♻️🗑️🌎 Pollution & Recycling
I hope you enjoy the Pollution and Recycling Unit Study Lesson Plan! Here are some highlights:
Pollution and Recycling Printable Book
Sort Recycling
Take Care of Our Earth Wordsearch
Save The Trees Math Riddles
Soda Bottle Jellyfish Mobile
Milk Jug Planter
Upcycled Bird Feeder
How Recycling Works Videos
Great Pacific Garbage Patch Videos
Ocean Pollution Sensory Activity
Recycling PE Game With Blippi
Beach or Park Clean-Up
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Enjoy! Tiff
♻️🗑️🌎 Pollution & Recycling
Pollution & Recycling Printable Book
Build environmental awareness and passion for conservation with this twelve page Pollution & Recycling Book. Your students will learn all about waste, types of pollution and what they can do to help (3R's).
This is a great introduction to a very complex concept that will provide a solid foundation for deeper learning in older grades. These guided writing pages are great for practicing handwriting skills while learning complex concepts and help to build confidence and critical thinking skills for independent writing.
Why Do We Have To Recycle
A trip to a landfill with the Storybots teaches the importance of recycling. Learn about the three R’s with an incredibly catchy recycling song you will be singing all week.
Sort Recycling
One of the best ways to learn about recycling is to bring your own trash to be recycled.
First, identify the different types of resources your community recycling center accepts. Then, sort the trash by type.
As we sorted our cans into glass, aluminum and plastic we also kept bottle caps and aluminum can tabs for future craft projects.
English Language Arts
Take Care of Our Earth - Wordsearch
Practice vocabulary words and teach spelling at the same time with this fun earth themed word search.
Reading Lessons
There are only two resources I like to make sure I include on each week’s lesson plan, Prodigies Music (below) and Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This book has thousands of 5 star reviews on Amazon for a reason. It’s an effective, no-prep way to teach reading. We are 40 or so lessons in and I can already see a huge difference, my daughter actually sounds out the words instead of guessing.
The lessons are short (15-20min), easy to grasp and sequential. The entire lesson is scripted and color coded so it’s fool proof, just read the words in pink. It also is designed for kids that don’t know their alphabet or letter sounds yet, so you can start right away. Their claim is that after completing all 100 lessons your child will be able to read at a 2nd grade level!
Math
Save The Trees - Math Riddles
By: Samantha Henry
Raise awareness about the importance of trees with these fun math jokes/riddles. Pick the worksheet that is the best for what your student(s) are learning: addition to 10, addition to 20, or double digit addition without regrouping.
If your students love jokes as much as my girls, they will enjoy these fun and simple math worksheets.
Art and Music
Soda Bottle Jellyfish Mobile
We loved creating this adorable soda bottle jellyfish mobile! It was so fun to create something beautiful out of something we throw away all the time.
Just cut the bottom off of a plastic bottle and poke a hole in the top. Next, lay a piece of plastic or cellophane flat and cut strips to create the tentacles (keep them connected at the end). Then, paint! You can try to replicate a specific species of jellyfish or just free paint. Tie connected part of the cello bag together, string through the hole in the bottom of the bottle, and then hang to display.
Supplies: plastic bottle, plastic bag or cellophane, fishing line, scissors, acrylic paint, paint brushes
Milk Jug Planter
This is a super easy recycled craft project that also makes a great gift. Just cut a milk jug in half and discard the top. Then add a few holes in the bottom of the milk jug for drainage.
Next, paint/decorate your planter and let dry. Then fill with potting soil and add an already rooted plant. Or if you want to grow a plant from seed, use a seed starting mix.
Supplies: empty milk jug, acrylic paint, paint brushes, potting soil, plant or seeds
Upcycled Birdfeeder
We love making upcycled crafts and we even have a bin where we keep recycled materials to use for projects.
But probably our favorite thing to make are birdfeeders. We have a flock of Java Sparrows that nest near our home and our girls love keeping them fed.
