Environmentalism & Garbage - A Work of Art!

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At my Grade 1 practicum, I taught several lessons that were a part of a drama, art and language unit for the book Don't Need Friends by Carolyn Crimi. This book took place in a junk yard, so at the beginning of the unit I asked students to start collecting their garbage wrappers. As the culminating task was to perform a puppet show, three art lessons took place over the course of my practicum. Students made paper bag puppets, while exploring different textures. Next they drew their reactions to garbage and art made out of garbage. Those reactions were then pasted onto a three sided piece of cardboard, which they then got to make into their personal garbage dumps. The garbage dumps were used as their stages (or what they hid behind) for their puppet show.

The lesson I am going to discuss, is the one that surprised me the most. During the art lesson where students drew their reaction to garbage dumps and garbage art, students surprised me with their knowledge about the environment, reusing, recycling and what people should do to save the environment. Initially I had not made the cross-curricular connection to science, however students brought it to the forefront. The lesson plan replete with reflections, is below. Sadly, I could not locate a version of this in word.










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