DECOMP PROJECT: WHERE WILL WE PUT ALL THIS STUFF? Phase 1

Recycling bins, Save the Bay signs, and that all-too-familiar green circle of arrows—all a part of our daily lives. Children raised in this era of environmental responsibility have an advantage over past generations. Most children know the routine—remove the caps, rinse the bottle, and place it into the blue tub. Toy swap parties provide not only an afternoon of play with neighborhood friends, but they are also a way to share and replace toys that children have outgrown.

With this positive trend in mind, I present today’s year-long environmental impact project. For several years this project was part of my routine in both elementary and middle school classroom levels. The complexity of the project can be easily modified to suit the educational needs of your students.

WHERE WILL WE PUT ALL THIS STUFF? Phase 1

 

Objectives:

Students will make predictions based on their prior knowledge about which items placed in a plastic tub will decompose.

Students will list and describe the conditions necessary for an object to decompose.
Students will gather and interpret data related to weather.
Students will read a grid map to locate and identify objects.
Students will identify and describe various types of soil based on appearance and physical properties.

This activity is designed as a cross-curriculum activity to address the environmental impact caused by the things we use for normal daily living. Students will conduct a year-long decomposition project, culminating with an excavation activity and seasonal planting, just in time for Earth Day in April. Additional, but optional, areas of study include weather patterns, regional climates, sorting materials, daily record keeping, identifying various forms of precipitation, grid and map reading skills, and implementing the scientific process.

MATERIALS:

Plastic tub with lid

Wire snips

Ruler

Awl

String or thin ribbon

Dry soil from the area

Enough gallon size zipper bags to allow one for each student

Various items to place into the tub of dirt of different materials (paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, cloth, glass, etc.)

Rain gauge or plastic container (if project is conducted inside)

Plastic drop cloth for classroom (if project is conducted inside)

Camera

**Additional material requirements will be added as the project phases are added to this blog. Please check back for updates.

INSTRUCTIONS:

For demonstration purposes, the items placed in the decomp tub are geared towards a target audience of first to third grade students.

Preparation:

1. Prior to the activity, prepare the tub by cutting slots at regular intervals across the edges of the tub. These slots will be used to add the rope grid.

2. Using an awl or drill, add several small drain holes at the bottom of the tub. These will simulate natural drainage of many types of soil.

3. Involve the students in the preparation process:

a. Conduct a guided classroom discussion and collection of objects in your school that are made of various materials. Assign a homework project to bring in 2 small objects—one they predict will decompose and one object they predict will not.
b. Have each student bring in 2 cups of soil from their yard in a sealed plastic bag to place into the decomposition tub. Depending upon the size of tub used, you may need to supplement with soil from your yard. A follow-up activity based on this task will be added later in the year.

ACTIVITY:

1. If the project is conducted inside, place the plastic drop cloth on the floor.

2. Sort the items that were brought in by the students by material. If an object is composed of more than one type of material, choose the prominent material for the category.

3. Select the items to be placed into the tub. This step is a great springboard for a discussion on size as not all of the objects will fit into the tub. The goal is to select a sampling of material types. (Plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, glass, Styrofoam, coated paper, etc.) Set the selected items to the side while step 4 is completed.

*It helps to cut some of the larger items to a smaller size to allow room for more objects.

4. Fill the tub half way with the soil that was collected by the students. Mix the soil well with hands or a small shovel.

 

5. Arrange the items on the layer of soil, avoiding overlaps.

6. Add the string or ribbon grid to the tub. This will be used to help locate the items near the end of the project in the spring. Take a photo of the tub with the objects. This photo will also be used for a follow-up activity later next month.

 

7. Carefully add the remaining soil to cover the objects. There should be at least 2 to 3 inches of soil over the objects. If desired, add compass directions to the tub.

 

 

8. Place the rain gauge or plastic container outside and wait for the next rainfall. If your summer weather has been anything like ours, you won’t have to wait too long. J

9. Check this blog for the next segment of this year-long project.

Phase 2, AFTER THE RAIN FALLS, will be added in early September.

In the meantime, enjoy your end-of-summer holiday weekend.

PUT ON YOUR THINKING CAPS

In a time when budgets are trimmed, dollars are stretched, and educators are forever expected to do more with less, sometimes it helps to tap into free resources to add to your curriculum materials.

Today’s post is not actually an activity—the post is how to use a FREE resource to teach and reinforce many concepts in your classroom. With a little help from your students, you can quickly fill a tub with these handy dandy manipulatives and therefore have the materials necessary for countless center ideas.

 

This resource of simple lids saved from common household objects can be used to teach many concepts at the preschool and primary levels. These activities can be used in a guided lesson or as a center activity.

MATERIALS:

Assorted plastic caps in multiple colors and sizes

Printout shown (optional)

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Prior to using the tub of caps, assign your students the task of collecting clean plastic lids from home.

