The basics of climate must be understood to have a climate literate populace. Understanding climatic change is a wicked problem. This work identifies three foundational content challenges to climate and climate change education, discusses them thoroughly, and offers graphics and conceptual models to address this content in the classroom. The three concepts covered are: 1) conflation between weather and climate, 2) understanding the differences among spatial and temporal scales of climate, and 3) distinguishing between natural climate variability and human-driven climatic change. The goal of this work is to offer science-based pathways for teaching important concepts in climate change education.