Have a Recycling Relay Race!

August 13th, 2012 by Sarah

Relay races are a great way to get students outdoors, physically active, and engaged in learning! Image courtesy of USDAgov via Flickr.

Did you know that you can help your students learn about and practice recycling through a simple relay race? Here’s how:

Gather some recyclable and non-recyclable materials and split your class into appropriately sized teams. Have each team form a line at the start line and give each team a selection of recyclable and trash items (each team should have the same total number of items).  Put a trash can and a recycling bin an equal distance away from each team.  For the relay, a team member from each team will have to select an item, run to the trash/recycling bins, place the item in the appropriate bin, and run back to and cross the start line before their next team member can take a turn.  As the relay takes place, make sure that all trash and recyclable items have been placed in the correct bin.  If an item is sorted incorrectly, a team member must take an “extra lap” to run out, identify the item that was incorrectly sorted and run back to their start line with it so another team member can run back to the bins and sort it correctly.

The relay will continue until all of the teams have sorted all of their items correctly. The team that completes the task in the shortest amount of time will win!  You can complicate the relay in a variety of ways, such as having the last student “shoot” the recycle/trash item into the appropriate bin from a certain distance away (like basketball), adding a “reuse” bin for objects that do not have to be recycled after just one use, etc.

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Sarah Brzezinski works for the Chesapeake Research Consortium as the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. She also serves as the content manager of Bay Backpack.

Bay-Friendly Valentine’s Day Crafts

February 13th, 2012 by Sarah

Happy early Valentine’s Day! There is something special about a handmade Valentine’s Day gift.  In many elementary schools, making these home-style gifts is a part of a structured Valentine’s Day celebration tied to art curriculum standards.  Instead of making crafts from new resources this year, turn your art class into a real-world lesson in reusing and recycling!  Here are three bay-friendly craft ideas (with links to instructional craft websites) to help make recycling paper a fun, Valentine’s Day themed classroom activity:

Your students can make a Valentine's Day wreath out of recycled paper, felt, scraps of fabric or old clothes. Image courtesy of Moonlightbulb via Flickr.

1.   Make a Valentine’s Day wreath – Have students color both sides of paper from your classroom recycling bin pink and/or red, cut out swirl designs (provided in the links below), roll the paper into a flower bud-shape, and glue them to a heart shaped piece of paper or cardboard.  The paper or cardboard base should have its center cut out in the shape of a heart before students glue their “flowers” to it. These rosettes could also be made with bits of felt or old clothing, if your school allows it. Get complete directions via the following links:

If you make a plantable Valentine's Day card with your students, be sure to use native seeds! Image courtesy of Little Birdies via www.makeandtakes.com

2.   Make a seed-paper Valentine’s Day card – Have your students tear your paper recycling into little pieces, put the pieces into a blender, add water, and blend the paper into pulp.  Drain off the excess water and add seeds from a plant native to your local environment. Stir the seeds into the pulp (not using the blender!) and squeeze out any excess water.  Give each student some of the paper pulp and have them shape it into a heart or flower.  Allow the shapes to dry overnight and turn them into cards!  Full directions can be found at:

There are several types of decorative garlands you can make with your class to celebrate Valentine's Day. This is a 3-D version was created and photographed by Jessica Jones (via How About Orange blogspot).

3.   Make a decorative heart garland – Turn your class’s paper recycling or used child-friendly magazines into a garland by having students cut out heart shapes. Alternatively, students can create 3-D hearts for the garland by layering different sized hearts on top of each other, stapling the centers together and fanning out the individual pages. Once the hearts are created, the class can work together to string their individual hearts together using leftover twine. Complete directions for these craft ideas can be found at:

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Sarah Brzezinski works for the Chesapeake Research Consortium as the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. She also serves as the content manager of Bay Backpack.

