Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
How it works: The cards are dealt to the players, held facedown.
The first player turns over their first card, choosing a category to say out loud with its number value.
The accompanying players state their number values to the same category.
The player with the highest number value wins that round, collecting each played card from that round.
The winning player begins the next round, choosing the next category from the next card on their pile stating the number value.
The game is repeated until they come to the last card on their pile.
The player with the most cards wins the game.
*If two or more cards have the same number value, all cards from that round are placed in the middle, while another round is played. The winner of that round collects the cards from that round and the remaining from the middle.
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What & Why?
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1. ‘Let’s Learn about Rubbish!’ Activity Books 2. ‘Life-cycles of our Rubbish’ puzzles 3. ‘Top-It’ Top Trumps
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Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
How it works:
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1 What can it be made into
Item of rubbish
Material type
Bin type
Usefulness
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Each puzzle demonstrates the basic life-cycle of each type of material; glass, plastic, aluminium, cardboard, electrical objects and organic food stuffs. On completion of the puzzles, the child will gain an awareness of each materials qualities, making a connection between qualities/characteristics, bin type and the usefulness of rubbish beyond the bin stage. The puzzles encourage children to identify rubbish with circular motions, reinforcing that rubbish doesn’t just ‘go away’, but instead can be reused, repaired and recycled. 16
How?
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Introductory Workshop
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‘Let’s Learn About Rubbish!’ Activity Book
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‘Life-Cycles of Our Rubbish’ Desktop Puzzles
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‘Top- It’ Top Trump Cards
Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
Spreads taken from a completed activity book. 14
Closer Look
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Introductory Workshop
The Initial Introductory Warm-Up Workshop facilitated by the teacher encourages discussion and debate through sorting, matching and classifying the objects into the correct bins. Questions of material quality, origin and the future of objects are plausible, opening up the topic wider. This task embraces collaboration and teamwork, with an organic and natural progression and overarching discussion and debate.
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‘Let’s Learn About Rubbish!’ Activity Book
The ‘Lets Learn About Rubbish!’ activity book follows on from the initial Introductory Workshop, allowing them to connect what they have been doing in the workshop with a reason. The book introduces the essence of what a landfill is, followed by creative bite size tasks that are designed to enable the child to think laterally about solving waste problems. The activity book is designed to be both an individual task but could also be probed further through class group discussion.
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Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
How it works: Set out each bin side by side.
Label each bin with a tag to ensure clarity of its purpose.
One by one ask each student to place their item in the bin that they feel is appropriate, ask them why they have chosen this destination.
If the student displays difficulty in choosing a bin, tell them they can: 1. ‘Class Vote’: a hands up vote for each bin, 2. ‘50/50’, the limitation of two bins to choose from, 3. ‘Ask a Friend’: choosing a friend to help them make a decision.
To encourage the task, spur on discussion amongst the students by asking: what material is it made from? Can it be reused? Can it be repaired? Etc.
The aim is to collect a reason from each student as to why they have opted for a type of bin, whether its for material quality, reusability or even recyclablity.
When each student has binned his or her item, clarify what happens to each category – what it is remade into/ sent to the charity shop/ sent to the repair factory/ composted to neutralise new plant life, etc.
*The workshop will have introduced your students to the basic terminology and the categorisation of different rubbish, determined by its materiality. The ‘Let’s Learn about Rubbish!’ Activity Book will follow on from this introductory workshop. 12
Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
Activity Worksheets Introductory Workshop ‘Let’s Learn about Rubbish!’ Activity Book ‘Life-Cycles of our Rubbish’ Puzzles ‘Top-It’ Top Trumps
Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
‘Let’s Learn about Rubbish!’ Reference Worksheets for Teachers KS1
Top Trumps
‘Top-It’ Top Trumps The Top Trump cards are to reiterate the information that has been displayed throughout all activities, within a competitive game-based medium. This activity encourages the handling of problem solving through number concepts. The aim of the game is to build up a sense of what types of rubbish are ‘friendlier’ than others through four categories: decomposition (rotting) time, recyclability, usefulness and friendliness towards the environment. The cards have been designed to promote ‘friendlier’ types of waste through favouring them with a higher number value.
You will need: 2-3 Players All 18 playing cards included in the pack.
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Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
Contents What & Why?.........................................................03 How?.....................................................................05 Closer Look...........................................................07 Activity Worksheets: Introductory Workshop...........................................11 ‘Let’s Learn about Rubbish’ Activity Book.............13 ‘Life-Cycles of our Rubbish’ Puzzles.....................15 ‘Top-It’ Top Trumps................................................17
Puzzles
‘Life-Cycles of our Rubbish’ Puzzles (x6) This task allows the child to develop hand and eye coordination and is rewarded on completion with a visualisation of the cycle of the main material categories of rubbish; plastic, aluminium, glass, organic, cardboard/paper and electrical. Each puzzle demonstrates each waste components ‘life-cycle’, encouraging the act of recycling as well as establishing a mental recollection of circular systems and how these represent their reusability.
