What a waste!

Additional Resources

• A tub of cubes or counters
• Weighing scales - one that can weigh several kg (e.g. bathroom scales) and 3 others that can weigh smaller items, e.g. 0-2kg
• A magnet
• Calculators
• A display of thrown away items on a table, work top or floor area
• A strong black sack containing a different selection of thrown away items

Teaching

• Understand that the things humans throw away can have a very damaging effect on habitats.
• Classify and record waste items according to materials and their capacity to be reduced, reused and recycled.

Activities

1. Discover that habitats can change disastrously because of the things humans throw away (Yrs 3&4).
2. Play a team game that teaches some shocking facts about waste (Yrs 3&4).
3. Analyse the items thrown away by a family in a week: Measure the frequency of each material thrown away and create a frequency table and bar graph (from a template) (Yr3) or consider which items can be reduced, reused or recycled (Yr4).

Investigation - classifying and identifying, analysing secondary sources
Remind children that they will soon be setting up their own H.H. Fair to show people the problems of changing habitats – climate change is not the only threat to habitats. Learn a little about deforestation, urbanisation, intensive farming and waste management. Divide into 5 groups to investigate each problem.
Year 3 - Create a large eye shared catching poster on your issue.
Year 4 - Work together to write a series of facts on your issue to display around the poster.

Vocabulary
Waste, landfill, incinerator, reduce, reuse, recycle, plastic, habitat, environment, break down, material