2. Create printouts of image provided to accompany the tub of caps.

3. Put on your own thinking cap and see how many ways you can use this FREE resource with your children. Here are just a few of the possibilities:

COLOR SORTING

COMPARING BY SIZE

ORDERING BY SIZE

IDENTIFYING ORDINALS

CREATING AND EXTENDING PATTERNS

CREATING NUMBER SENTENCES

PRACTICING FINE MOTOR SKILLS

SORTING BY SHAPE 

 

What concepts can you teach with this resource? 

 

This post was linked to: (Please check out her blog)

SeeSavannaCraft dot com

HOW CAN YOU MAKE A WHOLE HOLE?

It’s official.

It’s here.

The 2013 school year!

Whether you’re a mom of preschool-aged children, a homeschool parent, or a teacher in a public or private school, you knew the coming of the first day of school was inevitable. Over the next 10 months you will guide, inspire, encourage, and applaud the growth of the students in your care.

As you and your children embark on the educational adventure together, it is important to use the everything-you’ve-got approach to help assure the success of your children and their educational experience.

Today’s resource is not as much about the end product as it is the path taken to obtain the end product. Completing the activity will help each of us take a closer look at how we solve problems. An understanding of how we approach a task or challenge is, indeed, useful information that will help with educational planning.

So, put on your thinking cap (No, wait, that’s the next blog post scheduled a couple weeks from now!), relax, and take time to study the challenge, and complete today’s activity.

HOW CAN YOU MAKE A WHOLE HOLE?

How can you create a hole in an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper that is large enough to climb through?

Pushing your hand through it won’t work.

 

Forcing your foot through it won’t work.

 

If those methods don’t work, then reread the second paragraph of this post for a hint—use everything-you’ve-got!

USE ALL OF THIS!

Do you still need some help?

In a nutshell, or paper hole, this activity is a reminder of some of the many things necessary for a successful school year to take place.

1. Remember to use as many resources available as possible.

2. Remember to relax—our minds are better prepared to tap into our creativity when we are calm.
3. Achieving success takes time. Children master skills at different rates. Adjust for this.
4. Turning bigger goals into several smaller goals helps assure success.
5. Approach challenges from more than one direction.
6. When we teach children, we must remember that everyone needs help from time to time. If you can’t determine the best way to help a child master a skill, possibly a colleague, friend, or even a student can devise a teaching strategy that will work.

Remember that you have a whole year ahead of you. Next spring you will look back on this month and wonder why you were the least bit apprehensive about SY 2013-2014.

That being said, grab your scissors and use this photo tutorial as a way to grab your students’ attention this year. How many students can fit through a hole in an 8 1/2” by 11” piece of paper?





THINK: HOW DO I USE AS MUCH SURFACE AS POSSIBLE?

 





 

HOW TO CREATE A MINI-BOOKLET

It’s August! Summer activities are winding down. Preparations for the fall routine are winding up. If you’re like many parents, teachers, or homeschool co-op coordinators, you are probably being bombarded with educational ideas and resources. Basically, the very things meant to make education planning easier are having the opposite effect.

With the over-the-top school whirlwind in mind, this month will be light on posts, light on ideas, and light on materials. The only resource used—paper.

Paper is truly a wonderful resource:

It’s readily available.

It’s fairly inexpensive.

It’s incredibly versatile.

The idea for today is how to use a single sheet of paper to organize, retell, sequence, and review—all in one handy dandy pocket-sized mini-booklet.

HOW TO CREATE A MINI-BOOKLET

While this paper-based resource is not new, in our techno-gadget society, many of us have forgotten how utterly simple and amazingly useful paper is. Your children, students, and maybe even you will find this 8.5 x 11 creation a terrific alternative to tablets and computer screens.

MATERIALS:

A piece of blank paper (8.5 x 11 used for demonstration)

Scissors

INSTRUCTIONS:
Hint: The numbers were added to aid in the visual portion of the instructions.

1. Fold the paper in half, horizontally, scoring the fold with your fingernail. (2 sections created)

 

2. Fold the paper again, vertically, scoring the fold with your fingernail. (4 sections created)

3. Fold the paper again, vertically, scoring the fold with your fingernail. (8 sections created)

 

4. Open the paper to reveal the scored fold lines.

5. Refold the paper, horizontally, as in step 1. This will leave 4.25 x 11 strip of paper with 3 scored lines and 4 sections of paper, as shown. 

6. Using scissors cut the paper on the fold line between the first and third scored lines, as shown.

 

7. Carefully open the paper pulling the 2 middle score lines apart until the sections meet in the middle creation 4 individual sections, as shown.

 

8. Fold the paper into the finished booklet, as shown.

 

The finished product is mini-booklet with a cover and 6 interior pages.