Lessons to bring sustainability and recycling in the classroomNational Recycling Week helps you reduce your waste and recycle right. |
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Planet Ark’s National Recycling Week started in 1996 to bring a national focus to the environmental benefits of recycling. This highly regarded annual campaign continues to educate and stimulate behaviour change by promoting kerbside, industrial and community recycling initiative. It also gives people the tools to minimise waste and manage material resources responsibly at home, work and school. In partnership with Planet Ark, we have developed lessons from early learning through to year 10 to help educators bring these important topics into the classroom. National Recycling Week is held in the second week of November each year but you can recycle all year-round with these lessons which were designed to be used at any time. Click here to find out more about National Recycling Week and the Schools Recycle Right Challenge. We have lessons for all year levels that can be used to support learning. Check them out below.
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Schools Recycle Right Challenge – It’s Competition Time!Our friends at Planet Ark are giving 3 schools the chance to Win a 3D Makerbot Sketch Classroom from Kyocera (RRP $3499 + GST per bundle), To enter you simply:
There are also some pretty cool runner up prizes – For more information and full terms and conditions check out the competition page. Creativity is king and we encourage you to complete one of our NEW Australasian Recycling Lesson plans, there are BONUS prizes for teachers who use the new ARL plans and give their feedback. |
Student ResourcesCool Australia’s Digital Library is full of images, articles and activities to help kids research. Check out our National Recycling Week Digital Library here |
Brand New Lessons: The Australian Recycling Label – Foundation to Year 6
The Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) is an evidence-based system for Australia and New Zealand providing consumers with easy and accurate recycling information. Unlike other labels, the ARL shows you how to dispose of each component of your packaging based on the recycling infrastructure and council acceptance in the country.
More than 400 organisations have signed up to the program. Look out for it as it appears on more products every day.
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Recycling Labels Hopscotch
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Recycling Labels Memory Game
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Recycling Labels Mascots
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Recycling Labels Board Game
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HPE, Science, Technology |
HPE, Science, Technology Students design and create a memory game to identify the Australasian Recycling Labels and the purpose behind them, specifically the intention of reducing material waste and helping the environment
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HPE, Science, Technology, Arts Through independent research, students will learn the design and purpose behind the Australasian Recycling Labels. They will then creatively communicate these understandings and the Labels to others in the form of an informative advertising poster.
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HPE, Science, Technology, Vis. Arts Through independent research, students will learn the design of and purpose behind the Australasian Recycling Labels. They will then creatively communicate these understandings and the labels to others in the form of an interactive board game. |
Primary Curriculum:
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National Recycling Week
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National Recycling Week
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National Recycling Week
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NAPLAN for
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Science, Geography, |
Science, Geography, English, Design & Technology |
Mathematics, Science, Geography, English, Technology, Art & Music |
English – |
Lessons in this unit are a great way for you and your students to take positive steps in reducing the amount of waste we create. Kids get to explore how much waste they create in their lunchbox or classroom, consider how we change this and what has happened in the past. |
Turn things from trash to treasure, look at how we breakdown waste, recycling aluminium and how we close the loop on recycling. The lessons in this unit are a great way for you and your students to take positive steps in reducing the amount of waste we create. |
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This unit includes English NAPLAN preparation for all Primary School students and includes lessons on e-waste, paper recycling and consumption. These lessons are a great way to hone literacy skills in the classroom at any time. |
Secondary Curriculum
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National Recycling Week
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NAPLAN for
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National Recycling Week
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National Recycling Week
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English Look at what happens to your mobile phone, and other e-waste in these lessons. For extended literacy skills, these lessons are great to combine with NAPLAN preparation lessons and bring a topic to life in the classroom. You and your students get to take positive steps in reducing the amount of waste we create.
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English – NAPLAN Preparation Practice persuasive and narrative writing skills extending the recycling theme in your classroom. In these lessons, students get to look at the topic of mobile phone or paper recycling while building on key literacy skills. |
Mathematics Students use mathematics to solve problems with litter and outdoor bins, calculate and use percentages to compare rates of recycling and environmental benefit, estimate volumes of waste and work with data tables. This unit of work lets you and your students apply mathematics to practical, real-world problems and take positive steps towards developing solutions.
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Mathematics In these lessons, students use Pi to calculate the area and volume of aluminium cans, or use mean, median, mode and outliner mathematical concepts analyse recycling and contamination data. This unit is a great way for you and your students to take positive steps in reducing the amount of waste we create and build on maths skills using practical examples. |
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National Recycling Week
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National Recycling Week
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National Recycling Week
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National Recycling Week
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Science The lessons in this unit are a great way for you and your students to take positive steps in reducing the amount of waste we create. Students get to investigate the science of organic waste or look at sorting at a Materials Recovery Facility and so much more. |
Science These lessons are packed with real-world practical science, students can use an online periodic table to investigate and compare the atomic structure of metals, or test the properties of beverage containers to hold either hot or cold drinks. |
Design & Technology In this unit, you and your students can look at sustainable design, exploring the role of packaging labelling in recycling, work collaboratively to identify a waste problem in their school or home and develop a solution to this problem or design a sustainable smartphone. In these lessons, you and your students get to take positive steps in reducing waste through creative design solutions.
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Arts Its time to get creative with waste! Students can create a garbage gallery or investigate recycling rhythms through performing arts. Lessons get students to respond to existing work and look to create their own unique work. This is a great way for you and your students get to bring real-world topics into a creative environment. |
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National Recycling Week
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National Recycling Week
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History Investigate the history of Australia’s Indigenous peoples and compare their resource use with what we consume today. These lessons look at how consumption has changed over time and the impact this has on society today, it’s a great way to look at what lessons history can teach us and what positive steps you and your students can take to reduce waste. |
HASS |
Early Learning:
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National Recycling Week – Early LearningLessons in this unit are a great way for you and your students to take positive steps in reducing the amount of waste we create. Lessons use the Early Learning Framework to introduce these topics to younger children through play-based activities. Kids get to learn about packaging, paper recycling, as well as sorting and categorising waste and have great fun in the process.
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What is National Recycling Week?Held in the second week of November each year, Planet Ark National Recycling Week aims to educate and inspire households, schools, workplaces and councils to rethink their rubbish by following the waste hierarchy – reduce, reuse and then recycle. National Recycling Week helps you better understand what happens to your rubbish and recycling beyond the bin, and how to improve your environmental footprint with tips and ideas on applying the waste hierarchy to your daily life. The Schools Recycle Right Challenge runs for six weeks each year ending on the last Friday of National Recycling Week. The challenge provides a way for schools and early learning centres to get involved with recycling via a range of curriculum-aligned lesson plans, guides and activities for every learning stage, enabling the whole schools, class teachers and students to get involved at a level that suits them |
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