Title/topic of unit:

Year level/Class:
Sustainability- Waste management

Duration (lessons):

Year One

Specific objective/s:
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:

Understand and describe what harms and what helps our school environment

Describe the different types of waste and how to dispose of it in a way that will help our environment

Understand how compost works and create their own compost

Contribute to the success of the school garden through, planning, planting and caring for the school garden.

Understand the relationship between compost and the garden and apply this knowledge when caring for the school garden

Use their persuasive skills to present an argument to their chosen audience in order to convince them to implement their plan

Plan, implement and foster a sustainability project within the school.

Australian Curriculum content descriptors and Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) outcomes
EYLF:

Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world.

Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment.
Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities
necessary for active community participation.

Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners

Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators

Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes.
(Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009)

Australian Curriculum:
Science
Everyday materials can be physically changed in a variety of ways (ACSSU018)
Observable changes occur in the sky and landscape (ACSSU019)

People use science in their daily lives, including when caring for their environment and living things (ACSHE022)

Respond to and pose questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events (ACSIS024)
Represent and communicate observations and ideas in a variety of ways such as oral and written language, drawing and role play
(ACSIS029)
(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2014a)
Sustainability
The biosphere is a dynamic system providing conditions that sustain life on Earth. (OI.1)

Sustainable futures result from actions designed to preserve and/or restore the quality and uniqueness of environments. (OI.9)
(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2014b)

English
Make short presentations using some introduced text structures and language, for example opening statements (ACELY1657)
(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2014c)
Geography

The natural, managed and constructed features of places, their location, how they change and how they can be cared for (ACHGK005)
(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2014d)
The Arts (Visual)

Create and display artworks to communicate ideas to an audience (ACAVAM108)

Resources required:

Key Vocabulary:

Lesson 1: Camera/iPad
Lesson 2: Photographs of individual childs lunchbox.
Lesson 3: A clear and clean two-liter bottle with top cut off and small
holes poked in the sides, one sandwich bag full of organic food waste
and one with organic garden waste, a few small non-biodegradable
items and rich, dark, healthy soil, cling wrap/foil, tape.
Lesson 4: Various craft materials, for example, toothpicks, coloured
paper, crepe paper, textas, pencils, crayons, sequins, glitter, paper
plates, etc.
Lesson 6: iPad

Waste, recycle, reuse, composting material, rubbish, litter

Lesson 1: Learning activity/ies (LA), Key Concepts (KC), Focus Questions (FQ), Teacher Explanations (TE) and Formative Assessment
(FA)
KC: Our environment
LA: Discuss what an environment is, how it can be improved and how it can be destroyed
KQ: What can we do to help protect our environment?
How can we make it more sustainable?
TE: Sustainability is the ability for something to keep going at the same rate and in just as good condition as before. It is the ability to sustain
(continue, carry on, maintain)
LA: Students explore the schoolyard, and collect things from the playground that are harming the environment or represent a way we can help or
change our environment.
FQ: What is in the playground that may be harming our environment?
LA: As a class, students collaboratively categorise the items that they collected into things that harm our environment or things that help or
change our environment for the better.
LA: Discuss ways that we can reduce that things that are harming our environment/the things that we can do to improve our environment- school

grounds.
FA: Photograph of students categorised items according to things that can harm our environment, and things that improve our environment.
Lesson 2: Learning activity/ies (LA), Key Concepts (KC), Focus Questions (FQ), and Formative Assessment (FA):
KC: Managing classroom waste
LA: Discuss what sort of waste we could have in our classroom, incorporating key vocabulary (see key vocabulary section at the top of the table).
KQ: What sort of waste do we have in our classroom?
What bin system do we have in our room and how do you know what they are used for?
LA: Class discussion and categorise the items in a lunchbox created by the teacher (related to popular items that students in the class usually
bring in their lunchboxes) according to the kind of waste that they create and where the waste should go. The waste will be categorised into the
bins that we use in the classroom.
As a class, discuss what the classroom system does not cater for, and how it can be improved.
KQ: How can we improve our waste system in our classroom?
What changes could we make to improve the way we dispose of our food?
How do these changes help/benefit our environment?
LA: Children individually, with a picture of their lunch boxes from the previous day, annotate their lunch box in order to show where the waste
from each item would go, by gluing the bins below around the photo, and drawing lines from the lunch box item to the appropriate bin. Example:

FA: Childrens work sample from above activity- lunchbox photograph.