You will need: There is no specific equipment needed; however a flat, spacious and low-level area for the puzzles to be reachable would encourage interaction. The interaction of the puzzles could be sustained through designating a permanent unit of space for them within the classroom for day-to-day completion. The desktop puzzles are designed to be self-serving with little teacher supervision needed. The puzzle pieces are unique with there own unique slot guaranteeing successful completion. Teachers could reiterate through discussion what the student has completed visually, reinforcing the materials cycle and its journey from start to finish. 15
Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
‘Lets Learn About Rubbish!’ is a teaching resource aiding the introduction of waste management, targeted at Key Stage 1 learners, through fun and engaging activities. In a society that is becoming ever more familiar with the difficulties felt by waste, it is important to establish areas that can resolve these issues early on. Nurturing the young, making them aware of these issues, and equipping them in order to help comprehend the basics to a complex, global problem is at the heart of this solution; everyone has a role to play, children being an important cog in the mechanism of tomorrow’s world. The activities in this teaching resource are flexible to suit every teachers schooling timetable. Each activity could form a one-day workshop or perhaps unravel over a week. The teaching resource as a whole has been designed to construct a basic understanding of circular systems of material recovery, encouraging reusing, repairing and recycling.
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Activity Book
‘Let’s Learn about Rubbish!’ Activity Book This activity book will highlight the importance of reusing, repairing and recycling through 7 creative tasks. The book enlightens students of bad waste management through introducing what a landfill is. The book encourages interaction through individual tasks that urge students to think laterally through creative problem solving. The booklet also allows the tasks to be brought out of the book and into the classroom through the design of their own unique character.
You will need: Colouring pencils, Drawing pencil, Scissors, Glue, Camera (and printing facilities) Imagination. *The nature of this task is determined individually, so working in groups to discuss their creations would help open the task up, materials could be shared and students could help each other take a photo of their characters in task 7.
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Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
Each activity encourages interaction through manipulative learning; matching, sorting and classifying, direction following, sequencing, problem solving, critical thinking, number concepts as well as building self confidence through completion of tasks. The pack is coherent in its design, making it familiar and easier for students to recollect between each activity. The order of the activities would ideally work from 1 to 4, but this can be adapted to suit your daily teaching routine and environment. Two of the activities have the potential to sustain child engagement within the classroom; the desktop puzzles could be placed onto a permanent desktop unit for a fun alternative, day-to-day activity. The Top Trump cards are good to have at hand as a flexible tool to refer to (just like flashcards) during a quick, snappy question and answer group activity.
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Introductory Workshop
This workshop will give your students an introduction to waste and its management. It will help you gauge what your students already know from both home and school routines, and more importantly it will highlight what they are not aware of. The task should have an organic and natural progression with an overarching discussion and debate. This workshop can be followed with the ‘Lets Learn About Rubbish!’ Activity Book - perhaps working in small groups to discuss their creations.
You will need: A range of rubbish objects, from plastics, cans, glass, food, textiles and even electrical items. Ask each student to bring in one item of rubbish. *It may be better if you were to bring in the more hazardous rubbish such as glass and perhaps a hair dryer/toaster/kettle to represent electrical rubbish. Categories such as cans and food could be unopened to ensure a safer environment, through the items will only be used to convey their material characteristics. A bin for ‘recyclable’ items, a bin for ‘compostable’ items, a bin for ‘reusable’ items and a bin for ‘repairable’ items. *The bins or containers need to be big enough to fit rubbish from every student in your class – it needn’t be a ‘real’ bin, just a sizable container. A sheet of bin tags are provided to label each of your bins.
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Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
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‘Life-Cycles of Our Rubbish’ Desktop Puzzles
The ‘Life-Cycles of our Rubbish’ desktop puzzles are designed to be self-serving with little teacher supervision needed. The puzzle pieces are unique with there own unique slot. This task allows the child to develop hand and eye coordination and is rewarded on completion with a visualisation of the cycle of the main material categories of rubbish; plastic, aluminium, glass, organic, paper and electrical. Each puzzle demonstrates each waste components ‘life-cycle’, encouraging the act of recycling as well as establishing a mental recollection of circular systems and how these represent their reusability.
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‘Top-It’ Top Trump Cards
The Top Trump cards are to reiterate the information that has been displayed throughout all activities, within a competitive game-based medium. This activity encourages the handling of problem solving through number concepts. The aim of the game is to build up a sense of what types of rubbish are ‘friendlier’ than others through four categories: decomposition time, recyclability, usefulness and friendliness towards the environment. The cards have been designed to promote ‘friendlier’ types of waste through favouring them by a higher number value. 08
Let’s Learn about Rubbish!
Bin Tags
Introductory Workshop, page 11. Cut the tags out and fasten onto the front of each of your bins/containers for easy identification.
Reusable
Recyclable
Repairable
Compostable