Environmental education has been identified for some time as a great ally to solve the current environmental crisis. This study has the goal of discussing the perceptions about the environment, produced by students of the 1st and 5th years of elementary school with reference to Critical Environmental Education. The instruments of data collection were interviews and drawings. The results showed that students of 1st and 5th years of elementary school have a perception of natural environment. However, students also demonstrated that they perceive environmental problems in the everyday. Therefore, we conclude that, although students still have a fragmented perception of the environment, they perceive many aspects related with their lives. We hope this study will encourage discussion about Critical Environmental Education from the earliest years of schooling.
Elementary school; Environment; Critical environmental education