This Canada-based resource is a collection of activities about reusing, centered around an activity where students create reusable bags using old clothing.
Students learn about the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, the importance of reducing and reusing over recycling, and the impact of plastic bags on people, animals, and the environment.
Teachers can select from various activities to accompany the reusable bag project, such as an experiment, a school reuse/waste audit, journaling prompts, a thinking map, an art project, and a community education campaign.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students are taking action to be more sustainable and help protect the environment.
Students will think critically, collaborate with peers, and showcase their creativity.
The hands-on and interactive activities are engaging for elementary and middle school students.
Additional Prerequisites
The activities are organized into five categories: SDG Connections, Preparatory Activities, Bag-Making Day, Follow-Up Activities, and Other Opportunities for Promoting Reuse. There are also two appendices: Background Information and Assessment Opportunities.
This resource is also available in French.
The lesson requires multiple class periods and can vary in length depending on the activities selected.
Students will need old clothing and fabric glue for the main activity. Teachers should encourage students to bring old clothing from home but provide some for students if they cannot.
A version of this toolkit for secondary students is available on the LSF website.
Differentiation
The resource is created for use in Canada. If teachers in other countries want to use this toolkit, they will need to do background research on plastic bag use in their country and modify the reuse trivia to be specific to their country.
The scope and length of this lesson are customizable, with teachers able to select which preparation and follow-up activities to use.
The resource provides a list of multiple assessment options to use throughout the toolkit.
Numerous extension and cross-curricular activities are available in the toolkit, which can connect this lesson to math, English language arts, social studies, and art.
The resource provides discussion and reflection questions, which teachers can use as a whole class, with a partner, or individually.
During the Make-A-Bag activity, teachers can reinforce the idea of limiting waste by encouraging students to come up with uses for the unused scrap fabric or create an alternative design that utilizes more of the old clothes.
Scientist Notes
This resource from Learning for a Sustainable Future teaches students about reuse, culminating in making a reusable grocery bag from old fabric. The resource highlights the UN Sustainable Development Goals and emphasizes that the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) are presented in the order they should be practiced. This resource features clear text, easily readable tables to outline each activity, and a wealth of linked sources that provide more information. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.7.6-8 Assess their individual and collective capacities to take action to address local, regional, and global problems, taking into account a range of possible levers of power, strategies, and potential outcomes.
D4.7.3-5 Explain different strategies and approaches students and others could take in working alone and together to address local, regional, and global problems, and predict possible results of their actions.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Writing (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