Five Simple Ways to Green Your School

September 12th, 2011 by Sarah and Krissy

Biology Bottles

1.  Grow Native Seeds. In the fall, collect seeds from the trees surrounding your schoolyard.  Then have each student plant and grow his own seeds in the classroom.  Reuse egg cartons to plant your seeds!  Your school could also apply for an upcoming grant that supports school gardens and plantings, and Maryland schools can participate in the Marylanders Plant Trees program.

2.  Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Your Paper. The average school wastes 38 tons of paper per year.  Check out Abitibi the paper retriever program and get paid to recycle your paper!

3.  Create a Craft Box. Instead of throwing out the odds and ends usually bound for the trash can, collect these items in a craft box to reuse later.  Used milk cartons can be transformed into bird feeders or birdhouses. Used soda bottles can be used to create Biology Bottles to help your students study decomposition or the connection between land and water. With a little imagination, you can turn your classroom trash into an educational treasure!

4.  Detox Your Classroom Cleaners. Instead of using store-bought cleaners, create your own.  Students can mix up their own cleaner using everyday non-toxic household ingredients.  Find eco-friendly recipes HERE.

5.  Cut Your Carbon Footprint. Conserve energy at school by appointing a student each day as the Power Patroller.  Have the Power Patroller monitor your classroom’s energy use each day.  They can ensure lights, computers, and other electronics are turned off each time the class leaves the room. Then have students learn about their carbon footprint by using the EPA’s Global Climate Change Kids Calculator.

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Sarah Brzezinski is the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. Krissy Hopkins is a former Chesapeake Bay Program Staffer and is currently pursuing her PhD in geology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Cleaning Out Your Classroom – 4 Chesapeake-Friendly Tips to Help You Prepare for Summer Break

June 20th, 2011 by Sarah

Before you leave for the summer, be sure your schoolyard habitat is properly marked! Image courtesy of Otterman56 via flicker.

For many of our teachers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the school year is either wrapping-up or already over.  As you clean-out for classroom before summer vacation, remember that there is still plenty you can do to help the Chesapeake Bay!  Here are some great bay-friendly tips and resources to help you prepare for your well deserved summer break:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: It may seem obvious, but as you clean out your classroom this year think about what you will need next year.  Don’t just think about your curriculum materials, but about all of the “things” that you have accumulated throughout the year.  Careful planning and organization can help you reduce the amount of new materials you need to buy next fall and find ways to reuse what you already have, thus reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and the number of natural resources that are used to create new “things.” Many broken or outdated resources can also be recycled.

Try “Freecycling”

Before you throw away or recycle good quality materials you no longer want to use, check to see if other teachers in your school or county have any need for them.  New teachers in particular may be looking for things to brighten up their classrooms or to enhance their lessons next year.  If your school system has an online marketplace, try posting usable, but unwanted items there as “free” to help get the word out.

Prepare Your Schoolyard Habitat for Summer: Remember that over the summer, your school’s maintenance and ground-care procedures may change.  You don’t want to come back in the fall to find that the rain garden, wildlife habitat, or native flower plot you spent so much time planning, constructing, and maintaining the previous year is in a state of disrepair because no one watered the plants or because summer facility care staff did not know to avoid mowing the area.

And last, but certainly not least…

Make Plans to Enjoy the Chesapeake! Whether you are a teacher or a student, one of the best ways to get reenergized for learning or teaching about the watershed is to have a fun experience that connects you to it.  Go sailing, take a beachside stroll, hop in a kayak, grab a fishing poll, or visit a local park where you can watch for wildlife along the waters edge. There are many ways to reconnect with your watershed.  This summer, which one will you choose?

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Sarah Brzezinski works for the Chesapeake Research Consortium as the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. She also serves as the content manager of Bay Backpack.

Using Waste-Free Wednesdays & Litterless Lunches as Educational Tools

May 30th, 2011 by Sarah

This lunch is “waste-free” because it was packed in a reusable lunch bag with reusable utensils, containers, and a cloth napkin. Image courtesy of the Resourceful Schools Project.

