Environmental Studies is a part of all children’s education in India. Like most other very interesting subjects, there is a danger that EVS will become a bookish exercise. Pratham’s Learning for Life curriculum will soon undertake an exercise to help rural Indian children learn about the environment using its 4Ex framework – Expose, Explore, Experiment and Exchange. Children will be first exposed to information, then encouraged to explore issues in their villages and experiment with solutions. The children will then exchange their experiences. In order to create engaging learning experiences in environmental education for children, we needed to understand the situation and be aware of the facets of the plastic problem in rural India. Therefore, Pratham conducted an exploratory study in its project villages. In May 2022, a study encompassing 8400 households, in 700 villages across 70 districts and 15 states was conducted by 700 Pratham staff and volunteers. Data was collected from households, establishments such as schools, eateries, hospitals, as well as scrap dealers present at the villages, and members of the gram panchayat. The observations and inferences from this study will be woven into a curriculum to introduce children to different types of plastic, the problems they may cause and the ways to manage different plastic waste. Early analysis of the data indicate that majority of multi-layered and flexible plastics like polythene bags, plastic wrappers, sachets etc. are either burned or discarded with the rest of the waste in the households. Less than 30% households are aware of negative impacts of burning plastics and majority of rural households burn such plastics regularly. It is expected that the 4Ex learning exercise will help to make the children aware and participate in solving the problem at household and village level from an early age.