Reusable Lunch
How was it used?
I used this activity with my Year 5 class which followed a previous lesson within this unit of work ‘The Earth’s materials – Are we wasting them?’ I found that the units were suitable for work we were developing in the class on the environment and our effects on the environment.
I had the children work as a whole class, in groups, in pairs and individually for different activities. They were put into mixed ability groups and were all given varied tasks after the initial introduction. They were all given a specific length of time to complete the task and were encouraged to discuss their progress during the lesson by referring to the targets set to them. The unit of work was extremely relevant and interesting to pupils in KS 2. You could adapt and develop it for a range of different ages and for classes with mixed age groups. Although I used the whiteboard to introduce tasks I made sure that there was ample opportunity for pupils to think/pair/share as they predicted and discussed ideas.
It’s a great way of getting children to take responsibility for their learning and to become good listeners by responding to fellow pupils. They were then asked to look at an example of a lunch box. Using their small whiteboards in class they had to choose what to do with each material and then to explain why. This encouraged higher ability pupils to use of property words and all pupils could predict and relate to everyday experiences. The activity was then developed with groups working on various tasks:
Taking photographs of children’s lunch boxes and labelling packaging – physically within the class and on the class computers. Other groups collected information from other classes in school and asked children if the items were suitable for recycling, re-using or composting.
Before assessing the learning at the end of the lesson, groups were given the opportunity to report back on their findings. This led us naturally to the final slide about possibly reducing and re-using. Pupils were eager to report findings to the school’s Eco Council and to present findings in a newsletter to parents.
Impact and Outcomes
- Co-operation between groups was a positive feature in the classroom. They kept on task well as they were naturally inquisitive!
- The nature of the activities and the grouping of the children helped develop their thinking and group paired/discussion deepened their understanding of the scientific concepts embedded within the activity.
- They gave confident feedback to the class as they had real materials to display and they were confident with the vocabulary
- It was a practical activity and all pupils were able to participate
- It made them question their day to day use of materials at home and in school. They were keen to relate the activity to the Eco activities already going on in the school Eco Club.
- It showed that as a class their able to work well independently as groups were working on different tasks.
- The work allowed for extension activities to stretch the more able and talented while still working on the same concept as the rest of the class. They were keen to offer the next pathways for learning. Possible groups tasks such as looking to see what happens to plastic when it’s recycled, finding out about local landfill sites and what happens to waste that cannot be recycled.
Learner Feedback
‘It’s really made me think about what my parents buy to put in my lunchbox. I think I could re-use many things!’
‘I’m a member of the Eco Committee. I think it’ll be great to share our work with the rest of the school. We can all learn a bit more about all the waste we create.’
‘I was amazed at what my grandson could do’
‘I think we could look at our lunchboxes again next week. It would be interesting to see how we’ve changed our ways. We could take a before and after photograph!’
Other Resources
Photographs of lunch boxes, lunch boxes in school
Lessons Learnt
Great to use a resource that was already in school
Children could relate to lunch boxes easily and it was then great to challenge their thinking
Could have developed number and data handling as they gathered data