How well-kept are playgrounds in your neighborhood or school? Encourage other kids and adults to help erase playground clutter.

• 1.

  With an adult accompanying your class during recess, survey the playground at your school (or go with a parent to a playground in your neighborhood). What kinds of clutter do you see? Who is responsible for the playground?

• 2.

  In small groups, develop plans to help keep the playground clean and safe. On white paper, use Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencils to make a list of recommendations. If you need to correct spellings, just erase. Check with the people responsible for the playground to make decisions about how you will proceed.

• 3.

  Then put your plans into action. One part of your plan might be to publicize a Campaign for Clean Playgrounds. You might want to make posters that encourage people to help. Use Crayola Markers and Crayola Twistables on white paper to draw beautiful playgrounds.

• 4.

  Write action words, such as "Pick up your trash."

• 5.

  Make your poster colorful by adding a bold border so it will be noticed wherever you hang it. Send a message to your classmates and community that safe playgrounds are important!

Standards

• LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
• LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
• SCI: Obtain and communicate information about the characteristics of groups of organisms and evaluate how groups help organisms survive.
• SS: Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns.
• VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.
• VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

Adaptations

• Possible classroom resources include: Earth Day: Keeping Our Planet Clean by Elaine Landau;
• Students work in small groups to investigate the history of Earth Day, its beginnings and yearly celebration to keep our planet clean. How does a look into this practice enlighten students about keeping their playground clutter-free? Ask students to look for the connections and suggest ways in which they can make this observance a part of their everyday lives.
• Students generate a list of terms appropriate for this lesson plan such as clean, environment, playground, clutter, etc. Post these terms in the classroom for quick reference.
• Students organize a written plan for keeping their playground clean and clutter-free. Arrange for a meeting with the school's administration to present the plan to the principal for approval.
• Students solicit the assistance of other classes in the building in keeping their playground clean. Each class may take, or be assigned, a week to police the building and grounds. Teachers will build "inspection" time into their week for students to accomplish these additional tasks.