Students create plastic bag costumes for a short scene developed in the classroom. Performances and assessment occur at the end of this quick lesson. A very creative mini-project for theatre arts classes.

Students examine articles to find out about the relationship between sanitation and disease.  In this personal hygiene and home economics instructional activity, students diagram areas for personal hygiene in their homes, read...

Where does the trash go after you put it in the garbage can? The class discusses sustainability, recycling, compost, and landfills as they play as fun relay game. In teams, they race to be the fastest group to successfully sort...

Students create their own compost.  For this soil lesson, students fill a bag with waste and soil, in order to create a mini compost bin. Students observe the baggies over a 6 week period, they record their findings and collect data...

Trash collection can be a hassle, especially out in the ocean. The second of four parts in the Adrift in a Sea of Plastic unit has pupils research plastic trash islands in marine ecosystems. They investigate why they occur and potential...

When a minnow eats a piece of plastic, that garbage often tracks through multiple animals, causing harm to each as it passes through the food chain. Scholars learn about food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids with a presentation. It...

Don't put the resource on curves of best fit out on the curb. Using researched data on trash and recycling, scholars create scatter plots and regression curves to analyze the information. As a culminating activity, they complete projects...

Whether you are teaching environmental science in junior high or studying recycling in kindergarten, there is something for all in this set of lessons designed for environmental education. The 110-page packet comes with tips for...

Imagine living where there was eight inches of garbage on the street! These were the situations the Progressive movement sought to reform. Using video clips about John Dewey and Jane Addams, learners consider the philosophies and impact...

Students investigate solid waste. In this environmental instructional activity, students collect their own garbage for a day and analyze the weight and the percentage of recyclable items in their trash.

Students are introduced to landfills and the importance of reducing garbage. In this Earth Day lesson, students collect garbage they find on the ground. They take it back to a plastic bin and attempt to bury all the garbage only to find...

Students consider what garbage is and where it ends up. In this recycling instructional activity, students read excerpts from Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little as they consider methods to reduce wastefulness.

In this trash lesson plan, students record how much trash their family throws away. Students then calculate how much trash they would make in 1 week and in 1 year.

Students work together to build a trash city. They collect items that would go into a landfill to help them build their city. They discuss ways to cut down on garbage.

First graders identify items for trash or recycling. In this humans and trash lesson, 1st graders are given a piece of trash and must determine how an animal's habitat would be affected if the item was included. Students discuss how to...

Fourth graders examine how to deal with the amount of trash in their community. They discover alternate ways of managing waste. They develop their own solutions to the problem.

Students investigate recycling and waste reduction and its positive impact on the environment. In this environmental science lesson, students determine how and why materials are recycled. They apply their knowledge by making...

Focusing on where are garbage goes once we dispose of it, learners explore environmental concerns. Using a clear format, this lesson leads learners through a discussion of waste reduction, recycling, and composting. Then, they discuss...

Students investigate the recycling program in Palm Beach County. In this recycling instructional activity, students discuss how garbage is processed and identify the proper color-coded bins to place recyclables in.

Both poetry analysis and waste disposal are more engaging topics for young readers with a worksheet to accompany the Shel Silverstein poem 'Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" from Where the Sidewalk Ends. Not only...

Four different activities focus on the amount of trash generated and how humans can better manage waste. Learners analyze two days' worth of household garbage, test materials for biodegradability, and rate recyclability of various...

Fourth graders examine the types of garbage that they collect on the playground. They collect the information in a spreadsheet and create a graph that displays the number of types of trash found. They design and monitor a playground...

Students brainstorm about the kinds of things that they use at home and school each day. They consider the types of materials out of which these things are made. Keep a list of their repsonses on a large sheet of paper or on the blackboard.

Middle and high schoolers hone their writing skills by reading Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the poem Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out. They fill out a graphic organizer (included here), and use the organizer to write an...