This lunch is “wasteful” because it was packed in a paper bag, has plastic utensils, a paper napkin, and lots of disposable packaging around the food items. Image courtesy of the Resourceful Schools Project.

Last week, our blog discussed some of the benefits of managing cafeteria waste and launching a “Waste-Free Wednesdays” or “Litterless Lunches” program at your school.  But starting a lunchtime waste reduction program is only the beginning!  There are many lesson plans and classroom activities that can help teachers turn these programs into systemic, educational tools.

A great way to get students involved in these programs is to turn lunchtime waste reduction into a competition between grades.  Before announcing the launch of a “Waste-Free Wednesday” or “Litterless Lunches” program, teachers or parent volunteers can begin weighting the amount of waste generated during each lunch period to establish a baseline.  When the program is launched, share the results with students and challenge each grade to reduce their waste by the greatest percentage in the school.  The winning grade can be rewarded with an extra recess period, which would also promote healthy lifestyles and physical activity.

To make the program more manageable and engaging, once it is launched teachers can supervise student as they weigh their lunch periods waste.  Math classes throughout the school can get involved by keeping track of the weights, calculating the percentages, comparing them to those of other grade levels and by calculating the amount of money their family saves by reducing, reusing, and recycling over time . Science classes can study how long it takes different materials to decompose, what factors influence the rate of decomposition, and the impacts waste has on our environment.  “Waste-Free Wednesday” and “Litterless Lunch” programs teach students the principles of Reduce-Reuse-Recycle and can be used to help develop environmental stewards in younger generations.

The following resources will help incorporate your “Waste-Free Wednesdays,” “Litterless Lunches,” or waste management program into your class lessons:

  • “Nature Recycles: Shouldn’t We All” Lesson Plan & Online Activity – This lesson was prepared as a pre and post learning activity for a field study at Hard Bargain Farm or another environmental facility, but can also be used if teachers sort lunch waste as a part of a classroom activity.  The pre-lesson utilizes online activities that include packing a digital “Trash Free Lunch, comparing and ranking lunches, and “Trash Sorting.”  After the waste the class produced during lunch is sorted and weighed, the post-lesson activity instructs students to fill out a Lunch Trash Data Analysis Worksheet and to have a discussion about what they have learned.
  • Biology Bottle: Decomposition Bottle – Have your students explore decomposition in a two liter soda bottle. This website provides instructions on how to construct a “Decomposition Column” and provides tips for how to use it as a teaching tool. Teachers can use this tool to teach about decomposition, waste management, recycling, and more
  • EPA’s Did You Pack a Waste-Free Lunch Worksheet – This worksheet has students compare the reusable, recyclable, compostable, and waste materials in their lunches before and after the implementation of a cafeteria waste reduction program, and can be used to challenge them to individually reduce the amount of trash they generate.
  • NOAA’s Protect Our Ocean Activity Book – Activities in this book are designed to teach students in Grades K-3 about the ocean, why it is important, and marine debris.  Through word searches, games, and coloring pages, students will also learn about Litterless Lunches, how long it takes trash to decompose in the ocean, and marine sanctuaries.
  • Ocean and You Educator Resources: Sorting Trash – This lesson focuses on teaching students about how long it takes different types of trash to decay in the ocean.  It also features some great posters illustrating the time it takes for marine debris to decay.
  • EPA’s Teachers Resources on Waste – This website acts as a clearing house for EPA curriculum and activity resources that focus on waste.  Resources are organized by school level (grades k-5, 6-8, and 9-12) to help teachers find lessons that are appropriate for their class.
  • Clean Sweep USA Lesson Plans – These lesson plans for grades 6-8 address topics on waste management, source reduction, reducing volume in landfills, composting, recycling, waste-to-energy facilities, littering, and beautification.
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Sarah Brzezinski works for the Chesapeake Research Consortium as the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. She also serves as the content manager of Bay Backpack.

Why Manage Cafeteria Waste?

