While Earth day may be over, I think it is important to continue to teach our kiddos about conservation and how it should be a lifestyle and not just a holiday in April!
One of favorite things to do to save on paper is to take the HUGE pile of paper that ends up on the counter next to the copier (before it ends up in the trash can) and have my kiddos use it in our writing center to make books, write letters to each other, or write stories. It saves me from making a ton of copies of writing paper! I, of course, still make copies of writing paper for the writing center, but I like to have a variety of options for the kids to be able to create. They especially LOVE when I find extra colored paper copies!
Now, I know that tidy tubs are no longer a novel idea, but they are a lifesaver when it comes to making sure our daily paper waste makes it into the recycle bin & not the trash can.
Recycle Ranger is one of the favored jobs throughout the year, but really becomes popular in April!
We keep our tidy tubs stacked up at the end of our group tables when they are not in use, the table leaders just place them in the center of the tables when they are needed.
Here is one of our Recycle Rangers doing his part to help keep the Earth clean!
Another thing I do in my classroom is to reuse anchor charts of parts of them at least! I know using post its is still using paper, but they are tiny little papers and really much less waste when you consider I have used the base of this chart three years in a row (two classes each year, that would have been 6 full sheets of chart paper had I not reused)!
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Plus the kiddos LOVE to write on post its and I LOVE it when they are excited to learn!
Sometimes I just cut out and save parts of an anchor chart to reuse or re-purpose, (saving paper & saving time) the cute little guy was something I traced onto a circle map anchor chart last year.
What do you do throughout the year to stay green in your classroom?
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