Recycling Lesson Plans

Students visit the teacher created "To Recycle, or Not Recycle?" WebQuest. In the WebQuest students take on the role of community members and take a stand on implementing a community wide recycling plan. Groups create a website as well.

Students develop plan, implement, and market a recycling program for their school. They brainstorm recyclable materials, designate recycling responsibilities and implement a recycling program. Afterward, they determine the number of items collected, the amount of money earned, the weight of garbage that was kept out of landfills, etc.

Young scholars evaluate the school's recycling and waste management practices. After analyzing current methods, teams develop a new recycling plan, and create a slideshow presentation. They present their proposals to the principal for consideration.

Paper Lesson Plan - Students discover how paper is made. Working together, they make their own paper. This activity introduces students to recycling; what it is and its importance. Students study the process of how paper is made, and discover that almost half of all the trash produced by humans is paper. This lesson plan helps students see that recycling paper has many benefits, like helping the environment by saving trees and reducing the amount of trash dumped in landfills.

Students work together to make paper using screens, mixing bowls and toilet paper. They consider the importance of recycling to responsibly manage natural resources.

Learners explore our environment by researching environmental protection. In this recycling lesson, students examine daily trash habits by average learners and explain the correlation between our waste and the pollution of Earth. Students write about recycling methods on an Internet blog which they share with their classmates.

Students participate in activities to understand the feelings of the community about recycling.  In this recycling instructional activity, students look at opposing views on recycling.

Students investigate how to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and ways to biodegrade and compost items. They explore a website and complete an online Treasure Hunt, and create a poster, or a television or newspaper ad.

A creative project can really help get learners excited about new possibilities. Elementary aged students grades 2-6 will use recycled paper to create new paper of their own. This lesson focuses on the activity but you can engage your studetns in a discussion, show a video, or make a poster about how important it is to recycle. 

Students discover the importance of recycling, and the vocabulary associated with recycling. In this recycling lesson, students discover the vocabulary associated with recycling. Later, students identify recyclable materials, and describe which recyclable materials they would make an Earth ship out of.