A Green Classroom

The ‘in’ thing in today’s world is to recycle and reuse. Teachers should be doing this in classrooms as well. Here are some ways you can make your classroom greener.

Cereal boxes: Have each of your students bring in an empty cereal box. Have them cut off the top of the box. Then have your students paint the boxes or wrap them with paper. This will provide each student with a paper or project holder. And since each student made their own, it is personalized.

Newspaper: Each student should have access to a newspaper. This single source can be used for projects such as the following.

  • Use strips of newspaper to start seeds for the classroom garden. Wet newspaper and a little soil go a long way for this project.
  • Color and decorate newspaper strips to use as a bookmark.
  • Paper Mache projects (using lots of newspaper) encourage creativity.

Reduce Paper Waste: Students today are very tech savvy and use a computer for many purposes. Given the storage capacities of computers, students do not need to print everything they do.

Impress upon students the importance of the trees that are sacrificed to make paper and the environmental effects of the chemicals used to make paper.

Turn off the computers: Save electricity. Each student should be made aware of the electricity that is wasted when computers are kept on when not in use.