Waste Project in Kindergarten
PHASE ONE
Since the start of the school year, the students have been very curious about where their trash from lunch belongs: the green, blue, or black bin. Additionally, Vicente noticed in a book about oceans that there was a lot of trash in the ocean. So, we decided to explore this topic further.
The teachers planned a web including all of the words we could think of related to waste. This web serves as a starting point for the project, as well as a guide to see where else the topic will take us. However, the students' interest primarily guides our direction.
Provocation
When the students came to class Monday morning, there was waste scattered all over the tables.
- Marifer: ¿Para qué es esto?
- Gonzalo F: Es para poner cosas adentro.
- Miguel: Ewe, papilla.
- Gonzalo F: Ah, ya sé, vamos a reciclar.
In general, the students weren't too concerned about the trash; most just worked around it or moved it to the side. When it was time to clean up, some included the waste in their baskets of materials.
We watched this video to see what it would provoke in the students. The general consensus: Ewwww.
We then discussed what we saw, thought, or felt about our experience with waste that morning.
- Marifer: Yo pensé que había puro plástico y que tu podías hacer lo que tu querías.
- Jorge: ¿Por qué la basura no está en donde va la basura
- Takuya: Water.
- Sergio: ¿Por qué las personas tiran basura en el agua?
- Miguel: ¿Por qué hace la comida con la basura?
- Manuel: ¿Por qué tiran basura en el suelo?
- Tessa: Si tiras más basura y más y más y más al mar se pueden morir los peces porque se la comen.
- Juan Pedro Orozco: Piensan que el plástico y la basura es comida.
- Marifer: Cuando avientan una botella de agua se mueren los peces.
- Juan Pedro Orozco: En el video había basura en la comida porque había tanta basura que a fuerzas tenían que comer con basura. Si no, ¿cómo iban a comer? Se iban a morir.
- Juan Pedro Covarrubias: Los delfines nunca se mueren porque son tan inteligentes que no se la comen porque saben que es basura.
- Maria Josse: Las tortugas también se pueden morir con el plástico.
- Vicente: Es que una vez vi en una foto que se murieron dos ballenas por tanto plástico.
- Patricio: Una vez cuando buceé vi un delfín que tenía la cola lastimada.
- Gonzalo Flores: Una vez fui a bucear y vi un pez globo sin un palito.
- Gonzalo A: ¿Por qué el plástico tenía hoyos?
- Dheer: The police gonna take the people if they throw the trash away.
- Eduardo: Que las personas tiran una basura al agua unos peces sabían que era una comida pero no era.
- Nícholas: El señor cocinó basura.
The students reflected on past experiences and about what they saw in the video.
Waste at Home
Exploration
We analyzed trash items that Miss Jess had brought from home before they brought their own trash.
- Todo puro plastic.- Marifer.
- Las servilletas sí se tiran en el basurero. Mi mama hace agua de sabor. Marifer
- No hay que usar popotes porque luego hay muchos popotes en el mar y los animales se los comen. - Gonzalo Flores.
- Se les puede encajar en la nariz a una tortuga. - Vicente.
- Mi hermano toma chocomilks con popote y yo le digo que no los use pero no me hace caso. - Marifer.
Many students sketched their observations.
We discussed what students noticed about wate at home
- A veces, cuando es cartón lo ponen ene el escritorio de mi hermano.- Sergio.
- Mi mamá siempre tira cosas de plástico en el basurero y yo le digo que no. Lo tira y lo tira.- Marifer
- MI mamá siempre recicla cosas para nosotros. Nos hace coches o bay blades.- Juan Pedro Orozco
- Cuando mi papá y yo vemos basura en el piso la recogemos y la reciclamos.- Patricio.
- I have a lots of things that I used, like Tajín. My mom, instead of putting on the trash, she fill it eith a big bottle of Tajín.- Vicente.
- Yo uso mucho plástico.- Gonzalo Flores.
- Cuando mi nana nos lleva afuera hay mucha basura y la llevamos a un lugar a reciclar.- Marifer.
- En mi casa siempre uso un cartón para hacer actividades.- Jorge.
The students naturally wanted to sort the waste items from home into plastic, aluminum, glass, paper and cardboard, since they are used to doing this with their trash from lunch.
A compass tool is a graphic organizer that helps students show their thought procress regarding the relationship between: nature, economy, society, and wellbeing. Instead of these 4 categories, we use the student-friendly language of Nature, Need Money, People, and Good for Me. The students first shared an idea the had about "wate at home", drew a pictorial representation, placed their cards in one of the four categories, and explained their choice.
