan an emergency expedition across some of the most extraordinary and challenging terrain on Earth, active volcanoes, alpine snowfields, dense forests, swamps and rivers, deciding what to pack, how to move, and how to save a life. When they finally reach the gorilla, they must work together to assess its injuries, agree on a plan, and bring it to safety. Every decision matters. Every voice is heard. And when the gorilla is saved, the sense of achievement in the room is real, felt and entirely earned.
Campaigners, Quiz Masters and Planet Protectors
If time allows, children step out of role and into another creative challenge: designing their own campaign to protect an endangered animal of their choice. A slogan. A persuasive message. A rallying call to the world. These are not exercises in copying down facts. They are original, passionate, child-led ideas about how to make a difference, exactly the kind of thinking David Attenborough has spent a century inspiring in others.
The workshop closes with a True or False quiz delivered in full quiz show style, celebrating everything the children have learned, and a final moment in the circle where every child turns to the person beside them and shares one thing they will try to do to help protect animals, their habitat, or our planet.
As Attenborough himself once said, people will only protect what they care about. By the end of this workshop, your children will care deeply.
Book This Workshop for Your School This Summer Term
This programme is available to all KS1 & KS2 year groups throughout the summer term and makes a brilliant enrichment day, arts week centrepiece or post SATs treat. To find out more or to make a booking, contact your local Bigfoot team today.
Curriculum Links
Science and Geography: Habitats, endangered species, climate change, ecosystems and human impact on the natural world
English: Speaking and listening, persuasive writing and communication, oracy, vocabulary development and debate
PSHE and Citizenship: Teamwork, problem solving, empathy, moral responsibility and making a real difference in the world
Drama and Performing Arts: Roleplay, character work, tableaux, freeze frame, devising and performance skills
History: The life and legacy of David Attenborough, the development of television and broadcasting, wildlife conservation across the decades
RSE and Wellbeing: Confidence, self expression, collaboration and the development of a sense of personal agency and purpose
