teach reduce, reuse, in the recycle classroom eachers and caregivers have As you begin the activities you reuse (such as metal spoons) Tlong used recycled items for below, explain your efforts to par- and which you throw into the children’s learning activities. ents and urge their cooperation. trash can (paper napkins). Tight budgets demanded it. Encourage parents to talk to their 2. For the next day or two, ask Recycling makes even more sense children about how they reduce, similar questions as children in today’s worrisome economic reuse, and recycle at home. engage in learning activities. times and increasing concerns “What do we do with leftover about climate change. Garbage collage paper scraps (clay, crayons, From a content perspective, it’s (Age 3 and older) paint)?” important to teach children recy- Here’s what you need: 3. Show children discarded items cling as a life skill, just as we ■ large paper bag or cardboard you’ve collected. Ask: “Where teach them hygiene, safety, and box do we put things we don’t nutrition, for example. We teach ■ poster board (preferably a used want anymore?” Use words children the foundation of the one) like trash, wastebasket, and litter. academic three R’s—reading, ■ glue 4. Invite children to make one or writing, and arithmetic—and we ■ small discarded items such as two rules about what to do can teach the foundation of the the pop-tops from aluminum with trash, such as “Put trash environmental three R’s—reduce, cans, straws, plastic lids, candy in a wastebasket.” “Don’t reuse, recycle. and gum wrappers, all washed throw trash on the ground.” The best way to teach all the and dried 5. Invite children to glue the items R’s is to practice them in every- on a poster board to make a day activities. Make sure any 1. After a routine activity, such as class collage. Write the rules on items you use in learning activi- eating lunch, engage children the poster board. ties are safe for children. They in a discussion about trash. need to be clean and free of sharp Sample questions: “Now that edges or points. For children 3 we’ve Þnished, what do we do and younger, items should not with things that are left over or pose a choking hazard. things we don’t want?” “What is trash?” “Where do we put trash?” Explain which items

32 TEXAS CHILD CARE / WINTER 2008 TEXAS CHILD CARE / WINTER 2008 33 Litter walk Back to the earth Let’s talk trash (Age 4 and older) (Age 3 and older) (Age 4 and older) Here’s what you need: Here’s what you need: Here’s what you need: ■ large paper or plastic bag ■ apple core, lettuce leaf, or other ■ chart of plastic recycling codes ■ camera fresh food scrap (Copy “Know Your Plastics” on ■ gloves, mittens, or socks for ■ plastic bottle page 15.) protecting children’s hands ■ polystyrene meat tray ■ book on garbage collection (see (optional) ■ glass list at the end of this article) ■ graph paper and marker ■ empty food can ■ sheet of newspaper 1. Take children on a brief tour of 1. Prepare for the activity by ■ small shovel your building and ask them to scouting for a spot along a ■ craft sticks point out containers of trash, nearby street or park where ■ pencil or marker such as wastebaskets, recycling you can pick up litter. Choose a bins, and dumpsters. Ask about spot free of ants, poison ivy, 1. Take children outdoors. Show what they see and smell. Talk and other hazards. the items and ask them to pre- about how some trash, such 2. Talk with children about litter. dict what would happen to soiled tissues and diapers, con- Explain the purpose of your them if they were buried in the tains germs and must not be litter walk and discuss safety ground handled. precautions. 2. Have children dig holes, one 2. Have children examine the bot- 3. Take children for a walk along for each different item. Write tom of plastic bottles in the the selected street. Photograph the name of each item on a recycling bin. Ask them to the area before picking up litter. craft stick to mark where it will describe what they see. Ask: Invite children to Þll the bag be buried. “What do the chasing arrows with litter. Supervise children 3. Place one item in each hole and mean?” “What do you think the so they avoid broken glass and cover with at least 3 inches of letters and numbers mean?” other hazardous items. Or have dirt. 3. Show children the chart and children protect their hands by 4. Wait for a month, and go back read it. Compare the codes on wearing gloves, mittens, or to dig up the items. Compare the bottles to those listed in the socks. Photograph the area their Þndings to their earlier chart. Explain that only one or afterward. predictions. Ask the children to two are accepted for recycling 4. When you return, have children describe what they Þnd. Use now, but that may change in sort the items. Make a graph words such as decay and decom- the future. Encourage them to showing items such as alu- pose. Ask which products are look for the codes on plastic minum cans, plastic