Green Field Day

Sponsored by Ole Miss Students for a Green Campus

March 26th 2010, Lafayette County Elementary School

Timeline:
12:30-1:00- Set up
1:00-2:00- Activities
1:00-1:10- rotation 1
1:12-1:22- rotation 2
1:24-1:34- rotation 3
1:36-1:46- rotation 4
1:48-1:58- rotation 5
2:00-2:30- Break Down/ Clean up

Activities:
Recycle Relay- page 2
Water Conservation Demonstration (Water Cycle)- pages 3-4
Planting Seeds (Plant Life Cycle)- page 5
Biodegradable Matching Game - page 6
Paper Soccer relay - page 7

Set Up:
200 Students will be broken into 10 groups of 20. There will be two stations of the Recycle Relay,
Planting Seeds, Biodegradable Matching game and Paper Soccer relay. There will only be one Water
Conservation Demonstration station. Stations should be set up around the edges of an open field or
room. Stations of the same activity will be next to each other. Students will start at one station and
work their way around the field or room. When groups reach the Water Conservation Demonstration
station, two groups will combine.
A whistle blower will be at the center of the room or field. The whistle blower will keep track of
time and blow the whistle when it is time for an activity to begin and when it is time to switch
activities. The activity coordinator will also be in the center of the room or field. Volunteers will check
in with the coordinator when they arrive and be directed to a station.

1
Recycle Relay
Materials:
 Assorted Recyclable plastics
 6 cardboard boxes (2 labeled “Recycle”)
Set up:
All plastics and metals should be in two of the card board boxes and designated as the “starting
line”. There should be an equal amount of recyclable plastic objects in each box. Remaining four
empty cardboard boxes are placed about 100 meters away from the starting line. Each team should
have a box labeled “Recycle” opposite the starting line.
Activity:
Explanation of different types of recyclables to group of students:
“How many of you recycle at home? At school? At church? What can you put in a
recycling bin? Did you know that you can recycle plastic things? But not all plastic
recyclables are the same. In some big cites, they can recycle everything! But here in small
towns like Oxford, we can only recycle a few things. How do we know what we can recycle?
We can recycle almost everything that is metal that food comes in. (hold up coke can, tin
can…) We look on the bottom of the plastic things and look for the recycle symbol to see
which plastics we can recycle. (help everyone get a plastic recyclable out of the box and look
for the symbol) What numbers are inside the triangle? Here in Oxford, we can only recycle
things that have a 1 or a 2 inside the triangle. Who has a 1 or a 2 inside their triangle?
Good! Now everyone put their bottles and cans back in the boxes at the “starting line””
(Answer questions about recyclable plastics)
Now split the students into two teams. Instruct them to get in a straight line. The first person picks
out a bottle or can from his or her team’s box at the starting line. The student will then run to the
boxes placed 100 meters away and decide if the object is recyclable or not and put it either in the
“Recycle” box or the unlabeled box and then runs back to tag the next student’s hand. This goes on
until the boxes at the starting line are empty. The first team to get all their recyclables to the other
end wins.
There may be a second relay if time permits.
After whistle is blown move bottles and cans to the starting line to prepare for next rotation.

2
Water Conservation Demonstration (Water Cycle)
Materials:
 2 Water Jugs
 2 buckets (preferably clear)
 Toothbrushes
 Poster of water cycle

Set up:
Two water jugs filled with water should be set on table with poster of the water cycle in between
them. Buckets should be set just below spout on water jugs to catch water.

Activity:
Explanation of water cycle to group of students:
“Who likes to swim? Play in the rain? Play in the Snow? We can do all of these fun things
because of the water cycle! It is called a cycle because it goes in a circle and never ends.
(refer to poster here) The water cycle is how water changes from water in the ocean to rain
and back again. The cycle could start anywhere, but we will start will a rain drop here in this
rain cloud. The water falls from the clouds as snow or rain on the mountain and runs down
rivers to the lakes. Has anyone ever seen the Mississippi River? The water in the Mississippi
river comes from rain and snow that falls in the mountains! The water flows all the way
down the Mississippi river from way up north to the Gulf down south. (refer back to poster)
so some water flows out to the ocean and other water goes deep down in the ground!
Since water is stored underground, we can use wells to pump it out of the ground and have
water where there are no rivers! The water that is in the lakes and oceans evaporates and
turns into clouds in the sky. The clouds turn into rain and the Water cycle Starts all over
again!”
(Answer questions about water cycle)

Explanation of importance of water conservation:

“Since there is only a limited amount of water on Earth, we have to be careful how we use
Water. If we pollute some of the water, it is still part of the water cycle so it is spread
everywhere! If a river is polluted with acid, that river water will turn into acid rain that will
kill the trees and plants that it falls on! That’s not good! After we pollute water, it is hard to
clean it up, so we need to use as little water as we can. We are about to see how you can
save water everyday!”
Answer questions about water conservation)

Now choose two students to come and brush their teeth (“Who loves to brush their teeth?!?” you
may only get two volunteers that way). Instruct one to leave the water on while brushing teeth and
the other to leave it off (turn on water just to wet tooth brush before “brushing” and after). Tell the
students not to really brush their teeth, but to make a motion with the toothbrush like they are
brushing their teeth. Have all kids sing “itsy bitsy spider” song while two students “brush their
teeth”.

