The class I chose to teach my environmental unit to was a Grade 3 class at Cleveland Elementary School in North Vancouver. After introducing myself and explaining my reason for presenting to their class, I led the students in a discussion about what recycling is, why we do it and who/what it benefits. All of them have a blue box at home and recycle most things, but only a handful knew to look for the number in the triangle to see if a plastic item can be recycled and as well, what it can be made into once it is recycled. We read through the "Recycling Symbols" handout I gave them (David, I will provide you with a paper copy when we meet). The class was surprised to learn that when I was their age, recycling anything but pop cans and bottles was unheard of to most families and nearly no one did it! Same went for schools, where discarded paper just went in the garbage can, not in the class blue box! It seems second nature for children nowadays to recycle, which is fantastic.

This springboarded into a discussion about 'Plastic Island', the mass of plastic waste the size of Texas that is currently floating in the Pacific Ocean. The students were aghast to hear this. One of the students brought up the fact that the "homes of plant and animal life can get destroyed from recyclable pollution". The class agreed that this was very unfair, as the plants and animals didn't have anything to do with the garbage polluting their territory. This is one of the lessons I wanted them to take away from our discussion and I was pleased to see it came from one of the students, rather than from me!

Next, we discussed composting. I showed them my under-the-sink composter from home and asked if anyone knew what it was. There were mostly confused faces that looked back at me, but one girl raised her hand and said she thought it was what you can put "banana peels and apple cores and stuff like that in". She didn't know the name for it. I taught the class the name for it and explained to them that using one at home can shave 21% of their total household garbage. They were surprised to hear that. Using a pamphlet I picked up at one of the seminars during last year's Summer Institute, I showed them how composting worked and brought in as a sample some of the rich, black dirt that is produced from the act of composting. I told them how good it was for the garden, far better than anything you can buy from the store! A composter can be bought for a reasonable price at City Hall, I said to them. When I asked how many would tell their parents about how good of an idea it is to have one, the majority of the class raised their hand. I was pleased at this.

After our discussion, we headed to the computer lab to play an online game I found when researching for the unit, "Michael, Michael, Go Recycle". (This can be found at: http://resources.kaboose.com/games/michael-recycle.html) I wanted the game to be relevant to our discussion, as well as fun and engaging for the students. I had them work in pairs when doing this, as I felt they could talk about what items from the game needed to be recycled - discussions, especially with peers, help learners learn at a deeper level! To be honest, I wasn't sure how working in pairs would go - sometimes, it's a disaster to do this, as the students take it as socializing with their friends time, rather than learning time. I took a chance at doing it this way, but was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked out ... the entire class was engaging with their partner, enjoying the game and learning about recycling to boot! In teaching this unit again in the future, I will definitely keep with the pairs idea in the computer lab.

The final thing the class and I did that day was go over their homework assignment. I had them keep track of all the recycling their family did for three days. Then, they had to answer some questions about the experience. (Again, I will provide you with a hard copy of this, David)

My time in the class was a lot of fun! I left looking forward to "Day Two" with them.