24: From Trash to Treasure

"To leave the world better than you found it, sometimes you have to pick up other people's trash."

-Bill Nye

Many people say that one man's trash is another man's treasure. The shirt, toy, or old furniture that we deem dispensable to us may be invaluable to others. I must admit, it's easier to throw away things and to replace them with something new, but the shift in perspective on how we view trash is crucial to saving our planet.

According to this article from the Washington Post: 

"The world generates at least 3.5 million tons of solid waste a day, 10 times the amount a century ago, according to World Bank researchers. If nothing is done, that figure will grow to 11 million tons by the end of the century, the researchers estimate."

  

That's a lot of trash.

As the kindergarteners shift their focus for this unit and move toward using what they've learned to take action, we've shifted our mindset as a class in our use of materials.

Using the posters and recycling bins that we created together last week, we have begun to segregate the trash in our classroom, and reuse and upcycle them for our class projects.

The most trash that we collected? Paper, just as we thought.

We also had a lot of plastic bottles, which I have slowly collected for this unit.

To inspire the children to turn our garbage into something useful, I read a book about an amazing project in Gambia that was inspired by one plastic bag. The words are more appropriate for older children, but I simplified it for the kindergarteners to understand:

If the story inspired you, have a look at their website to find out more about their project.

We also had a quick visit from our old friend, The Lorax, to remind us that we are capable of to saving the world one action at a time.

And with this, we turned our trash into treasure.

We made sensory bottles, which was such a hit with all of the children.

We made a working albeit slow version of the Shinkansen.

(The children carry it around and collect passengers along the way)

We made a doll house.

We made a marble run.

We made a cat so that we can have a class pet.

We made a community.

Some even brought recycled toys that they made from home!

(Thank you for sharing this with us, Ren. It was so much fun. 😀)

We even have a new school project in place, which is due to arrive in a couple of weeks:

a worm composting bin!

The classroom was in fun chaos with all the little projects that took place this week, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We're doing our part to save the world, after all. 

How about you, what trash can you turn into treasure?

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Your Kindergarten teacher, 

Pam