Grade One Action-The Art of Campaigning

Grade One was able brainstorm ideas on how to improve their relationship with the environment throughout this unit. They were also able to see their ideas through by acting on them within their community.

Creating posters to make others aware

As they learned about the importance of reducing, reusing, recycling and rotting, the grade one students were challenged to get the message out to a wide audience. They created posters, and they hung them in the various places so the whole school could read them.

Making recycling accessible for others

Students were confronted with the thought that even if people knew about the benefits of recycling, it is not a common practice in the community. Students created recycling bins and sorting labels to promote recycling. Eventually, they partnered with the secondary Roots and Shoots organization. Currently we are all working together to help create an environment that is conducive to recycling.

Getting the word out

Two risk-takers had the idea to promote the grade one recycling campaign during the primary assembly. Saif and Aabir got in front of the whole school to let students know about their ideas and feelings toward the environment.

Modeling the actions that you want others to take

Motivated by our recent walk outside of the school grounds, students decided that they wanted to clean up the litter. Equipped with appropriate safety materials, they took action to improve the environment. As they picked up the rubbish, others were motivated to join in!

What happened to the things we buried?

We dug up the rubbish that we buried a couple of weeks ago to discover the following things:

• The paper broke up into smaller pieces.
• The glass and plastic just got dirtier.
• The bread was gone!

We have a couple theories as to how the bread disappeared:

• Ants came and took the bread away (there was a bunch of ants by where the bread was).
• The rain water washed it away.
• The bread melted into the ground.

This learning experience leads to the question:

Is there any rubbish that is good for the environment?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot, Refresh?

Do a Google search for 'environment' or 'recycle' and your browser gets littered with links. I thought I would help you to sort through them to choose the best ones, so you can reduce the amount of time searching for yourselves at home. Here is a break down of the sites that we use in class which have the most kid friendly content:


Recycle Now's section on home composting is brilliant for young minds, and it even has a step by step video about the composting process. The only problem was that you can only order a compost bin if you live in the UK, so we had to make our own!


Both Compost This and Recycle This are vivid and informative sites. The latter has a forum type setup where people write in with questions as to how they could recycle things such as compact discs, old sponges, maps etc. Users can post their ideas to share with the poster.


Eekoworld is another gem from pbskids.org which is entertaining and interactive. The videos break down each form of pollution in depth and promotes action by posing questions about our responsibility for our future. There is also a game which has players searching around a virtual house looking for ways to reduce waste. Best of all, there is an interactive forum for kids to respond to different environmental prompts. We often give students a chance to submit their own posts on our classroom computer.

A first hand look at pollution

What is your relationship with the environment?

We went on a walk just directly outside of our school. Our main focus was to look for litter and other pollution. We took pictures of what we saw:




Grade One students are inquiring into using adjectives to define and strengthen their writing. Using the photos that they took, they went around to interview other members of the community to see what adjectives they would use to describe the environment.


Students will be using the adjectives that they acquired to write and reflect about their feelings for their immediate environment. During that process we will be looking to see if they have any ideas toward improving the situation. As we develop ideas, we will look to start a campaign and a plan of action. Look for future posts for examples of student writing.