Grade: 1

Subject: Science

Success Criteria Specific Expectations

  1.1 – Identify personal action that
they themselves can take to help
maintain a healthy environment for
living things, including humans

Materials
 Chart paper
 Black construction paper
 Gloves
 Garbage bags
 Exit tickets (for each student)
 Poster paper
 Colouring materials
 Chromebooks (for students doing poster online)

1. Engage


2. Explore
 Students will be instructed to make predictions on how much trash they think is in the
school yard and what the trash will consist of.
 Students will then engage in a nature walk (with gloves on), where they pick up
garbage around the yard. This will be completed in student groups (heterogeneous
grouping).
 At the end of the nature walk, reconvene as a whole class and discuss the different
items found (Guiding questions: “Was the yard dirty or clean? If dirty, who is going to
pick up the garbage? What can we do to help? What were the most common items?”
 Students will compare their predictions to what was found.

3. Explain
 Students will share their results from what they observed during the nature walk with
their peers (informal presentations)
 Why is it important that we reduce trash? (Define reduce – use less resources)
 Why is it important that we reuse trash? (Define reuse – use resources more than once)
 Why is it important that we recycle trash? (Define recycle – turn something into
something new)
 As a class, go through the items collected and sort them (Could this item have been
reused? Could this item have been recycled?)
 At end of class, students will complete Exit Ticket to check for understanding thus far.

4. Elaborate
 Compare and contrast how different countries around the world handle reducing,
reusing, and recycling.
 *Social Justice included here*
 Discuss Sweden – burns non-recyclable waste to generate electricity for 250, 000
households, imports garbage from other countries
 Discuss Japan – no garbage cans on city streets so that residents are responsible for
processing waste at home, prior to disposing, all plastic containers must be washed, all
labels removed, cartons folded to reduce space and all household data labeled onto the
items
 Discuss Switzerland – To get rid of non-recyclable waste, you must buy “official”
garbage bags with a higher price
 Discuss South Korea – Bags for recycling organic waste are biodegradable. The bags
are deposited in automated bins that weigh food waste. To use the bins, residents are
required to identify themselves using an ID card. The bins then charge the residents
based on the amount of waste they deposit.
 Think-Pair-Share  What stood out to you? What rule/habit do you think Canada
should adopt?
5. Evaluate
 Students will create a poster that educates their peers on how they can reduce, reuse,
and recycle to be hung around the school.