bottles, biodegradable and which are items at home. glass bottles, potato chip bags, not? and paper cups. Ask: “Which Variation: With school-age chil- items did we Þnd most often?” dren, discuss how anthropolo- Don’t Mess with Texas “Which can we recycle and gists and paleontologists dig up which go into the garbage can?” things in the ground and learn “Don’t Mess with Texas” is a 5. Have children wash their about how ancient peoples lived. successful anti-litter campaign hands after handling litter. sponsored by the Texas 6. Compare the before-and-after Department of Transportation. photos. Talk about which scene Since 1988, the goal has is more appealing and why. been to keep litter off Texas Encourage children to make a roads. rule about not throwing trash A free litter bag or decal is available to Texas residents. along roadsides. Post the pic- To order, go online to tures and write the rule on the www.dontmesswithtexas.org. bulletin board.

34 TEXAS CHILD CARE / WINTER 2008 4. If possible, arrange to take chil- Invite children to peel the 2. Identify a sunny, level area in a dren outdoors when garbage oranges and eat the sections for corner of the yard or another and recycling trucks arrive for snack spot with good drainage and pickup. Ask children to 2. As children are eating, ask: out of trafÞc ßow. Collect fruit describe what’s happening. “What should we do with the and vegetable peelings in a Note whether trash containers peelings?” Accept all answers, classroom compost pot (see are emptied by hand or such as “Throw it away” and activity above) and green grass machine. Ask: “Why is it “Put it in the trash.” clippings from the yard. Make important to get rid of trash?” 3. Suggest that children put the sure the pieces are no larger “What do the workers do with peelings in the crock pot. Ask than 2 inches in size. the trash at the end of the day?” children to predict what will 3. Take children outdoors and ask 5. Read a book about garbage col- happen to the peelings. what happens to leaves and lection and show photos. Or 4. Invite the children to check the other plant matter as it dies and Þnd photos on the Internet. peelings every two days. Ask falls to the ground. Use words Ask: “Where do newspapers them to describe what they see such as decay, soil, nutrients, fer- and plastic bottles go?” “Where and smell. Use words like tilizer. Explain that nature does does the rest of the trash go?” moldy and rotting. not waste anything. “What’s a landÞll?” Variation: Use any fresh fruit 4. Encourage children to gather 6. Invite a sanitation engineer to with rind or peelings, such as up dried leaves, dried weeds, talk about recycling centers and grapefruit, pineapple, or kiwi and twigs. Explain that these landÞlls. Encourage the visitor fruit. Bananas are not advised are “browns.” Have children to bring photos. Ask: “What because they tend to attract fruit pile them on the selected spot would happen if we couldn’t ßies. Add vegetable scraps, such for the compost pile. Make sure get rid of all our trash?” Talk as potato peelings, wilted lettuce items are no larger than 2 inch- about why it’s important to leaves, and celery tops. es in size and the pile is no reduce the amount of trash we higher than the bin, about 3 throw out. Make a compost pile feet high. 7. Brainstorm with children some (Age 4 and older) 5. Bring out the “greens” (grass ways they can reuse and Here’s what you need: clippings and fruit and veg- reduce at school and at home. ■ wire fencing, 36 inches wide etable peelings). If you have Note: Invite children to check and 5-8 feet long been saving these for a week or out this Web site for children ■ pliers more, these will look slimy. done by Larimer County, Colo., ■ shovels Add the greens to the pile. www.larimer.org/SolidWaste/ ■ dried leaves, six parts by vol- 6. Invite children to spray or kidspages/funpages.htm. ume to kitchen waste sprinkle water on the pile and ■ fruit and vegetable peelings then stir the mixture. Add more Start a classroom and green grass clippings, one “browns” on top as a cover. compost pot part 7. Stand the wire bin upright over (Age 4 and older) ■ water in spray bottle or water- the pile. Encourage children to Here’s what you need: ing can measure the height of the pile ■ unpeeled oranges for snack ■ yardstick with a yardstick and record the ■ plates measurement. ■ napkins 1. Prepare for the activity by join- 8. Every day, ask two or three chil- ■ old ceramic crock pot or other ing the sides of the fencing to dren to turn the pile from the container with a snug lid make a circular bin. By bending inside out, using the shovels. the snipped wire ends on one You will probably need to lift 1. Have children wash their side so they hook into the other the bin off the pile for turning hands before snack. Show chil- side, you will be able to open and replace it afterward. Keep dren the oranges and discuss and close the bin as needed. the pile damp but not wet. the texture, color, and shape.

