Classroom Tips for Going Green - Upcycle!

 

An easy way to go green in the classroom is to upcycle! Upcycling is the process of converting old or discarded materials into something useful. Here are some ideas for upcycling in your classroom!

 

Use paper towel/toilet paper rolls for a fun STEM activity, like building your own marble run.

The rolls are also great for all kinds of crafts!

 

 

 

 

Instead of buying containers from the store (hard to resist all those cute and colorful ones I know), try to use some that you already have to organize and store materials. We used this big container that our animal crackers came in to store our wooden building blocks, since the box they came in was torn apart soon after we got them. I didn't take the time to make it cute, but you certainly could with a little paper or washi tape.

 



 

 

I also have used these plastic trays that our yogurt cups come in for counting and sorting practice with my little ones. 

 

 

I found this image online with no link, so I'm sorry for not giving credit, but these are beautiful  holders made from cereal boxes! I can think of tons of ways to use these in the classroom: student boxes, monthly lesson plans, magazines or books!

 

 

 



 



Classroom Tips for Going Green: Less Paper more Classroom Technology {Peppy Zesty Teacherista}

Hey Friends! It's Amber from Peppy Zesty Teacherista and I am thrilled to share with you how my class attempts to fall on the greener side of classrooms. I love using technology to ease the paper count, so let's dive on in! :)

Do you give spelling tests each week? 

I feel like I am wasting class time giving test and grading them. 

I put all of the lists on {Spelling City}, and the kids take the test on Friday's. They screen shot their score and upload it to Edmodo or {SeeSaw} depending on how I am feeling that day ;)

*Option*

1. When I was a first year teacher, I only had 5 iPads, so that Friday I had the kids take their test throughout the day. 

2. If you don't have access to {Seesaw} or Edmodo, you can simply have the kids show you there score and record it in the grade book :) 

Have you heard of {Dry Erase Pockets} ? 

Get these pockets {HERE}.

These things are a life saver! 

Check out all the ways that I use these amazing babies by 

{CLICKING HERE}

{Google Forms} are the bees knees.  

You can create sign ups, checklists, and more without writing anything down.

I lose absolutely anything that is in a paper form because I am an irresponsible millenial  #OwnIt

I absolutely LOVE that Lisa is using my no homework and restroom pass QR documentation FREE template! I've shared how with visuals in the temp link in my profile! :)

A photo posted by PeppyZestyTeacherista (@peppyzestyteacherista) on Feb 22, 2016 at 3:54pm PST

To check out my No Homework Documentation 

{Click Here}

To snag the FREE download for the restroom pass:

{Click Here}

Do you have a recycling bin in your classroom? Every classroom in my school has a bin because every two weeks we have our student government kids come by to pick it up. 

I created "Recycler" as a {classroom job} to help encourage others in our classroom to recycle.

To read about our classroom economy

{CLICK HERE}

This is the first year that I have been able to send a newsletter out in a timely manner. 

I LOVE to blog, so why not create a blog for my classroom? 

Each week, I posted updates and parent tips to keep parents in the loop.

One of the BIGGEST lifesavers to this idea, was embedding a Google Calendar on the blog. 

Every important date that I receive immediately gets put on the Google Calendar. Parents have a hub to check everything, and they can even sync the dates to their iPhone!

This has made managing information so much easier on my life! ha! 

To read more about it {CLICK HERE}

WOAH. This post was only meant to be 5 tips but it quickly spurred into more! 

Want to see MORE paperless classroom tricks?

Click the image below! 

I hope you enjoyed and possibly picked up some tips along the way! 

Classroom Tips for Going Green {with Aloha to Second}

Spring is finally here!  At least it feels that way.  It is so nice outside, and I am loving the outdoor recess time.  It also seems like a great time to celebrate Earth Day since the weather is so beautiful.  (I hope it's been beautiful where you are!) It's not always nice when we celebrate Earth Day.

I am going to share with you some ways that I go green in my classroom.  I think it is so important to remember to reduce, reuse, and recycle!

