The Sustainable Classroom
- Start a recycling program & encourage your students to take part t (Here are some opportunities to teach about recycling centers & plastic pollution!)
- Start a garden! (A great educational opportunity to teach about where our food comes from & why sustainable farming and eating are important)
- Create “green teams” for your classroom: Student jobs make cleaning up the classroom much easier – so use the last 5 minutes of class to power down computers, close the blinds, check faucets, and sort recycling.
- Need organizers for your classroom? Recycle things from your home!
Use milk cartons, shoe boxes, etc. - Consider purchasing Petroleum Free Crayons.
- Use eco-friendly cleaning products when cleaning your classroom.
- Encourage students to avoid brown bagging their lunches – use reusable lunch boxes!
- Create a scrap paper box – reuse, reuse!
- Feeling ambitious? Collect scraps from your kids’ lunches into a compost bin! (Another fun teaching opportunity)
- When safe, consider using school “field trips” to visit places that will help educate your students about the environment. (Meeting indigenous
leaders, going to the recycling center or landfill, etc.) - Find and apply for grants that offer financial support for green-school initiatives. These are some garden grants to get you started, but there
are lots of other opportunities out there. - Rally for your school to go solar!
- Encourage your school to install energy efficient light bulbs.
- Teach students about saving water when they wash their hands in the bathroom, etc.
- Encourage walking or biking to school (if safe and weather permitting).
- Write an environmental mission statement for your classroom.
- Give out a “green award” to a student each month (Reward with an incentive like getting to be the “line leader” or giving then their own small plant to take care of).
- Ask parents to donate old toys, books or craft supplies.
- Create a “green check list” of actions that each student can do for the month or specified time duration.