TEXAS CHILD CARE / WINTER 2008 35 36 TEXAS CHILD CARE / WINTER 2008 9. Talk with children about what smaller size and deep brown compost on a ßower bed or is happening to the plant mat- color. Remind them that this garden plot. ter. Use words like rotting, was once a pile of plant waste Note: If the bin needs support, decaying, breaking down, and and now it’s soil, called com- place stakes around the bottom. decomposing. Ask children if post. Talk about the cycle of Let children take turns hammer- they can see this process at growth and decay and how ing the stakes into the ground. work elsewhere in the yard. nature recycles materials. Ask: Use plastic tie-wraps or heavy Measure the pile’s height at “What’s the difference between cord to hold the bin to the stakes. least once a week. a compost pile and a landÞll?” 10. Three or four weeks later, talk 11. Remove the wire bin, and Socks—not just for feet with children about the pile’s invite children to spread the (Age 4 and older) Here’s what you need: ■ cotton sock with a hole in the Composting basics toe or heel ■ needle and matching thread ■ Plant wastes can occupy up to 20 percent of a landfill. By composting, used tennis or golf ball we divert plant wastes from landfills and thereby reduce the need for ■ plastic water bottle them. ■ leftover soap chips or bar soap Composting is a natural process in which plant matter breaks down, ■ torn stocking, cotton balls, or or decomposes, into smaller forms, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and other stufÞng potassium. These are nutrients the plants absorbed in growing, and ■ string, yarn, or rubber bands they are the same nutrients found in fertilizer. Decayed material from a ■ marker compost pile, then, is a rich, fertile soil we can add to our plants and yard. By composting, we are returning nutrients to the soil. Plant matter breaks down because billions of microorganisms, such 1. Show children the sock. Ask: as bacteria and fungi, in moist, green plants react with oxygen. We “What do we do with a sock commonly refer to this process as rotting. after it gets a hole in it?” You can make compost in heap on the ground or in almost any kind Accept all answers, such as of large container. A container, even as simple as a wire bin, is a good “Throw it away.” idea because it helps keep out dogs, raccoons, and other critters. 2. Insert the ball into the sock For ingredients, you will need “browns” and “greens.” Browns include dried leaves, straw, wood chips, and brown paper bags. You under the hole. Demonstrate can even include newspapers and dryer lint. Greens are grass clip- how to mend the sock with pings and kitchen wastes such as orange rinds, potato peelings, coffee needle and thread. Let children grounds, and egg shells. make a few stitches. Ask: “Is Don’t use meat and fish scraps, oil, grease, dairy products, and mending hard or easy?” “Can bones. Meat and grease will smell, and they will attract rodents. Don’t you make it look like new?” add anything with chemicals or toxins, such as charcoal from the bar- Explain that everyone used to becue grill or pet droppings. mend socks—and other cloth- Aim for a ratio of roughly six parts browns to one part greens. Experts vary widely on what this proportion should be. You can experi- ing—and that some families ment, or simply add plant waste as it becomes available and let nature still do. takes its course. 3. Ask: “What else can we do For faster decomposing, the plant matter needs to be in small pieces, with socks that have holes in and it needs to be turned every day to replenish the oxygen. It also them?” Brainstorm with chil- needs to stay damp, but not soaking wet. dren. Here are some ideas: As the plant matter decomposes, its temperature will rise. On cold ■ Insert your hand into the sock mornings, you may see steam rising from the pile. If it’s not heating up, and show how it can be used it probably needs more greens. It will also stop heating up when it’s fin- ished. If it begins to smell like ammonia, it needs more browns. for dusting, or to erase writing Why compost? It’s good for the environment, it costs almost nothing, from a dry-erase board. and it’s easy. ■ Use two socks as gloves, arm For more information, see www.plowhearth.com/magazine/com- warmers, or leg warmers. post_how_to.asp. ■ Slip a plastic water bottle into

