Lesson Plan

Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: A waste problem

10 minutes

Find Out: Summarising the waste problem and solution

35 minutes

Take Action: Creating less waste

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions & success criteria

Students will:

identify waste management issues
use summarising skills to sort key information.

Students can:

summarise problems and solutions to waste management issues
collaborate to develop a plan to reduce the amount of solid waste created in the classroom.

Tune In: A waste problem

Step 1

Begin by inviting students to think about the types of waste they create in the classroom.

Where students have completed other lessons in this unit, you could invite them to think about the waste they have already identified (e.g. lunchbox waste).

Where students haven’t completed other lessons in this unit, direct their attention to all the types of waste generated and sorted in their classroom (e.g., food waste, paper recycling).

Step 2

Create a T-chart on the board and label the left-hand column as ‘problem’.

Invite students to think critically about the waste systems in their classroom and select one that is not working (e.g., the paper bin is always overflowing, the food waste bin is smelly, or nothing ever really goes into the soft plastics bin). Record this problem in the left-hand column on your T-chart.

Step 3

It’s now time to think of some solutions to this problem! Label the right-hand column of your T-chart as ‘solution’. Invite students to suggest ways to solve your waste problem. Encourage them to be inspired by what other people suggest, and remember that there are no silly ideas when looking for solutions, as sometimes the best outcomes can come from the strangest ideas.

Find Out: Summarising the waste problem and solution

Step 1

Your students' task is to work independently to summarise the problem and solutions identified by the class in the T-chart.

They can do this by creating two sentences about the problem and another two about the solutions. Students can pick the solutions that appeal to them most or that they think would have the greatest impact on reducing classroom waste.

Learning differentiation: Vary the complexity of the sentences by:

requiring some sentences to be simple sentences and some to be compound sentences
adjusting the number of sentences based on the age and ability of your students
asking students to identify the verbs and/or adverbs in their sentences by circling or underlining them.

Step 2

Students can share their sentences with a partner by reading aloud to each other. This could allow students to amend and correct their sentences if necessary.

Summarising is a literacy strategy where students condense key points of a topic into a shorter version. This helps them focus on main ideas, improve understanding, and retain important information more effectively.

Learning extension: Work with students to select and enact the solution that you think would best address the waste problem identified by the class. This could be improving signage or creating a roster to increase the frequency of waste bin empties.

Take Action: Creating less waste

Step 1

Explain to students that one of the main issues in managing waste is to have good waste disposal systems in place so that waste goes to the right place (e.g. recycling or the green bin). But the other issue with waste management is to actually make less waste!

Your students’ task is to reduce waste by identifying a waste problem from the T-chart. Instead of thinking about how to fix the disposal system, they will think about reducing the amount of waste that enters the bin through behavioural changes.

For example:

Let’s imagine that the waste problem identified earlier was that the paper bin is always overflowing. The solution to this problem might have been to get a bigger bin. But what if we tried to reduce the amount of paper going into the bin using less paper? How could we use less paper? Could we always use both sides of the paper, or use small scraps of paper instead of sticky notes? Could we create a scrap paper storage system?

Step 2

Break the class into groups of 3 to 4 students. Assign each group to one of the waste disposal systems in your class. Remembering your class's waste safety code and inviting each group to inspect their assigned waste disposal system without touching anything dirty or sharp. Invite each group to write down 3 things they can see in this bin and head back to their desks.

Step 3

Each group can create a T-chart in their workbooks, adding the name of their waste disposal system (e.g., paper bin) to the top of the page and labelling the left-hand column ‘waste item’. They can add their waste items to the left-hand column.

Step 4

Ask students to label the right-hand column as ‘reduce’. For each waste item, students can think about a way to avoid creating this waste item. For example:

Apple with one bite taken out of it - don’t take a bite out of it if you don’t feel like eating it and take the apple home instead.
Popper juice bottle - bring a refillable bottle with cordial instead.
Empty zip lock bag - take it home, wash it and reuse it.

Step 5

Invite students to share their ideas with the class.

Step 6

Invite students to consider which actions for reducing waste identified in the class they would like to do or think they could easily do. Work together to create a plan to put these ideas into action!

Reflection

Ask students to complete the sentence "What I know about waste in our classroom is ..." Students should write their sentence on a piece of paper or sticky note. They should then place their pieces of paper or sticky notes on a table. Ask students to pick up one of the sentences and read it. Continue to do this for a minute or two so that the students can read many sentences.

Down with Waste

Go to

Summary

Lesson guides and printables

In this lesson