Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Weatherstone Social Action Plan
Weatherstone Social Action Plan
Weatherstone Social Action Plan
While visiting Weatherstone Elementary school, we all noticed that the classrooms had
two bins, this is usually a good sign, but one bin was for garbage and the other bin was for paper
only. This was the same throughout the school, even in the cafeteria. There was no place to
recycle plastic bottles, plastic containers, cans, cardboard, etc. That means all of the schools
recyclables are being thrown in the trash. With a school of 846 students this is a lot of
recyclables being thrown away. “The average child generates approximately 67 pounds of
2017) That means the students of Weatherstone alone create 56,682 pounds of discarded waste
each year. Weatherstone Elementary has the opportunity to grow as a school and make an impact
The issue of only recycling paper is that their recyclables are being thrown away into the
trash. These recyclables are able to be reused with the technology created. Instead of this
happening, their recyclables are being thrown into landfills. These landfills are land full of trash
and the trash decomposes over many years. Landfills are harming our land, the less trash sent to
landfills the better for our environment. decreasing the amount of waste from Weatherstone
habits in young students provides them the skills and expectations that our society needs to
cultivate for sustainability.” (Environmental Topics to Teach: Recycling, 2017) Through the
little instruction time we had with the students, they were interested in recycling and encouraged
to take action. The students want to make a positive impact on their school.
Action Plan
Week 1
a. Teach a lesson on what it means to preserve the Earth’s environment. Talk about the
threats posed by pollution and how recycling can help minimize the amount of trash we
produce
b. Show video on pacific island dump and video on the Sweedish inventor who created an
c. “Fun” facts: the approximate length of time it takes for certain items to decompose in a
landfill
v. Paper doesn’t take as long to decompose, but paper is made out of trees-- average
person in the United States uses 7 trees worth of paper products per year. That’s
about 2,000,000,000 trees per year of paper products in the United States. Trees
i. Reduce the amount of products you buy, use and throw away
ii. Set up a recycling bin. Your home should be equipped with recycling bins
throughout the house. Make it easy to separate recyclables from other trash.
iii. Recycle as many cans, bottles, books, metal, aluminum, glass, newspapers and
iv. Reuse things as much as you can – turn that old t-shirt into a car rag!
vi. Instead of paper napkins, use a washcloth for each member of the family. Keep
the washcloths in a drawer for the week and use them at each meal. Wash them
as needed. This can encourage the whole family to stop buying disposable paper
products altogether.
vii. Unplug chargers for your cell phone when not using it
viii. Put your PC to sleep instead of leaving it running with the screen on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HowgOLdv3pk&feature=youtu.be
http://www.wakegov.com/recycling/outreach/Pages/mrf.aspx
4. Have the students write questions that they can ask the specialists
a. Have students write questions for each of the individuals involved in the recycling
process.
5. Make arrangements so that the proper personnel are available to give answer questions
a. The preferable method would be to have the personnel come to the skill and give a brief
demonstration about what they do. They would then answer questions that the students
have written in advance. However, this can also be done through a skype call.
a. Have students interview the proper personnel (recycling specialist, teacher, principal,
custodian staff). They should then be given some time to research about the recycling
process online or through literature in the classroom library and school library.
Week 2
7. Have the students brainstorm ideas for an action plan in order to recycle all of the plastic in
their classroom.
a. Have students brainstorm ideas regarding how they can set up a system in order to
a. Students should design a process in which the entire school can recycle all of their
plastic.
a. We want the students to test their action plan and see if it works.
10. Have the students modify their action plan if they can see changes that can be made in
a. After implementing their action plan they should make observations about how their
design can improve. They should also start to think about how this action plan can be
Week 3
11. Have the students brainstorm a way to scale their action plan to the entire school.
a. Students should brainstorm a way for their individual action plan to be scaled throughout
the entire school. They should use what they have learned in the previous week in order
a. Students should use the ideas that they have brainstormed in the previous session in order
to create a detailed action plan that describes how the entire school will implement and
13. Have the students create a presentation in order to convince administrators to implement
their plan.
a. All of the students should be able to contribute by either presenting or by creating content
for the presentation. They should also practice the presentation before they present it to
14. Have the students pitch the plan to the proper administrators
a. The proper administrator should come into class in order to listen and critique the work
the students have done. The students should take note on the administrators grievances in
15. Have the students modify their social action plan in order to alleviate the grievances that
a. Students should use the information that the administrator gave them and modify their
action plan in order to make sure all parties are happy with the final product.
16. Implement the action plan school wide and track how much plastic material each grade has
contributed. At the end of the year announce which grade has contributed the most to
recycling effort.
a. Throughout the year, staff members should count how many bags of plastic recycling
each grade has. At the end of the year a prize or bragging rights should be awarded to the
- Weatherstone elementary only has two types of waste bins: paper recycling and regular
waste. We have noticed in our time spent at the school that students are being accustomed
to throwing away cans, bottles, and other recycled materials into the landfill waste bins.
Therefore, we must educate our students on how to throw away all types of materials so
- We will need universal education about the waste bins in all classrooms in the k-5 school.
There can be a universal powerpoint used to describe the new bins being entered into the
classroom and what types of trash can be thrown where. Furthermore, we can also create
signs that are posted above all bins that list what materials can be thrown away where!
- Utilizing strength-based language throughout the school when it comes to holding others
and ourselves accountable, as well as using the proper language when describing how we
- Teaching empathy is a major aspect of our social action plan. This is because empathy for
others and our planet is the driving force behind why we want to recycle. When we are
able to teach our students to have empathy for our planet, we will better be able to teach
them the life-long lesson of being smart when it comes to what kind of choices we are
- Teaching compassion is also a great way to support our desired outcomes for this social
making the right choices when it comes to throwing away our trash. When we are able to
teach compassion with our young students when it comes to recycling, landfill, and
compost: we can instill the life-long lesson of making the right choices and treating our
Earth better.
What were the results of you beginning to implement your social action plan?
- We began to implement our social action plan by educating our students first on what it
means to be kind to our environment. We asked our students questions such as: where
does all the trash we throw away go? What does recycling mean? What are some
materials you can think of that are recycled? How can we make sure we are making the
- We were really surprised by the answers we received, many students have received little
- Starting with educating our students was the most important step in the process of our
action plan!
- We also began to talk about what are some things that students throw away almost daily
at school? We found that many students were throwing away plastic water bottles, paper,
plastic, and cans into the landfill waste bin. We wanted to talk about how these types of
materials are able to be recycled and therefore rescued one day rather than be forever left
to sit in a landfill.
- Our next steps in this process will be to communicate to administration and Wake County
- The kids recycled items into the STEM baskets in their teacher’s room. These students
are learning how we can use recycled materials to create new things! A great life long
lesson on how to reuse and recycle all materials. They use these materials to build
projects during fun Friday, indoor recess and other assignments that require building
What are your future steps and/or changes to your social action plan?
- We want to have reusing and recycling become a part of the classroom culture!
Therefore, we must teach all of our students to think about: how can I reuse this material
rather than immediately thinking about throwing it away. This will take time and lots of
reinforcement to make sure that our students are always thinking in this way. As their
teachers, it would be very beneficial to have a recycling station in the classroom where
old materials can be stored and therefore used later during another activity or creative
free time!
Resources
https://www.ecocenter.org/environmental-topics-teach-recycling
Lober, D. (2019, October 15). Kids Super Guide on How to Recycle. Retrieved from
https://www.reusethisbag.com/articles/kids-guide-to-recycling/.