TEXAS CHILD CARE / WINTER 2008 37 the sock to absorb “sweating” Geometric building units Papermaking or keep the water cold longer. (Age 5 and older) (Ages 4 and older) ■ Drop the soap chips into the Here’s what you need: Here’s what you need: toe and tie the soap off with ■ card stock paper for patterns ■ blender (for use by adults only) string for use as a soapy ■ pen ■ scrap paper of various types, washrag. ■ ruler including construction paper, ■ Stuff the toe with cotton and tie ■ string or yarn typing paper, wrapping paper it off with string for use as a ■ scissors ■ dishpan or rectangular cake pan sock doll. Or omit the stufÞng, ■ polystyrene meat trays, washed ■ plastic pitcher for pouring water draw eyes on the toe, and use and dried, about 4 for each child ■ stacks of old newspapers as a hand puppet. ■ Þne mesh wire or Þberglass ■ Stuff the sock with more cotton 1. Invite children to draw a screen that will Þt into the dish- and tie off in two or three square, triangle, and circle on pan places to make it into a caterpil- the card stock to use as pat- ■ rolling pin lar toy. terns. Encourage them to use a ■ Cut off the foot and use the ruler to draw the square and 1. Invite a small group of children tube top for a doll to wear. triangle, 3 inches on a side. to tear paper scraps into small ■ Cut up several socks to sew Show them how to tie string pieces. and make into a pot holder. Or around the pen and draw a cir- 2. Invite them to Þll the blender cut up lots of socks to make cle, 3 inches in diameter. half full with the paper, and into a quilt. 2. Have children cut out the pat- pour in enough water to cover 4. Invite children to choose a pro- terns, place them on the poly- the paper. ject, like the ones above, that styrene, and trace around the 3. Run the blender about Þve sec- they would like to do. Collect edges. Children can make as onds. If the mixture seems too materials and place them in the many of each shape as they thick and the blender labors, art center for children to do on wish. The size of the trays and add a bit more water. If the mix- their own. patterns will determine how ture seems too runny, add more 5. Invite children to talk with many shapes they will get. paper. Blend until the paper their parents and grandparents 3. Encourage children to cut out scraps form a mash or pulp. about clothes that get torn or the shapes. In the middle of 4. Have children take turns doing no longer Þt. Do they mend each side edge of the square the following steps. Place the rips and tears? Do they hand and triangle, cut a slot about a screen in the bottom of the clothes down to younger sib- half inch long. The slot should dishpan, and pour in water lings or cousins? Explain that be slightly wider than the thick- about 1 inch deep. mending clothes and passing ness of the polystyrene, about 5. Pour about a cup of pulp over 1 them along to others is reusing, /4 inch. On the circle, cut four the screen, and swish it around and that making socks into slots around the edge at equal evenly with Þngers. something different is recycling. distances from each other: top, 6. Holding the screen level, lift it bottom, and each side. from the water and let it drain. 4. Invite the children to build 7. Place the screen, pulp side up, with the shapes by slipping a on one section of newspaper. slot of one shape into a slot of Place another newspaper sec- another. They can use their tion on top and ßip the screen own set of shapes or combine so the pulp is face down. several sets as a group. Talk 8. Roll the rolling pin over the with children about how they newspaper to remove excess have recycled meat trays that water. would otherwise have gone 9. Open the newspaper and into the garbage. remove the screen. Let the pulp dry overnight.