- Sergio: Hago cosas de cartón (Wellbeing)
- Juan Pedro O: Mi mamá hace cosas con otras coasas (Asked to explain why he placed in Nature) Porque está haciendo dinosaurios. A veces hace puentes o árboles.
We started to wonder how much trash we were throwing away at lunch time, so we collected 5 days of waste from lunch. We discovered that we had more plastic wrappers from granola bars and rice crispy treats than anything else.
We talked about how we can avoid most of the waste in our lunch by bringing reusable containers. |
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Meanwhile, Miguel was on vacation in Vail. We asked him to observe the recycling system during his travels. We had a video chat with him and, while on the slopes, he told us about the recycling and waste bins he had seen.
Before talking to him, we came up with these questions:
- What kind of trash do you see?- Regina.
- What have you done?- Sergio.
- Do you see waste in the street?- Miss Jess with Marifer
- What do you see in the mountain?- Patricio.
- How much trash is there?- Julia.
- What did you see?- Regina
- It's really clean here. Nobody puts trash here.- Miguel.
- What did you throw away?- Marifer
- Recycled, plastic, aluminum.- Miguel. (He shows us the recycle bin)
- What did you see in the mountain?- Just snow. There's no trash. - Miguel
- The recycle goes to China. If the recycled things aren't clean, China gives feed the USA and send it back. - Miguel's mom.
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Miguel also sent us photos about what he had discovered
PHASE TWO
Miguel had mentioned that recyclable materials from the U.S. were sent to China. We wondered what happened to the recycling bins in our classroom, so we invited the expert Don Alfredo.
First, we started reading Where Does the Garbage Go? so we'd have an idea before he came.
These are the questions we prepared for his visit:
- ¿A dónde se llevan los botes del salón?
- ¿En qué la llevan a la fábrica?
- ¿Cómo sacan la basura del basurero?
- ¿Cuántas bolsas de basura recogen al día?
- ¿Qué pasa con la basura del baño?
- ¿Cómo podemos usar menos bolsas de basura?
- ¿Qué pasa si la basura no está en el bote correcto?
- ¿Todo se puede reciclar?
- ¿Qué ba en cada bote?
- ¿Para qué sirve el reciclaje?
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- ¿Qué pasa si pones plástico en el orgánico?-Manuel
- ¿Por qué hay tanta basura? -Juan Pedro O.
- ¿Cuánto tiempo lleva esa basura ahí? (from a photo) ¿Cómo la cargaron? ¿Huele a pescado podrido ahí? -Juan Pedro O.
- ¿Cómo se hace la basura? -Jorge
- ¿Y cuando se llenan esos botes (de una foto) a dónde llevan la basura? -Pablo
- ¿Para qué es el blanco (bote sanitario)? -Juan Pedro Covarrubias
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El reciclar es para que se reduzca la basura. -Don Alfredo-
¿Qué pasa si ponemos metal en lo orgánico? -Tessa
- Nosotros tiramos la sanitas en el bote sanitario. -Gonzalo F.
- ¿Cuántos días tardan en llevar la basura (los contenedores)? -Manuel
- Toda la basura se va a un vertedero. Anteriormente, revolvíamos toda la basura. En ese entonces, nadie separaba la basura. Todo se iba al vertedero. Se hacían montañas y montañas de basura. Ya tenemos años separando la basura. -Don Alfredo
- Todo se puede reciclar? -Manuel
- ¿Las latas en dónde van? -María Fernanda
- Sacamos 100 bolsas diarias de basura. -Don Alfredo
- ¿Qué hacen con las hojas rayadas? -Gonzalo F.
- Yo en mi casa tengo mucha basura. En la noche llega un camión y se la lleva. -María Fernanda
- Yo vi una foto que estaban en un bote y toda el agua era de plástico. -Manuel
- Recoger la basura que veamos. -Vicente
- Cuando fui a Tapalpa nos dieron chocolate caliente en vasos de unicel. -Regina
The students journaled about what they had learned from their readings, watching videos, and Don Alfredo's visit.
Sergio had just had a birthday party and brought a new toy to school, unopened. We decided to open it together to see how much waste a new toy contains. New toys are awesome! But they include a lot of cardboard and plastic.
- Podemos hacer algo con la envoltura de los juguetes. -Regina
- Podemos reciclar los empaques. -Marifer
- Podemos hacer experimientos con los materiales. -Manuel
Julia had just received a second-hand set of American Girl dolls from her cousin. She showed us how cool a toy that has already been used, but that is new to us, can be. Plus, there isn't any waste!
