18: 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.

After segregating our collected trash last week, we discovered that the most trash that we produce in Kindergarten 2 is paper.

I asked the children,

"Where do you think does paper come from?"

A lot of them already know, especially after our unit on materials and our past discussions on the gifts that trees give.

I asked the children,

"If we use a lot of paper, what do you think will our world be like?"

It will be dirty.

People will cut more trees to make paper.

There will be no more trees.

I then introduced the children to a children's book character that is near and dear to my heart:

The Lorax.

In the story, the Lorax is a magical creature who protects trees. He was summoned to help when one of the main characters, the Once-ler, cut down all the truffula trees, which left all the animals who lived in the forest homeless. In a way, the Lorax is a superhero, too, just like the children are.

We decided that in order to help save the trees (and the planet, too) we will give our old paper new life by reusing and recycling them.

I then let the children watch this short video about the process of making paper.

Afterwards, we got all the scrap paper we collected.

Then, we tore them into little pieces.

We then soaked them in water and waited for a few days to make paper pulp. We remembered in our experiment unit that some processes take longer than others, and that patience is important to wait for amazing results.

While waiting for our scrap paper to turn into paper pulp, we got another set of the recyclable materials we collected and thought of ways to turn them into treasure.

I asked the children,

"What can we do with a toilet paper roll?"

The children came up with creative ideas!

We let the children's imagination come to life through a challenge:

To create an artwork of something that makes the world beautiful using just two toilet paper rolls.

"Just two toilet paper rolls, Ms. Pam?"

Yes, just two. It was a good exercise to help the children solve problems while teaching them to reduce the use of materials in the classroom.

Have a look at what they all made.

Amaru

I made a shark. Sharks makes the world beautiful because they are a fish.

I like fish. I like big fish. Sharks are big.

Veronica

I made a flower. Flowers make the world beautiful because they have beautiful colors.

I like flowers because they are colorful. They also smell good.

Emma

I made a butterfly. Butterflies make the world beautiful because the colors are so cute.

I love the wings of butterflies. I cannot fly but butterflies can. They are special.

Kai

I made a bug. Bugs make the world beautiful because they are colorful.

I like bugs because they are fun learn about. I like all bugs but I love the kabutomushi the most.

Luna

I made a rabbit. Rabbits make the world beautiful because they are cute.

They are fluffy, they hop and they eat carrots. Rabbits are my favorite animals.

Yichen

I made a fish. Fish make the world beautiful because they are are colorful. They can swim. I like swimming. My favorite fish are the colorful fish.

Tamaki

I made a tree. Trees make the world beautiful because they give us fruit.

I like apple fruits from trees. They are so yummy.

Frankie

I made a butterfly. Butterflies make the world beautiful because they are beautiful.

They have lots of different designs on each butterfly. They also have nice patterns and colors.

Suzu

I made a tree. Trees make the world beautiful because they give us paper.

Trees are also big. They have leaves and fruits.

Louis

I made a tree. Trees make the world beautiful because they are big.

I like trees. They make me happy.

Lucky

I made a cat. Cats make the world beautiful because they are nice.

I like cats.

When you put them all together, I have to say that they do make the world more beautiful, indeed.

We ended the week by revisiting our recycled paper experiment. It was amazing to see how the little pieces of paper turned into mush. Even though there were still big pieces of paper left that have not disintegrated yet, we decided to try and see if we can make a sample recycled paper with the paper pulp that we have.