3
The students will probably know the song, but if they don’t , lead the song:
The itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
And the itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again

Now ask the students who conserved more water? Show the students how much water was wasted
when leaving the water on by pouring the bucket back into the water jug. Tell them they can do this
at home. Ask how else they could conserve water at home and school? (take shorter showers or
baths without as much water, stop dripping faucets, tell mom and dad not to leave the hose
dripping…)
There may be a second demonstration if time permits.
Throw away the two tooth brushes and open new ones for the next group.

4
Planting Seeds (Plant Life Cycle)
Materials:
 Water
 Paper towels
 Plastic Bags
 Lima beans
 Prepared lima bean that is already growing
 Poster of Plant life Cycle
Set up:
A station should be prepared for each student and the demonstrator with 1 plastic bag, 1 paper
towel, 1 lima bean. Have a bucket filled with water set to the side. Separate from the stations with
supplies, have an area set up where students can sit facing Poster of Plant life Cycle.
Activity:
Bring students to area with Poster of Plant Life Cycle.
Explanation of Plant Life cycle to group of students:
“Who likes lima beans! Did you know that lima beans are seeds that can grow into a plant?
After we cook them they grow anymore, so bean plants won’t grow in our stomachs, but In
a few minutes, we are going to plant some lima beans that aren’t cooked that are going to
grow into plants! All plants come from some sort of seeds. Inside every seed is a tiny plant!
(refer to poster) The seed has an outer layer called a coat to protect it and the stuff we eat
is the food supply for the tiny plant. If we give the seed water and sun, it starts to grow
towards the sun! It makes leaves that turn sunlight and water and carbon dioxide into
oxygen. Everyone breath out. You just breathed out Carbon Dioxide. That’s what plants
breathe! Now take a deep breath in! You are breathing in Oxygen! That’s what plants make
from the Carbon Dioxide! Carbon Dioxide is good for plants, but bad for our atmosphere if
there is too much of it, so we need lots of plants to turn the carbon dioxide into oxygen!
Plants make flowers that are pollinated and make seeds! Those seeds then fall into the
ground and make plants that start the whole cycle over again.”
(Answer questions about Plant Life cycle)
Now lead students to prepared stations. Show students prepared lima bean that is already growing
and explain that right now it is producing oxygen that we are breathing. Pass a permanent marker
around for students to write their name on their plastic bag. One person should walk around and
help the students do this. Have students fold paper towel so that it will fit inside plastic bag.
Instruct each student to bring paper towel to the bucket of water then you dip it in the bucket to get
it wet and ring it out slightly so that it is damp but not dripping. Tell each student to return to their
station after their paper towel is wet. While students are doing this, pass a permanent marker
around for students to write their name on their plastic bag. One person should walk around and
help the students do this. Instruct students to put paper towel inside bag then place lima bean on
the paper towel and to seal bag half way. Tell them their seed is now Germinating! Show the
students the growing lima bean and tell them that their lima bean will look like that in a few days!
After it starts to grow leaves, they can plant it in a small pot, with the roots facing down and water it
every now and then so it will grow. Tell them to ask their parents for help!
When whistle blows tell students to take their germinating beans with them to the next
station. Set up for the next rotation.

5
Biodegradable Matching Game
Materials:

Set up:

Activity:
Explanation of Biodegrade cycle to group of students:
“…”
(Answer questions about Biodegrading)
Maybe here we can talk about waste and landfills instead of the CO2 cycle again? We could even keep it local and
relate it to the Grove, and how much we throw away each football season, etc. For the activity, we could have two
big timelines laid out on the ground in posters with Velcro and dates where the items go, and then have all our items
marked with how long they take to biodegrade in sharpie or whatever, with Velcro on the other side. Just like the
recycle relay, the group can split in two teams, each team can get the same items, and when the relay starts the kids
will grab an item, look at the number on it, find that place on the timeline, Velcro it to the poster, and run back. We
can mention a few examples of times (eg. For Styrofoam, diaper, etc) of the items at the beginning, because they
prob will care more about winning the relay than how long a diaper takes to biodegrade. If something takes 40
years, or whatever, we can tell them how old they’ll be by the time it biodegrades, etc.

6
Recycled Soccer
Materials:
 Old News Paper (200 sheets +)
 Plastic bag
 Markers for starting line and end. (large plastic bottles)
Set up:
Have two stacks of news paper with each piece pulled apart. Set up a relay course with a starting
line and two points about 100 meters away that the students will run around before returning to
starting line.
Activity:
Explanation of Paper recycling to group of students:
“You may have already seen that we can recycle plastic and metal, but did you know that we
can recycle all kinds of paper too? Recycling doesn’t just mean putting your paper in a
recycling bin though. You can also recycle by reusing things in a different way. Today we
are going to use newspaper to play soccer! Did you know that we can do that? What other
ways could you reuse news paper? (paper boats, to paint on, put in animals cages, make
art…) How else can we use plastic bags? (as garbage bags, lunch bag…)”
(Answer questions about Paper recycling)
Separate students into two teams. Tell each student to get a piece of newspaper. Instruct each
team to stand in a circle. The first person in the circle will ball up their piece of paper then hand it to
the next student. That student will crumple their piece of paper around the other piece. This
continues until everyone’s piece of paper is on the “ball”. The paper “ball” will be placed inside a
plastic bag and tied up tight to resemble a ball. A volunteer will need to help tying up the bag.
Line the students up in straight lines at the starting line. Demonstrate that the students will kick the
“ball” like a soccer ball from the starting line, around the marker at the other end and back. It
should be kicked only very short distances or it will fall apart. Once the ball reaches the other end
the next student will kick the ball to the marker and back. The first team to have all members take
the ball to the marker and back wins.
Relay may be repeated if time permits