Beginning next week our family unit study is all about how to reduce our trash output, what we can reuse, and how to recycle. I will be learning right alongside my children and thought you might enjoy a peek at the resources we’ll be using along the way.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! – A lapbook to do from Hand of a Child. It covers garbage, landfills, the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), composting, and more.
Recycle City Game – This gem can be explored online or downloaded for free, look around!
Planet Protector – Printable activities and games.
The Environmental Kids Club – This free site includes links to the two resources above and a whole lot more. This is a part of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s online presence and is quite comprehensive.
Conservationist for Kids magazine – Each issue is available free online, hosted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Aimed at 4th graders. There are links in the left sidebar for educator resources to print for free.
Environmental Education for Kids! - EEK!, an electronic magazine for kids in grades 4-8 from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The teacher resources page for EEK! is here.
Earth911 – Use the search bar in the green section near the top to find recycling drop off spots and centers for a variety of materials in your neighborhood. We’ll be using this for some fun field trips with the recyclables we gather.
The Recycle Guys – Explore this site and you’ll find comic strips, cartoons, printables (including coloring books and trading cards), games, lesson plans, and more. It looks like a lot of fun.
Now, just in case you haven’t noticed, there is not a single book in the list of resources. Unheard of for me, it’s true. If I find time to stop in at my library I may pick up a few titles, but honestly, the links listed above are more than enough resources for my 4th grade and under crowd.
Do you have any favorite activities, books, or resources on this topic? Do you recycle at your house?
3 comments:
As per my last comment to a post earlier this week, you must know how much I like this. Question please: when you back up your data, how do you back up you favorite links such as these? My computers tend to crash a lot and I do back up data, but I always lose the 'favorites' folder; is there a way to save it, other than just copy-pasting the links in a separate document?
Another shameless request: when you have a chance ('cause you sound like you have time on your hands NOT! lol) would you mind filing posts such as this one under a separate tab, like Resources maybe, so we can find it easily? It would be sooo helpful to find it later on when we get to do a similar unit. Thank you so much in advance!
Thanks for the great post of resources! I'll be looking into several of them!
Here in the Pacific NW, recycling is as natural as breathing. I've never thought about 'teaching' it because learning about it happens naturally - like going to the store.
With that said, I know that Bug has picked up a lot of pro-recycling / pro-Earth stuff from shows on PBS - I think Curious George had one, not sure who else. I know he saw one show that made him absolutely insistent that we never get plastic bags from the store again. (He routinely reminds me to ask for paper!)
I love all your links, and maybe we'll explore them if we dive into the 3 R's at his request some time in the future.
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