One of the main goals that we center around in third grade Social Studies is being a good citizen. The first lesson in our book is titled "Being a Good Citizen." We spend a lot of time discussing ways in which the student can be a responsible citizen. After brainstorming the many ways that the students could become better and more responsible citizens at Costner Elementary, we decided to adopt a recycling program at our school. With the help of Sunoko and the City of Gastonia, we started a recycling program in which the students and staff work together to recycle paper and plastic on our campus. We started with a guest speaker that informed the students of the importance of recycling and how they could help. We then obtained three large drums that sit inside our school building in which plastic recyclables are placed. Each week the students take the drums outside to the large bins that were placed in the rear of our school and picked up bi-weekly by Sunoko. The students created Animoto videos showing the importance of recycling and shared the videos with staff members via e-mail. The students worked in small groups to create the videos and have since had time to re-visit and make corrections and additions to their videos. The attached are the finished products that were shared with the school.
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