(Cool Australia, n.d)
Lesson 3: Learning activity/ies (LA), Key Concepts (KC), Focus Questions (FQ), and Formative Assessment (FA):
KC: Food waste- Compost
LA: Discuss and brainstorm ways that we can reduce the amount of food waste in our classroom.
FQ: How can we reduce the food waste in our classroom?
What can we do with the food waste that we do have that will help our environment?
LA: Watch compost video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRXNo7Ieky8 (stop at 3:30, start again at 5:17)
FQ: What is compost?
How does it work?

How can we use it in our school?

LA: Creating our own compost pile (see appendix A for instructions)
FA: Photographs of compost piles and annotations from children about what they think is happening and what they can see.
Lesson 4: Learning activity/ies (LA), Key Concepts (KC), Focus Questions (FQ), and Formative Assessment (FA):
KC: Our garden
LA: Watch video- Growing apples: http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/media/30276/?id=30276
Discuss what fruit trees need to survive
KQ: What do apple trees need?
What can harm the trees?
Do you think it is the same for all plants, fruit and vegetables? Why/Why not?
LA: As a class, students go out and look at our school garden, dig, explore and discuss what they think is in the garden and what they can see
and feel.
FQ: What do you think is in the garden?
What do you notice about the garden?
Do you think that this garden is very well looked after? Why/Why not?
LA: Back inside, students discuss what they saw, what gardens need to be able to grow plants, what could be done to make the garden better,
and what we can grow in our garden (teacher to write ideas on the board)

FQ: What do garden need to be able to grow plants?

What helps the plants grow?
What does our garden need?
What can we do to help/change our garden to make it better?
What can we grow in our garden?
LA: Students work collaboratively as a class to create a class garden mural for the wall that shows what the school garden needs, the plants that
they want to grow and how the garden should look, using various craft materials.

Lesson 5: Learning activity/ies (LA), Key Concepts (KC), Focus Questions (FQ), and Formative Assessment (FA):
KC: Compost and our garden
LA: Watch Peppa Pig video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6zPTFxGw9E
KQ: How does the compost help the garden?
What can we with our compost to help our garden?
LA: In groups of four, children create a short role-play of how the compost works to help the garden.
Groups take it in turns to share their role-play with the class (teacher films for record).
LA: Students go out to the school garden and begin to tidy it up by weeding and watering and identifying what is in the garden in order to create a
better environment for the plants to grow. Children also place their compost piles that they have been developing, into the garden beds to enrich

the soil.
KQ: What can you see in the garden?
How did you know if its a weed?
How can we get rid of the weeds?
What else does our garden need?
FA: Groups role play- shows understanding of the concept.
Lesson 6: Learning activity/ies (LA), Key Concepts (KC), Focus Questions (FQ), and Formative Assessment (FA):
KC: Persuasion
LA: Students discuss what they have learnt so far in the unit and what they can do to help improve our school environment.
Brainstorm an action plan for helping the school environment (putting food scrap bins in the school to use to make compost to help the school
garden grow fruit, veggies and herbs, which we can the use in the school community)
KQ: What have you learnt about helping the environment?
What can we do as a class in our school to help our environment?
Who do we need to talk to about putting this plan in place?
LA: Students individually create a design for a food waste bin that we can introduce into our school.
As a class, students collaboratively put together a video for the principal asking he/she to consider implementing food waste bins in the school.

Each student has to give a reason why we need food waste bins in our school while holding up their designs of their bins.
KQ: Why should we have food waste bins in our school?
LA: Students present their video to the principal
FA: Class collaborative video.
Lesson 7: Learning activity/ies (LA), Key Concepts (KC), Focus Questions (FQ), and Formative Assessment (FA):
KC: Implementing sustainability into our classroom/school
LA: Discuss what we need to do next, as a class, in order to implement this sustainability program into the classrooms/school. Make a list of all
the things that need to be done and put them in order. Discuss what needs to be done for each task and make a suggestions list for each groups
task.
KQ: What is our next step?
What do we need to do in order to turn our plan into action?
LA: Each group is given a task to complete, e.g. designing and decorating scrap food bins, creating posters for around the school, decide on
where to place bins within the school and why it would be the best place for them by creating a map or the school, and planning a presentation to
give to the school at the next assembly, explaining what the class has been, what they are going to do, and how the rest of the school can help.
Teacher to closely monitor each groups progression, offer guidance and direction and ensure that they are staying on task and heading in the
right direction.
FQ: Are you working together well?

What are your ideas?

What do you need to do next?
LA: Each group presents their tasks back to the class and students and teacher provides feedback in order to modify products, plans and
presentations before they are given to the wider community.
FA: Final plans, products and plans and the implementation of the program into the school.

Reflection of teaching and learning and PCK

Reflect after every lesson, in order to determine whether students have gained the understanding intended for each lesson. This will evident from
their formative assessments tasks that they will complete at the end of each lesson.