How to introduce materials, ideas, and lesson plans into elementary and art classrooms to encourage sustainability in students lives!

1. Creating an
Eco-Friendly
Classroom

3. Deep Ecology Movement
George Sessions and Arne Naess (1984)
Basic principles:
• Human interference with or destruction of the natural world poses a threat not only to humans
but to all organisms constituting the natural order
• Advocates for wilderness preservation, simple living, and green movements
• The world does not exist as a free resource to be freely exploited by humans
• Materials do not guarantee happiness beyond a very moderate level, and over-consumption is
endangering the biosphere
• Humans interference with the world is excessive and damaging and we must implement the
necessary changes

5. What is a Sustainable Classroom
• Materials that are eco-friendly
• Introducing sustainability to students
• Make it personal
• Reducing, reusing, and recycling
• Having students bring these ideas and practices
home
• Impossible to create a fully paperless classroom,
but there are things you can do

6. Recycling in the Classroom
• Community-based approach to
environmental issues
• While school-wide is ideal, not
completely practical
• Create a classroom policy
• Set up recycling bins, sort it, track it
• Compete with another classroom to
see who
can reduce their waste output the most
-
kids love competition

7. Recycle Ranger and Green Teams!
• Student jobs make cleaning up the classroom easier. Put students
in “green teams” and use the last 5 minutes of class to power down
computers, close the blinds, check faucets, and sort recycling.
• Recycle Rangers would serve the same purpose, only making it
one student’s special job

8. Upcycled Art and Classroom Organization
Using recycled materials to organize supplies
Veggie/Coffee cans for pencil/marker/pen/brush holders
Milk Crates and old plastic drawers for shelves
Old cupcake/muffin trays for smaller supplies organization
Milk jugs cut open could also be used for pencil/marker/brush/pen holders

9. Upcycled Art and Classroom Organization
Bringing in things from home to create bulletin boards
Newspaper for background
Using scrap colored paper for letters/pictures
Hanging planters
Plants help freshen the air
Can use plastic bottles to create hanging planters

11. Green Tracking
• Get students involved with projects that
help them to see how sustainable they are
in their everyday lives.
• Have a classroom graph of how many
recycled bottles, cans, or boxes the class
accumulates – have students be in charge of
graphing at the end of everyday
• Try to reduce waste and consumption over
the year!

12. Eco-Friendly Supplies

13. Lessons for Sustainability in the
Elementary Classroom
Science
 Water pollution
 Compost bottles
English / Language Arts
 The Lorax
 Writing contest with National Wildlife Foundation
Math
 Calculate carbon foot print for fictional character
 Green graph of recycled materials

14. Standards (You can teach sustainability and hit your standards!)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.1
Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as
the basis for the answers.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or
lesson.
3-LS4-4
Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and
types of plants and animals that live there may change
3.MD.B.3
Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories.
Solve one- and two-step “how many more” and “how many less” problems using information
presented in scaled bar graphs.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text

15. Lessons for Sustainability in the K-12 Art
Class
• Making recycled paper
• Use paper scraps and glue to make your own recycled paper for the classroom.
• Recycled egg carton flowers
• Use egg cartons to create beautiful recycled flowers for the classroom. Eco-friendly and aesthetically pleasing!
• Bottle Cap Mural
• As a school, students can recycle bottle caps throughout the year
• Art teacher, alongside with students, can then design a mural, and work on creating a mural with the bottle
caps with each class

16. Lessons for Sustainability in the K-12 Art
Class
• Using Cardboard
• Corrugated Cardboard collages
• Paper towel/ toilet paper tube art
• Cans and Milk Jug
• Wind chimes
• Crushed Can art- faces, animals, etc
• Milk Jug masks

18. Art Standards
VA:Cr1.2.3a: Apply knowledge of available resources, tools, and technologies
to investigate personal ideas through the art-making process.
VA:Cr2.3.2a: Repurpose objects to make something new.
VA:Re.7.1.2a: Perceive and describe aesthetic characteristics of one’s natural
world and constructed environments.
VA:Cn10.1.2a: Create works of art about events in home, school, or community
life.

19. Sustainability: So what?
• Long-lasting, eco-conscious decision-making skills: A child is more likely to develop
healthier habits and make eco-friendlier choices as an adult when exposed to the
benefits and meaning behind leading a greener lifestyle at an early age.
• Money saved: an eco-friendly classroom helps reduce overall expenditure.
• Students see themselves as part of the environment
• Increases community support

21. How to get involved?
http://www.greeneducationfoundation.org/index.php
Teachers can get certified in sustainability
Educate yourself so you can educate your students
Green Classroom Pledge

23. Questions
1. How could you see these classroom practices
leading to the consciousness of a sustainable
world?
2. How could these small steps contribute to the
bigger picture of sustainability?