PITCH-IN CANADA
Resource Centre

Re-Think Activities
An educational Unit for children up to Grade 4
Written by Valerie Thom, B.Ed. and edited by Allard W. van Veen, APR, Fellow, CPRS

This unit has six chapters, each filled with information, ideas and projects. Words in bold and in italics are featured in the glossary which you can reach by clicking here

Skills: measuring weight, grouping            

Time: one class period

Learning Objective: students will be able to describe the amount of garbage produced in one month by an average family in terms of a comparison to their own weight.

Materials and Equipment: scales; the garbage produced by an average family in one week. (Assume the average family is two adults and two children or you may prefer to use the statistic of an average of 60 kilograms per week produced by an average Canadian family of four people.)

1. Ask students to predict who/what will weigh more—a student or a month’s worth of garbage.

2. Weigh the garbage of the average family.

3. Multiply the weight by 4 to find the weight of garbage produced by the family during the month.

4. Record the weight on a graph.

5. Weigh each student and record his or her weights on the graph.

6. Who weighs more—the student or a month’s worth of garbage?

7. Total the weight of all the students and compare that figure to that of the garbage.

8. Compute the garbage produced by the family in a year and compare that to the weight of the students.

RE…Think

Discuss with the students:

• Whose prediction was correct?
• Are you surprised at the results? Why?
• Why is the weight of our garbage something we should think about? (The garbage has to be lifted and transported; the heavier the garbage, the more it costs to transport.)
• How can we reduce our garbage?

NOTE: Many activities in the REUSING AND RECYCLING theme section consider waste reduction and recycling. If you have not yet done any of the activities, list the students’ ideas and post the list in the classroom. As you do the REUSING AND RECYCLING theme section, check off those suggestions that are discussed, and work on those ideas suggested by your students that are not.

Click here to return to the Index for Chapter 4 and more activities

Click here to return to the Index for Re-Think