For this feeder we cut two arch shaped holes in a large clear bottle (popcorn) and poked a dowel through the bottom to make it easy for the birds to perch while feeding. Then we added some beads for decoration, filled it with bird seed and hung it up with twine.
Supplies: large clear plastic popcorn bottle, dowel, scissors, wooden beads, twine, bird seed.
Prodigies Music
Do…Re…Mi…
We love Prodigies! Prodigies Music is simply an incredible curriculum for teaching music. Ages 2-5 is the critical time to develop a life-long sense of pitch. Their curriculum is designed to develop a sense of pitch with easy to use desk bells that don’t require any tuning. They also teach piano, recorder and ukulele. Their subscription includes everything you can think of 450+ videos, worksheets, free bell mats, sheet music all color coded so it’s super easy to learn. If you don’t have an instrument they have a bunch of rhythm focused content that doesn’t require an instrument.
They have a free trial and discounts for annual memberships! Great deal! You can even check out some of their videos for free on YouTube.
Science
How Plastic Hurts The World
By: SciShow Kids
Plastic is everywhere! We use plastic products everyday, but how are the products we use affecting the environment?
It is very important to reduce our plastic use and recycle plastic whenever we can because plastic lasts forever, it doesn’t decompose.
How Recycling Works
By: SciShow Kids
Now that we know plastic and other pollutants are harmful to the environment, what can we do about it? We can recycle! But how exactly does recycling work? What items can you recycle? What happens after you throw it all in the green bin? Get all your questions answered with this great video.
Social Studies
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Learn about ocean pollution by studying the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This floating mass of garbage is located between Hawaii and California and is estimated to be twice the size of Texas. Find where it is on a globe and check out these great videos:
- How Big The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Really Is
- The Ocean Cleanup begins cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Atlas Crate - Australia
Each month, my girls can’t wait to explore a new country with their Atlas Crate. We’ve had this subscription for about a year and they love it.
In the Australia crate, we learned about the Great Barrier Reef and did a beautiful coral reef craft. We also learned about marsupials and made a hopping kangaroo. There is also a game (kolap), recipe (Anzac biscuits) and craft (fiber dog sculpture).
Sensory Play
Ocean Pollution Sensory Activity
Learn and play with this easy ocean pollution sensory activity. We made two ocean bins and kept one clean and polluted the other one. This was a great visual comparison when describing clean and polluted environments.
Then we tried to use a net to clean the pollution to show how difficult it was to get it clean again.
Filler: water, flat glass marbles
Supplies: Safari Coral Reef Toob, Safari Ocean Toob, artificial aquatic plants
Pollution: coffee grounds, oil, dish soap, food coloring, small bits of plastic, small bottles and cups
Physical Education
Recycling PE Game with Blippi
Jump, duck and dodge your way through the first level of this virtual garbage truck game. Then pick up the litter as fast as you can. This is a great way to get kids moving with this fun 5 minute video.
Beach or Park Clean-Up
Make a difference in your community with a simple beach or park clean-up. You can join a larger clean-up effort or just go on your own.
Post your efforts online as part of the Clean Coasts initiative using the hashtags #twominutebeachclean or #twominutestreetclean
Supplies: eco-friendly kids gloves, trash bags, sand sifter
Book List
Books We Love!
- Where Does The Garbage Go? - Let’s Read and Find Out Science
- The Berenstain Bears Don’t Pollute (Anymore)
- The Berenstain Bears Go Green
- Oil Spill - Let’s Read and Find Out Science
- Recycle
Don’t have the budget or space to get more books? The library has been pretty great for us so far, but they are sometimes out of the more popular books. One place that you can always count on to find great books is Epic Books! Try Epic Basic for FREE! You can find awesome read to me books for free. Unlimited plan includes access to 40,000+ books!
Know of any other awesome Pollution & Recycling themed resources? Please comment below!
Do you know anyone else that would enjoy these free weekly lesson plans? Get them on the list!
