How Can We Take Care of Our Commons?

Provided by: The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education |Published on: April 29, 2026

Lesson Plans

K12

Scientist Reviewed ↗

Synopsis

In this lesson, students will read a story to understand what a commons, or common area, is and why they should help take care of it.
Students will identify examples of common and private property and create a list of goals and rules for their classroom commons.

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Subjects: Social Studies, English Language Arts

Authors: The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, TerraCycle

Region: Global

Languages: English

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Teaching Materials

Positives

Students will appreciate having their input valued in creating rules for their classroom commons.
The story does a great job of introducing the concepts of private property and common spaces in a way that young students can understand.

Prerequisites

The story describes the characters picking up objects in the park and then washing their hands. To ensure students' safety, teachers may want to urge them to wear gloves and never pick up anything that looks sharp.
This story builds on students' understanding that nature takes care of natural materials, which is introduced in this lesson.

Differentiation & Implementation

This lesson may be useful at the beginning of the year to introduce the concept of taking care of their commons as a norm for how students will behave in school.
Teachers can easily make connections to citizenship and being a good citizen by explaining that good citizens take care of their community.
To make connections to ecology and the environment, teachers can pause while reading the story to point out that leaving things like cans and plastic out in nature can harm the environment. Teachers can also use this video, which uses straws as an example of single-use plastic pollution.
As an extension, students can explore their school playground as a commons and interview other students and teachers about potential goals and rules for taking care of this commons.

Scientist Notes

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Resource Type and Format

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How Can We Take Care of Our Commons?

Synopsis

Teaching Materials

Scientist Reviewed

Related Teaching Resources