Two lessons- Combine or do them Seperatley
Subject: Recycling
Warm Up:
Walk into class carrying two bags:
In one bag, have empty bottles. Glass, plastic and maybe a few cans.
In the other bag, have random actual trash. Maybe a banana peel, an apple core, etc.
Take said items and ask the children what the difference between the two is.
Draw a line down the board and record their answers.
Chances are, they will see very little (difference).
Presentation
Draw the Reduce/Reuse/Recycle arrows on the board. Explain what each word means.
Have them repeat them and write down the definitions in their notebooks.
Then VERY SLOWLY explain to them what, exactly recycling does and why it’s
important. I suggest using the following text:
Andy lives in a small town. He really likes to drink cola. He has always thrown the bottle
in the trash with the rest of his other trash. Bananas, the inside of apples and other things
like that.
One day, Andy was watching TV. They told him he could save his cola bottles. And at
the end of each month, he could turn them in and get money.
Andy got very excited. He saved all his bottles and took them to the store on the TV that
said they would give him money.
When he got there, they gave him enough for a whole new bottle of cola. And all he had
to do was save his empty bottles.
And another exciting thing happened. Because he didn’t throw those bottles away, Andy
learned from his Grandmother that he was helping to keep the world a better place.
From then on, Andy always saved his bottles.
Practice
Questions:
What did Andy do with his bottles?
Why did Andy save his bottles?
What did Andy learn was another reason to save his bottles?
Was it good that Andy saved his bottles?
Could he do something better with them? Worse?
Application
Have students work in pairs and write dialogues about recycling. Must be at least 8 lines,
total.
Summary
Have students read their dialogue. If you’re short on time, just a few of them read them.
Ask them why recycling is good. Add any reasons they might’ve missed.
Homework:
Make something creative out of a plastic bottle. For an example, bring in an old water
bottle turned into a doll with paper and ink.
Lesson Plan 2:
Where Should It Go?
Recycle? Compost? Incinerate? Landfill?
GRADE LEVELS: 3-11
CONCEPT: Where should our garbage go?
OBJECTIVE: To understand that solutions to garbage disposal problems are varied and
complex.
MATERIALS:
- 5 cardboard boxes or small garbage cans
- markers
- a bag of clean garbage (choose items that will fit into all categories below)
- handout: Where Does This Trash Belong?
KEYWORDS: incinerate- сжигать
Compost- компост
Landfill- Свалка
Recycle- Рециркулировать
PROCEDURE: In this activity, we want to make students think about where garbage can
go. At present it may all go to a landfill or incinerator, or some may be recycled or
composted.
1. Take 5 boxes and place them at on end of the room and ask the students to label them:
reduce (or
avoid)
recycle
compost
incinerate
landfill
2. Take a bag of clean garbage and dump it out on the floor at the opposite end of the
room.
3. Set up two teams and let them sort the garbage by taking one item at a time and placing
it in a container.
4. After the students have sorted the garbage, go through the bins and ask why items were
placed in certain boxes. Some items may appropriately fit into more than one box. The
answers are not always clear, depending on options available in your community.
5. This can be done on paper also by drawing lines between the item and the container on
the handout called Where Does This Trash Belong?
6. Discuss the following questions:
- Can all items be recycled? No, some items are made from many different materials that
are hard to separate.
- Can everything be burned if we have an incinerator? No, some items will not burn, and
some are valuable resources that could be fixed, reused, or recycled.
-If we have an incinerator, will we still need a landfill? Yes, the ash from incinerators
must be sent to a landfill, and there are also some hazardous items (like batteries) that
should be landfilled rather than burned.
FOLLOW-UP: Discuss the idea of waste reduction. (What items are not needed in the
first place? Could we have used durable products rather than disposable ones? Could we
have purchased products with less packaging?)