Topic: What can we do to produce less garbage?

Target group

4th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

General aim of education

Students indicate garbage that can be recycled and justify the need for waste segregation and treatment.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• indicate garbage that can be recycled;

• how to make environmentally‑friendly shopping;

• justify the need for waste segregation and treatment;

• independently sort waste at home.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• pictures of products that can be recycled and ineligible for it;

• photographs of products obtained as a result of recycling;

• colored pencils: white, green, yellow, blue, orange, red, gray.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher, referring to the previous lessons, asks selected students to describe the materials from which the objects in their pencil cases are made and to determine the properties of things that we call rubbish.

• The teacher explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

Realization

• The lecturer presents an illustration of „How much time does the garbage spread?”. He asks the pupils how much a person lives on average and which of the trash presented in the illustration will remain a „souvenir” after him.

• The teacher asks students to look up the definition of the word 'recycling' in abstract. The volunteer explains its meaning, and the teacher writes it to the middle of the board. Then, on the floor, he drops pictures of various recyclable and ineligible products.

• Students choose these photographs with products that can be recycled. Pictures are hanging on the board.

• The teacher presents photographs of things received as a result of recycling and asks the pupils from which products they were made. Students indicate appropriate items, from those that they previously identified as eligible recycling.

• The teacher announces a movie. He instructs his pupils to write a research question and a hypothesis in the form provided in the abstract. Then he plays the video and the students note their observations and conclusions. The teacher points the person who shares his insights and explains the reasonableness of the conclusions noted.

• Students write in the notebooks the items that are most often found in their home rubbish bins.

• The teacher asks pupils to look carefully at the illustrations in the „Segregation of Waste” gallery and to color them with home‑made rubbish in the notebooks, in which they should be thrown.

• Students independently perform interactive exercise no. 1.

• The lecturer asks pupils to read the passage titled „Can litter be dangerous?” And explain what should be done with waste or expired batteries, drugs, fluorescent lamps and other wastes containing environmentally harmful substances.

Summary

• The teacher asks students whether the trash can be useful.

• Students independently perform interactive exercise no. 2.

• At the end of the class, the teacher asks the students questions:

  • What did you find important and interesting in class?

  • What was easy and what was difficult?

  • How can you use the knowledge and skills you have gained today?

  Willing/selected students summarize the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

What can we do to produce less garbage?

Is it worth paying attention to where we throw rubbish? Of course it is! It does not look nice when the autumn wind brings plastic bags with falling leaves. When we see plastic bottles floating in a river, we ask ourselves: Why are we surrounded by so much rubbish? Perhaps we can do something to reduce its amount?

We produce a lot of rubbish every day. It includes waste of all kinds – food leftovers, discarded everyday items like old pens and broken toys, disposable plates and cutlery from fast‑food outlets. Just think that nearly every product we buy comes in some sort of packaging, which is thrown away as soon as our purchases are unpacked, and finally it ends up in a landfill. In addition, garbage contains many poisonous substances which contaminate water and soil. 

One of the ways to look after the environment of our planet is to segregate waste. It makes it possible to process and reuse a lot of rubbish, that is to recycle it. In this way, we reduce the amount of waste destined for disposal in landfills or incineration facilities. It should also be remembered that some waste (e.g. food leftovers) decomposes. This makes it possible to recycle waste in a process called composting. The resulting compost is rich in nutrients and can be used as a soil conditioner (for example, in urban green areas or in gardens).

Reusable materials are called secondary raw materials. They include paper, glass, metal and plastic waste. Their reuse enables us to save water, energy and raw materials needed for producing different products. This is why commonly used products should be reused whenever possible.

Every type of waste should be disposed of in appropriate containers. To make it simple, they are usually colour coded. In addition, containers have labels with information what waste should be placed in each of them and what should not. Most often, containers are intended for the disposal of specific waste materials. In some places, there are also containers for dry and wet garbage, i.e. garbage that can be used for composting.

Some things such as batteries and accumulators cannot be disposed of in a landfill. This is because they contain harmful substances such as lead and cadmium which might penetrate and contaminate water and soil. Hazardous waste also includes fluorescent lamps, electronic equipment, drugs past their expiration date as well as packaging of paints and other chemicals. They may not be disposed of together with other waste.

What should we do with such materials? In many places, for example in some shops and schools, there are special containers for waste batteries. Separate collection of batteries helps to reduce environmental pollution. You can also recover many valuable raw materials from them. All hazardous waste should be taken to special waste collection points.

• Waste segregation is a process of collecting garbage and waste products in specially marked bags or containers. We segregate waste by sorting them into categories such as white and colored glass, waste paper, plastics and metals. Food leftovers, which can be used for composting, can be collected separately.

• Sorted waste can be used to produce new items – this process is called recycling.

• By segregating waste and recycling, we can limit the consumption of natural resources, energy and water and reduce environmental pollution.