04 Garbage, Recycling, and Earth Day
👩🏫 Teacher’s Guide
Objective
Students will explain how garbage and recycling affects their daily lives and describe specific ways they can care for Earth.
Vocabulary
garbage, landfill, recycling bin, reduce, Earth Day
Teaching Notes
- Start with a quick class chat: “What do you think ‘Our World’ means?” List student ideas.
- Connect to students’ lives with simple questions about home, school, weather, or nature in their neighborhood.
- Read or summarize a short passage about this topic, pausing to unpack tricky words in kid-friendly language.
- Model one think-aloud where you show how a choice (like reusing, saving water, or planting) helps our planet.
- Invite students to share examples from their own lives, then guide them to write and draw their ideas.
- Use the hands-on activity as a chance to practice observing, recording, and talking about changes and patterns.
🧒 Student Worksheet
Concept and Helping Material
Definition. Garbage and recycling choices change how clean our land, air, and water are, so small daily decisions can make a big difference for Earth.
Helping ideas and samples:
- Try a quick sort, draw-and-label, or compare-and-contrast about this topic.
- Name one place you see this idea in class, at home, or in your community.
- Think about how this idea connects to your choices every day.
- Safety note if needed: Follow your teacher’s directions and ask before using water, tools, or outdoor materials.
Vocabulary and Definition
- — waste that people throw away
- — a place where garbage is buried
- — a container for things that can be recycled
- — to make less trash in the first place
- — a special day to learn about and help our planet
Words to Learn
, , , ,
Sentences to Fill In
1. 04 Garbage and Recycling connects to and our everyday lives.
2. We can help garbage and recycling by .
3. A pattern we notice in this topic is between actions and the planet.
4. One new fact I learned about garbage and recycling is .
5. I can explain this topic to a friend by .
Think & Respond Q&A
1. What is the difference between garbage and recycling?
2. Why are landfills a problem for Earth?
3. What is one way you can reduce the amount of trash you make?
4. Why is sorting items into the right bins important?
5. What do people celebrate on Earth Day?
6. How could you teach your family more about recycling?
7. Why might scientists study old trash from long ago?
8. How does throwing food scraps in the trash instead of composting affect Earth?
9. What is one change your class could make for a cleaner school?
10. Why do small daily choices about trash still matter?
Hands-On Experiment or Activities
Lunch Trash Checkup
What You Need: a clean large sheet of paper, two labels (Trash, Recycle), sticky notes, and pencils.
What You Do: 1) After lunch, have students draw or list what could have gone into trash and what could be recycled. 2) Place sticky notes under the Trash or Recycle label. 3) Count how many items are in each group. 4) Brainstorm at least three ways to reduce trash at the next lunch.
Think and Talk:
- What changed?
- What stayed the same?
Reflection
- What did you learn about 04 garbage and recycling?
- What is one change you can make this week to help our planet?
- How did today’s activity make you feel about garbage and recycling?