One way that I go green is by using these clear dry erase reusable pockets.  You can find them at Staples here.  I LOVE these.  I use them for worksheets when I don't want to copy a lot when I work with small groups.  I use them for reading activities and word study.  My kids enjoy them and think it is neat that they erase so easily!

The second way I go green is by laminating and storing all my small group and center activities.  This has been a true life saver.  I laminate the games, place them in a ziplock bag, and then I store them by season in these giant tubs.  Then, each year I pull out my tub and use that to plan my small group and center activities.  It saves me time AND saves paper each year!

The last way I go green is by using page protectors.  I slide number grids, calendar pages, and other activities in page protectors.  My students use dry erase markers on them, erase their work after, and then they are ready for someone else to use!  This definitely cuts down on my copies!

This year, my class completed a service learning project about recycling.  If you are interested in seeing how they recycled items to make instruments, please click on the picture below.  You can also grab a free recycling book in my TpT store by clicking here.  

I hope you enjoyed the tips!  How do you go green in your classroom? I'm always looking for more ways, so please share below!

Going Green: Earth Day Informational Text

I love using informational texts in my classroom.  Earth Day is a holiday that we celebrate in my classroom all week and how fun is it that it falls on a Friday this year!  I can't wait to read all of the classroom tips that the other EE bloggers have to share.  

Here are a few tips of mine to help your classroom stay green.  Plus, there is a little freebie for you at the end of this post.

A favorite tip of mine to help stay green is to make only a few copies of the text and questions.  I laminate them to use year after year.  I have my students record their answers in their reading journal.  It helps save ink and paper.  I put the copies of the texts in folders and have them available for the kids to read in our classroom library.

I know that at this time of year, colored ink is something that needs to be saved as much as possible.  So, I love that this informational text only uses black ink.  When I do print out multiple copies of the text, I make sure that my students take it home to re-read it for homework or to read to teach others about Earth Day.

My last green tip, is to use yellow markers and yellow colors as highlighters.  My kids go through highlighters like nobody's business, so we often repurpose markers and colors to highlight our textual evidence.  It's worked great!

Want to teach your kids about Earth Day using this informational text?  You can grab this free informational text HERE.

I hope this informational text helps you teach your kids all about Earth Day.  I would love to hear how it works in your classroom.  Stay green friends!

Going Green: Recycled Paper Mosaic Art

To celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd,  our Elementary Entourage bloggers are teaming up to bring you ideas for "Going Green" in the classroom. Check out our posts for the rest of the month to get ideas for using less paper, recycling, reusing and more!

I love a good art project in kindergarten, but sometimes feel like we waste a ton of paper when creating, especially cut and paste projects. We recycle our scraps of course, but another way I try to minimize the waste is setting up scrap bins.  As students cut out and create with colored paper they place the large scraps in a bin in the center of the table. Then either I or my recycling helper sort the scraps by color for me to store in separate bins.  We end up with lots of pretty variations of the same color throughout the year, and I usually bring any fun scraps I have from home as well. So Earth Day is the perfect time to pull out these scraps for a little recycled art!

For this project, first you will need small squares of blue and green papers and a black and white outline of the Earth. You could have students cut squares themselves or even just tear the pieces. I had Madelynn work on this project for me so I cut them up to save time. Depending on how much time you have, you may want to do the same in your classroom. I put the colored scraps in separate cups to make it easier to grab and glue.

Next, get gluing! Simply glue the green pieces onto the land areas and the blue scraps to create water. With older students you may not even want to begin with an outline. It would be a great way to see if students can create their own Earths based on prior knowledge.

 Our two year old version got a little messy and difficult to differentiate land from water, but I think its beautiful nonetheless! 

You can create fun mosaics like this any time of year by simply finding a black and white outline and cutting up the colors you need. Here are just a few ideas I came up with for the upcoming holidays:

Earth Day: Earth

Mother's Day: Flowers

Memorial Day: Flag

Father's Day: Tie

End of the Year: Sun

You can grab these free printable outlines here: