Recycling Lesson at Brigham

This past week Lisa and I taught a lesson on recycling to the Kindergarten classroom at Brigham. We talked about four materials we can put in our recycling bin including plastic, glass, aluminum, and paper. We also talked about what recycling can do to our community with the help of the book Michael Recycle.

            The students seemed to react very well in the beginning of the lesson to the physical items we brought to discuss the four materials that can be recycled. We brought a piece of paper, a plastic water bottle, a glass jar, and an aluminum pop can. I would say that this was one of the strengths of the lesson. We felt that having physical objects there for the students to see would help them to better visualize things made of each of those materials. I would also say that the book we chose to use for this lesson was another strength. It went into a great detail of how the town looked prior to the citizens recycling, what they did to clean up their town including recycling, and what their town looked like after the citizens had cleaned up their town.

            There are a few different pieces of evidence to prove that these strengths helped the students learn better. As the lesson went on if the students were confused about a certain material we were discussing we could show them the physical objects. Once we showed them the physical objects they were able to pick out which one was the material being discussed. They could also reference the materials we brought in when discussing the topic of recycling and the reasons why we recycle those materials. The students later completed a sorting cut and glue activity with different objects based on the material they were made out of. If a student didn’t understand what the picture was trying to portray we could show them one of the objects it was like and they knew where to sort that object. The students also seemed to better understand the reasoning behind recycling after we read the book Michael Recycle. Before the story they couldn’t really tell us why we recycled. After reading the story they had something to reference and were able to tell us why we recycle.

            There is one area that I felt we could have improved on. I felt that we could have implemented the use of some Spanish words for the materials as well as recycle in our lesson. I feel that the use of the actual objects was a great help and it would have been even better to include the Spanish words with them. This would have been an even bigger support for those learners. That way they would have been able to see the visual as well as hear the word in both English and Spanish. That would have most likely reached more of the students in the group we were working with.

            The students seemed to be very interested in our recycling lesson. They were very excited that we brought in concrete object to use when discussing recycling. They also liked that could relate it to their home and classroom. We asked the students what kind of things they had in their room as well as at home. We also asked them about the things they recycled in their homes and in their classroom. We got to reference their recycling bin in the classroom as well. They also responded well to Michael Recycle. They liked the idea of a super hero helping a city to recycle and clean up their town.

            Overall I felt that both Lisa and I had good knowledge on the topic of recycling. We know what materials can be recycled and we know what recycling actually means. We began our lesson by seeing what the students knew about recycling and the things we can recycle. We discussed what they recycle at school as well as at home. We also discussed why we recycle things. We then read the story Michael Recycle and discussed how the city was in the beginning. What Michael and the people who lived in the town did and what their town looked like after. After we had discussed all of this we had the students try to do their own sorting of recyclable materials in a hands-on manner. Each of the teachers in the classroom walked around and helped students as they worked on sorting their pictures by the material they made of. After we had given enough time for most of the students to complete their sorting we asked them to clean up their areas and hand in their sorting. We wanted to keep their sorting activity to see if they had truly understood the material we were implementing.

            The students seemed to have a great knowledge of what recycling meant. They also knew what the materials of the recyclable items we brought in were. They seemed to be a little hesitant when we asked what it means to recycle beyond putting the object in the recycling bin. They listened very intently to our story Michael Recycle and were able to answer the questions we had about the story. Once we began the sorting activity many of the students seemed to be able to complete it by themselves. A few students had questions about what was being pictured. Some had never heard of certain objects. This is where the teachers used the objects once again. We were able to show them an object their picture was similar to. This really helped them to better understand what the object in the picture was without the teachers telling the students.

            While teaching this lesson, I moved closer to reaching my goals. One goal was to learn how to better communicate material to English Language Learners. By implementing my lesson I learned that the use of concrete objects is a great way to strengthen the students’ learning. They seemed to better understand what we were teaching them when they got to reference those objects. The use of our story also seemed to intrigue the students. They liked seeing the book’s character participate in recycling and discuss why we all need to recycle. Another goal I had set was to gain experience working with English Language Learners. Every time I am in a classroom at Brigham Elementary school, whether it be the kindergarten classroom or the preschool room, I gain experience working with a group of diverse students.

Exceeds in Blog Reflection: I went over the word limit. I also included the progress I made toward my goals for this clinical site.

Exceeds in Teaching: We left a copy of our lesson plan with the teacher as well as a copy of the cut and paste sheet the students completed.