Mini-Lesson

Conservation

Objective: Students will think of ways to reuse old items.

1. Ask students to bring in items destined for the trash, such as egg cartons, milk cartons, jelly jars, shoeboxes, shoelaces, buttons and loose socks.

2. Tell students that each year Americans produce enough trash to fill garbage trucks reaching halfway to the moon! Explain that your goal is to help the Earth by throwing away less trash. Hold up a clean jelly jar. Say: "I was going to throw away this old jelly jar. But then I thought the jar would be a good place to keep paper clips." Fill the jar with paper clips and put it on your desk. Ask: What else could I use a jar to hold? (Students might suggest pens, pencils, rubber bands and staples.) Make a list of student suggestions on chart paper. Choose one of the suggestions to make use of another jelly jar.

3. Separate students into groups. Give each group one of the items. Tell them to think of a way that the item might be reused. Have students present their ideas to the class. Challenge students to make use of their items in the way the group suggested.

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

Start a discussion. Ask: Why should we cut back on the amount of garbage we create? How will that help the Earth?

Teach students about the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Print and make copies of this worksheet from the TIME For Kids archive: Make Less Trash!

RESOURCES:

Let's Reuse! by Sara Elizabeth Nelson (Coughlan Publishing, 2006).

Recycle Every Day by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace (Marshall Cavendish, 2003).

Why Should I Recycle? by Jen Green (Barron's Educational Series, 2005).