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Lesson Prep & Curriculum Alignment

Prep time: 10 - 15 minutes

Students will learn the basics of recycling, why it is important, and how to do it. They listen and comment on a story about a family learning to
recycle at home, and practice critical thinking skills. They will write or draw a picture about why they think recycling can help the world. They will
receive a handout to indicate what can and cannot be recycled.

1 Display or print out the YES/NO slide to create a class discussion - story begins on slide #8.

2 Print out the “YES/NO”, Mark an “X”, and the Coloring Page handout. Pass out the YES/NO handout before the story to discuss
recyclables and distribute the “Mark an X” handout at the end of the story. Distribute the coloring page after the “Mark an X” handout
or send home as homework.
3 Bring in optional supportive prop materials: PET plastic bottle, glass bottle, cardboard box, metal can, and items that cannot be
recycled like juice boxes or dirty napkins from lunch.

Key Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Alignment: SDG Alignment

• Science - Earth and Human Activity: Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the
land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
• Social Studies - People, Places, and Environments: Students study people, places, and environments and
enables them to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world.
• English Language Arts and Literacy: Able to ask and answer questions about details in a literature text. Add
drawings or other visual displays to descriptions to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
 The Lesson
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Lesson duration: 45 - 60 minutes

1 Introduce the lesson to your students with a question.

• Who knows what “recycling” means?
4 Distribute the Mark an “X” handout
• Has anyone seen this symbol before, and what does it mean? • Ask students to look at the pictures and draw an X across
the things that should not be recycled. Which of these
2 Pass out or display the YES/NO handout items needed to be rinsed and dried before recycling?
• Discuss what we can and cannot recycle based on the items in the
handout. There is a pdf printable version and is also included in the
The following items should be crossed out on the worksheet:
slideshow to display. • Juice box
• What do you do with garbage at home?
• Shoes
• Banana peel
• Where does it go?
• Toys • Plastic bag
• If you put everybody’s garbage into a big pile, how much would there • Pencil • Pizza box
be? Would it be too much? • Light bulb

3 Read aloud “Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle”

• Encourage students to comment on the story.
• What mistakes did Rachel make? Why is recycling important? 5 Distribute the coloring page and ask students to draw or write
on the back of the worksheet how recycling can help the
You might suggest these as reasons that recycling is important: world.
• Garbage can be harmful to our air and water and can hurt • Possible responses could be:
animals and fish. o Save animals from being hurt.
• When we use less paper, we save trees and animals in the forest. o Less garbage in the ocean.
• When we recycle, we make less garbage. o Recycling keeps our air and water clean.
 Prepare the PowerPoint presentation
When you are ready to present the lessons to your class click on Slide Show on the top menu bar then select Presenter
View. In Presenter view, you can see your notes as you present while the audience see only your slides.

The notes appear in a pane on the right. The text should wrap
automatically, and a vertical scroll bar appears if necessary.
You can also change the size of the text in the Notes pane by
using the two buttons at the lower left corner of the Notes
pane.

Flexible and adaptive lesson

Lesson plans are designed to be flexible and responsive to the

evolving needs of your classroom. Lessons are editable and
customizable to meet the different individual student and classroom
contexts. A PowerPoint version with teacher instructions and a
printable PDF lesson are available for download.
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Have you seen this symbol before?

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Glass jar PET Plastic bottle Shoes Metal can Light bulb Juice box Dirty napkin

Plastic bag Toys

Pencil Banana peel
Cardboard box Garden hose

YES NO
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YES NO
Always recycle: Never recycle:

Banana peel Dirty napkin Garden hose

Glass jar PET Plastic bottle

Light bulb Juice box Shoes

Cardboard box Metal can Toys Plastic bag Pencil

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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

Once there were two little

rabbits, a brother and a sister
named Ray and Rachel Rabbit.
Ray Rabbit was very good about
cleaning up his toys after playing.
But Rachel Rabbit was very
messy and left her toys all over
the house.
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

Each morning before school,

Ray and Rachel’s mom asks
Ray to clean the kitchen. She
also tells Rachel to take out
the trash and the recycling.
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

Ray washed the dishes and

cleaned the kitchen floor. But
Rachel took the trash and
recycling and put it into one trash
can. She did not think about
things you cannot recycle.
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

One day, mom asked, “What is

that stinky smell?” She went
outside to find the awful smell.
“Oh no,” said Mom. “The smell is
coming from the trash!” They all
went outside - and you know what
they saw? There was a GIANT
pile of stinky garbage!
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

There was old food, PET plastic

bottles, a pizza box with broken
toys and a big glass jar. What
else do you think was in the pile?
“Oh, no,” said Mom. “What are we
going to do with this mess?
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

Rachel felt sad that she made a big mess.

“I am sorry, Mommy,” she said. “No
problem Rachel, we can clean it up by
recycling.” said Ray. “I learned in school
recycling is important. It helps the Earth
and all the people and animals stay
healthy.” Ray showed Rachel and Mom how
to do it.
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

“All we recycle needs to be cleaned and dried,” Ray said. “because if we do not, it cannot
be recycled.” Ray washed the bottles and set them aside to dry. Rachel piled up all the
clean cardboard, notebooks, and cereal boxes. Mom put stuff you cannot recycle into the
garbage can.
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

When they finished sorting the recycling everybody felt happy. All the garbage went into the garbage
can. All the empty, clean and dry recycling items went into the recycling bin. “Ray,” said Rachel, “I
want to learn all about recycling.” “Great, it is as simple as one, two, three,” said Ray.
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

Knowing what you can recycle and what

#1 you cannot recycle.
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Step 2 Empty, clean, and dry before putting in the bin.

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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

Put each recyclable item into the

#3 correct recycling bin.
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

When we clean, dry, and recycle we can

make new things.
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Rachel Rabbit Learns to Recycle

From that day on, Rachel became a

Recycling

She even started to clean up her toys!

 Next Steps
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Distribute the Mark an “X” handout

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• Ask students to look at the pictures and draw an X across
the things that cannot be recycled. Which of these items
need to be rinsed and dried before recycling?

The following items should be crossed out on the worksheet:

• Juice box • Shoes
• Banana peel • Plastic bag
• Toys
• Pizza box
• Pencil
• Light bulb

Distribute the coloring page and ask students to draw or write

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on the back of the worksheet how recycling can help the
world.
• Possible responses could be:
o Save animals from being hurt.
o Less garbage in the ocean.
o Recycling keeps our air and water clean.