- Puedes tener juguetes que no te gustan. Puedes dárselos a los niños pobres. -Marifer
- Le regalé un juguete que ya no usaba a mi hermanito. -Jorge
- Le regalé un juguete mío a Mateo, el hijo de mi nana. -Julia
We watched videos about the life cycle of plastic, as well as a video that shows the process of recycling plastic in a recycling center in China.
Miss Susana came to our class to read Is Plastic Fantastic? We learned about what plastic is made of and that is stays on the Earth for many many years.
The students revisited the book Is Plastic Fantastic that they had read with Miss Susana. They added their questions and observations, and discussed what they learned or noticed with their peers in small groups.
We had a lot of questions about composting. Vicente told us about his experience:
I have a can and all the foods that I don't eat I put it in there and then my mom takes the bin to the compost, and then the compost, like a big bin, she put it in a caretilla and then I push it to where there are plants and I put the compost in the plants.
We watched this video to learn more.
- Como el basurero negro que está a lado de los columpios. -Patricio
- No, ya no está ahí. -Gonzalo F.
- No. It doesn't grow plants in the compost. It's just dirt. -Vicente
- Es que vi una película que ponen manzanas y los gusanos se las comen y hacen composta. -Regina
- Hice una de esas (composta) en mi casa. -Marifer
- I didn't notice the vapor. -Vicente
- It looks so pretty (garden). -Dheer
- En la película el señor estaba diciendo que tiraron mucha basura y que la tuvieron que llevar al landfill. -Regina
Experts Shayne and Alberto from Earthboxes came to talk to us about composting. These are the questions they came up with beforehand:
- ¿Cómo crecen las plantas de compost? -Regina
- How is when you put a pumpkin in the compost and it doesn't have the black part? -Manuel
- ¿Qué pasa si la comida que ponemos no les gusta a las plants y se mueren? -Julia
- What happens to our food waste when we don't put it in the compost? -Miss Jess
- ¿Cómo haces la arena para la planta? -Caro
- Queremos saber si las toallitas húmedas se ponen en la compost. -Sergio
- ¿Qué pasa si ponemos algo en organic que no va ahí? -Julia
- ¿Qué pasa a la composta cuando ya dura mucho rato? -Patricio
- ¿Qué pasa si ponemos las toallas del baño en la composta? ¿Y qué pasa si ponemos plastic en la composta? -Tessa
- ¿Cómo se hace la composta? -Regina
- Can we compost a biodegradable spoon? And what is biodegradeable? -Miss Jess
- Alberto and Shayne asked, "What do you know about compost?"
- It needs to breathe. -Takuya
- The compost has worms. -Manuel
- Where we can put apples. -Regina
- We can recycle plastic, aluminum, and organic. -Miguel
- You need water to compost. -Caro
- Compost smells very bad. -Takuya
- Debes esperar mucho tiempo para que crezca la planta. -Miguel
PHASE THREE
After learning about the effects of waste and how much waste we produce, the students decided to practice sustainability.
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The students decided they wanted to make chocolate peanut butter eggs for the Egg Hunt. In the morning, they spread out the cooking utensils and ingredients and role-played the baking process. They learned to measure, follow a recipe, and how to choose ingredients with minimal packaging. They noticed that the peanut butter came in plastic jugs, but decided they could reuse them later. |
We reused old bags or repurposed pillowcases for the Egg Hunt. We can reuse them for other purposes later!
The students wanted to bring a zero-waste lunch. Because they consistently had granola bar wrappers in their lunches, they decided to make granola from scratch.
For Mother's Day, the students made lip balms for their moms with reusable containers and ingredients with little packaging, and candles made with old crayons.
Video made by students:
Reflections About What we Learned
- Compost, so many trash is going to the landfill, you can use again, go to the recycle center. - Takuya
- I learned from Alberto that the plants drink water. - Regina
- The worms eat the trash and becomes compost. - Patricio
- People throw trash into the ocean. - Carolina
- The trash in the landfills blows into the ocean or other place and contaminates. - Juan Pedro Orozco
- The fish eat the trash. - Gonzalo Flores
- Plastic is made of petroleum. - Vicente
- Instead of plastic and waste we can bring different things. -Manuel
- Aluminum cans are melted. -Pablo
- You can separate the materials. -Majo
- Rice crispies have a lot of sugar, so it's better to not buy it because it has a lot of waste. -Tessa
- Many animals die from trash. -Sergio
- The planet has a lot of trash. Animals eat the trash. Kids clean the trash. -Eduardo
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