May 23rd, 2011 by Sarah

Pupils putting their food waste into the school wormery at Seaton Primary School. Image courtesy of Ashden Award, Creative Commons

In 2009, Americans produced about 243 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), or trash that is commonly used then thrown away.  MSW can be made up of things that come from our homes, hospitals, businesses, and schools, such as packaging, grass clippings, furniture, paint, batteries, appliances, clothes, food scraps, and newspapers.  According to the EPA’s report on MSW Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States in 2009, on average, every American produced about 4.3 pounds of waste per day.

In our schools, this waste can come from many sources and activities, including lunches.  There are many fun, educational ways that we can work to reduce the amount of waste that is generated in school cafeterias. One great idea teachers and schools can promote is “Waste-Free Wednesdays” or “Litterless Lunches.”  Schools that have “Waste-Free Wednesday” programs encourage parents and students to pack Wednesday lunches that do not produce any trash while “Litterless Lunches” can be conducted throughout the week. Both programs encourage students to reduce food scraps, eliminate disposable packaging materials, and encourage the use of reusable utensils, napkins, and food and drink containers.  Schools themselves are also encouraged to decrease the waste that is produced from school-sold lunches, for example, by replacing disposable Styrofoam trays with reusable ones.

Cafeteria waste reduction programs have many benefits.  They can be used to start composting initiatives, so students do not have to count apple cores and banana peels as a part of the waste they generated. Student participation in school recycling programs may increase as a result of effective initiatives.  Reducing the amount of waste that is produced in the cafeteria can also help reduce the amount of money school systems have to spend on waste management.

Here are some great resources to help you start a “Waste-Free Wednesdays” or “Litterless Lunches” program at your school:

  • WasteFreeLunches.org – Learn about the basics of waste free lunches, success stories, case studies, research, and tools for change on this website.  The website also features tips for parents who want to get their families involved in reducing lunchtime waste.
  • EPA’s Pack a Waste-Free Lunch Website – This resource includes a waste-free lunch poster, three poster activities, tips for getting parents involved (including a sample letter to inform parents about the initiative), and a list of additional resources.
  • Rethinking School Lunches – This guide from the Center for Ecoliteracy aims to help “improve school food, teach nutrition, support sustainable food systems, and create and education program focused on understanding the relationships between food, culture, health, and the environment.”  The guide also includes a waste management chapter.
  • EPA’s Waste Educational Materials – This website refers teachers to sites that provide them with basic facts about waste, information on composting and recycling, curriculum and activities, and student awards and grants.  The website also features programs including Tools to Reduce Waste in Schools, Schools Chemical Cleanout, and Eco-Schools USA.

Stay tuned: Next week, we will share some resources to help you incorporate your cafeteria’s waste management program into your classroom lessons!

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Sarah Brzezinski works for the Chesapeake Research Consortium as the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. She also serves as the content manager of Bay Backpack.

Get Paid to Recycle with Abitibi

January 3rd, 2010 by Krissy

Looking for a way to fund field trips for your students or trees to plant on school grounds? Here is a simple, cost-free way to raise some funds and help the environment.

The Abitibi Paper Retriever Program will pay you to recycle unwanted newspapers, magazines, mail, catalogs and office paper. Abitibi will supply your school with a large green and yellow Paper Retriever bin, at no cost, where you can collect recyclable paper from your school and the surrounding community.

Paper you collect will be picked up biweekly and taken to a local mill to be remanufactured into newsprint. A scale on the truck that picks up your paper weighs the amount you recycled and your school is paid for each pound of paper. So the more you recycle, the more you raise!

Along with raising funds, your class can be actively involved with the recycling effort and learn the value of recycling to the environment through a Monthly Retriever Scorecard. Using this scorecard, your students can track the tons of paper you’ve recycled, the money you’ve earned and the ecological impact of your efforts.

Get your school involved HERE.

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Krissy Hopkins is a former Chesapeake Bay Program Staffer and is currently pursuing her PhD in geology at the University of Pittsburgh.