Two booklets comprise the grades 4-6 component of a series of guides for incorporating environmental education into the existing curriculum. Both the guide and handbook emphasize a multidisciplinary approach, use the concept of interdependence as an organizing theme, and offer suggestions for using the local community as a resource to study the individual's relationship to the total environment. Among eight objectives are understanding the meaning of systems and interdependence, recognizing that people use and shape their environments, and appreciating relationships between one's immediate surroundings and the natural systems of the planet. In the guide, activities and related readings are suggested for achieving the objectives in specific subject areas: social studies, art, science, mathematics, U.S. and state history, reading, and writing. For example, students use a globe to calculate how much of the planet is land and how much land is habitable. The handbook contains 11 lessons, many based on readings which emphasize comparison of human and environmental systems, the role of microbes, and environment-dependent communities such as a river town. Some activities involve the exploration of students' familiar surroundings; others focus on global issues. Each lesson contains goals, objectives, activities, and follow-up activities. (AV)