Environmental education is defined as a cross-curricular theme in the national curriculum (NC) of England and Wales. Environmental education may be experiential in and outside the classroom; outside, the environment may act as a stimulus for creative writing, investigative fieldwork, or sensory activities. Young children learn best by doing. Primary schools have more flexibility in scheduling than secondary schools and may allocate all or part of a school day for outdoor activities or field trips. Major issues are financial constraints and the need for extra staff or parents to ensure children's safety. Although the national curriculum has been in place for several years, few primary schools have established clear objectives for their environmental education programs. Values and attitudes can not be learned quickly; school planning can contribute to the process of developing environmental consciousness during the child's time in primary school. Two case-study primary programs are briefly described and evaluated. An NC key stage 2 program (for children aged 7-11) took place in a woodland environment and included activities in map making, leaf collecting and identification, art activities, sensory activities to raise awareness, and story telling to stimulate investigative fieldwork. In an NC key stage 1 program (for children aged 5-7), the class measured and described the school grounds, looked for numbers and letters, heard stories, played memory games, and discussed and modeled animal shelters. (SV)