38 TEXAS CHILD CARE / WINTER 2008 10. In the morning, peel the recy- Books for children Paper making as craft cled paper from the newspaper. ■ Bourgeois, Paulette. 1998. Talk with children about how Garbage Collectors (In My they have recycled old paper Neighborhood series). Toronto: Many paper makers use a mold and deckle. The mold is into new paper. Invite children Kids Can Press, Ltd. a framed screen that holds the to use the recycled paper in an Charming story and illustrations pulp, and the deckle is a cor- art project or as a note card. follow Sam the garbage collector responding frame that estab- Variations: Experiment with as he stops at houses to pick up lishes a consistent edge colored paper to vary the shades trash. A neighborly fellow, he around the recycled paper. of the Þnished paper. Add small helps Mrs. Green whose false teeth You can make this item quick- bits of leaves, ßower petals, and have mistakenly found their way ly and cheaply. grasses to the paper mash for a into the trash. The book contains Here’s what you need: nature effect, or use glitter and explanations of landÞlls, recycling, ■ 2 flat picture frames of bits of ribbon for glamour. Press a and litter. identical size, glass and cookie cutter or empty can on the ■ Jacobs, Francine. 1996. Follow backing removed (the drying pulp to make shaped That Trash! All About Recycling. frame size determines the paper or to create designs. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. size of the finished paper) Colorful illustrations and sim- ■ fine wire mesh or fiberglass Conduct a waste audit ple text describe what happens to screen (Age 6 and older) materials at a recycling center— ■ stapler ■ wire cutters or scissors Invite schoolagers to take a close how trash is sorted and packed look at what is being thrown out into bales for delivery to factories. 1.Stretch the screen over the at your school. They might ■ Maas, Robert. 2000. Garbage. back of one frame. Staple choose to gather up the trash New York: Henry Holt & Co. in place. Trim the screen. thrown out after snack or after a This book has simple text and This is the mold. whole day. Analyzing what you excellent color photographs of 2.The second frame is the Þnd can give you some ideas for sanitation trucks and landÞlls as deckle. You will hold the deckle firmly to the mold for reducing trash. It also gives you a well as examples of recycling. ■ straight edges. Or you can benchmark for measuring the Skidmore, Steve. 1991. What a screw two small hinges to improvement your school can Load of Trash! BrookÞeld, Conn.: one side of the mold and make over time. Millbrook Press. deckle so it stays firmly in Download a manual for con- Humorous cartoons deÞne place. ducting the waste audit at trash, describe a landÞll and www.zerowaste.co.nz/assets/Bu incineration plant, explain how to You can also buy a mold and sinessSolutions/wasteaudit.pdf. make a compost heap in a trash deckle from craft stores or papermaking suppliers, such This 18-page manual describes can, illustrate the life cycle of a as the following: how to do it, gives safety precau- glass bottle, and describe recy- ■ Arnold Grummer’s tions, offers sample audit forms, cling of clothing, toys, and metals. Papermaking, Milwaukee, and suggests how to write the ■ Turnbull, Stephanie. 2005. Trash Wisconsin. See www.arnold- report of Þndings. and Recycling. London: Usborne grummer.com Publishing. ■ Museum store at the Robert Simple text with color pho- C. Williams Paper Museum, Georgia Tech in Atlanta. tographs and illustrations show See www.ipst.gatech.edu/ how trash is transported to a land- amp/shop/museum_shop_ Þll or burned in an incinerator. It diy.htm also shows toilet and bath water going into a sewer. It describes how recycled metal and plastics are melted, glass is crushed, paper is made into newspaper, and garden waste is composted.

TEXAS CHILD CARE / WINTER 2008 39