This lesson plan teaches 2nd grade special education students about recycling through various activities over 12 class periods and a field trip. Students will learn the meaning of reduce, reuse, recycle and create an acrostic poem. They will read a poem about garbage and discuss how recycling impacts the environment and community. Students will then participate in a field trip to collect recycled items and compete in a recycling sorting game. Finally, students will create artwork depicting what they learned about recycling and present it to classmates and school administrators.

1. Saving Our Community<br />One day at a Time<br /> <br />Saving Our Community<br />Teaching Point- Students will learn about recycling and understand how it effects the environment and their communities. <br />Grade level/population- 2nd grade special education 12:1:1<br />Vocabulary- reduce, reuse, recycle, environment, clean, energy, pollute, community, responsibility, citizen<br />Time Allotted- 12 50 minute periods and 1 full day field trip<br />Material- Hand out of Shel Silverstein poem “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the garbage out”, internet, Microsoft paint software, garbage<br />Objectives-<br />Students will understand the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle)

2. Students will understand the importance of recycling for the environment and community.

3. Students will be able to understand the concept of recycling and understand what garbage goes into the different bins.Procedure-<br />Monday<br />As a class we will create an Acrostic poem using the word recycle so students can become familiar with the word. We will sit on the rug and I will write the word recycle on big paper on the easel. We will discuss what an acrostic poem is. This should just be a review because they learned what an acrostic poem is already this year. As a group we will create different sentences for each letter of the word. (50 minutes)

4. We will read Shel Silverstein’s poem “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the garbage out” as a class and then as groups. I will read the poem to the class first so they become familiar with it, then they will break into partners and read it with a partner. (50 minutes)Tuesday<br />We will have a class discussion about the poem from yesterday and I will ask students the following questions: (25 minutes)

5. What do you think would happen to our environment if everyone did what Sarah did?