As part of our poetry unit students have been writing poems FOR the planet. We have been focusing on not just writing poems about animals or habitats but writing poems FOR the planet. The focus of our poems is to inform others of our changing planet and move them to make a change to save our planet and wildlife.
We kicked off these interdisciplinary lessons by highlighting National Geographics Ocean Plastics Video (take the 3 minutes it's worth watching). From students' disgusted facial expressions, gasps of "Oh my goodness", and outcries of "Miss Klipfel, what do we do?" I knew they were hooked and ready to write inspiring poems. From here students explored a multitude of National Geographic Resources to deepen their understanding of the interconnectedness of the natural and human world.
Students then wrote their brainstormed solutions to the plastic crisis on index cards and sorted them by local, global or regional scale. Students also discussed which perspectives these solutions fell under. This helped students think beyond just our school and local town. I knew students really understood this when they started saying things like "Amazon needs to make a global change" or "the local supermarket gives me plastic bags."
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| Check out all our poems: Klipfel Homeroom & Brown Homeroom |
Students' words were amazing but their actions were even better. Students came back from lunch enraged that plastic cups were being used-daily. Collaboratively they created a petition to get plastic ban from our school cafe. Soon names from other grades, cafeteria workers and even teachers were all over the petition.
Next time you grab that plastic water bottle as you head out the door or head to Starbucks we ask you...
Plastic OR Planet?
I love how we are learning how to save our planet! I have done couple things at home to help the earth too. instead of using a plastic straw, I used a metal one! Instead of throwing away my plastic water bottle, I refilled it with more water.
ReplyDeleteI love how we are helping save the planet! I had so much fun making poems to save the planet. Everyones working so hard to use less plastic! Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThis was a SUPER fun thing we did. I loved making the poems and making them even better! Me,Anaya,Ria,Natalia,and Sofia asked people for less plastic the the Cafeteria and that was just the beginning of saving the WHOLE planet.
ReplyDeleteI love how students are working together to use less plastic. They know that if they keep this up, and encourage others to use less plastic, a ripple effect will start. 4th grade is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI think poetry for the planet is so much fun and so much better for our planet! Our class has been using less plastic. My friends and I told one of the lunch lady that we should use less palstic items or replace it for paper items and use the reuseable trays instead of the plastic trays. I think this friday at recess our class should get paper bags and gloves and pick up plastic and trash that people leave on the ground so it doesn't end up in the ocean.
ReplyDelete#save the earth