One big rainforest do: Live lesson from the Eden Project
Join us for a curriculum-linked and interactive lesson for Key Stages 1 & 2 on Wednesday 22 April 2026 , 10.00-10.45am
This year, The Big Lunch and The Big Help Out are teaming up over the weekend of 5-8 June to create an opportunity for schools, neighbours and communities to get together, eat and lend a hand in the UK’s biggest celebration of community. It’s one big do!
Exclusively for schools, join us in our stunning tropical Rainforest Biome for an interactive live lesson exploring the connections between friendship, food, fun and taking action!
Based around our new story, ‘One big rainforest do’, the children explore connections to their favourite celebration foods as well as discovering what they can learn from the plants and animals in the rainforest when it comes to lending a hand.
This live lesson for Key Stages 1 and 2 and is delivered by our Education and Communities teams from the Eden Project. Bursting with riddles to solve, connections to make, actions to take and experts to ask, it is not to be missed!
Teaching Outcomes:
Children will:
• Describe reasons why tropical rainforests are important for wildlife and for resources that humans use
• Explain some of the links between tropical rainforests and food eaten at a Big Lunch
• Consider volunteering actions we can take to help our local community for the Big Help Out.
Session overview:
It doesn’t matter where you live in the world; we are all connected to tropical rainforests and to each other through the decisions we make and actions we take.
In this live lesson, we begin by welcoming the students to the Eden Project, Cornwall and highlight the importance of the world’s tropical rainforests. We then dive into our story, ‘One big rainforest do’.
We uncover the stories behind some iconic tropical plants and introduce simple things we can do to help ensure that The Big Lunch is rainforest friendly, as well as how, through working together, we can lend a hand and strengthen our communities as part of The Big Help Out.
Curriculum links: Citizenship, Community, Personal Development, Wellbeing, Sustainability, and Ecology.
Find free teaching resources for The Big Lunch and The Big Help Out, including lesson plans and activities to accompany this lesson.
Sign up for a free pack, full of handy downloadable resources to help you plan and host a ‘do’ at your school.
Joining The Big Lunch and The Big Help Out
The The Big Lunch and Big Help Out is taking place on 5-8 June 2026 – but you can get involved whenever works best for your school community!
It’s a fantastic way to bring pupils, parents and the wider school community together. It can be linked to many aspects of the curriculum, including Citizenship, Community, Personal Development, Wellbeing, Sustainability, and Ecology.
It’s the UK’s biggest celebration of community – so what will your school do?
2025 Live lesson: The Big Lunch from the Eden Project rainforest to the classroom
In April 2025, we brought the magic of the Eden Project biomes to primary children with an interactive telling of our ‘Rainforest Big Lunch’ story.
We explored the rainforest, solving the clues that led us to find some of Eden’s most iconic plants. All the while thinking about the connection between tropical rainforests and food eaten at community celebrations and The Big Lunch.
It was brought to schools by our Education and Communities teams with riddles to solve, actions to take, and experts to ask!
Designed for KS1 and KS2, children were able to:
• Describe reasons why tropical rainforests are important for wildlife and for resources that humans use;
• Explain some of the links between tropical rainforests and food eaten at a Big Lunch;
• Consider actions we can take in order to hold a more sustainable and rainforest-friendly Big Lunch.