Lesson Plans
Divert NS offers curriculum-based lesson plans tailored to the learning outcomes for Grades Primary to 6 in Nova Scotia. These fun, interactive plans will help teach youth about the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling – AND engage students to become environmental champions.
In February 2020, we added three new learning experiences that focus on refusing to waste:
- Food Waste: The Journey from Mother Earth to Table (Gr.4)
- The Reduce through Upcycling Challenge (Gr.6)
- Single Use Plastic: From Producer to "Pro Reducer" (Gr. 6)
Click here to download all 28 lesson plans (English only) or use the search function below to find lesson plans that fit your subject and grade level.
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Waste Relay Race
Students participate in an exciting relay race to learn how to sort waste properly. Students will also learn why waste materials are sorted based on what they are made of.
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What is it Made of?
Learners will determine the properties of everyday objects through a variety of hands-on activities. Students will use this information to help them understand how recycling works through a “cut and paste” activity.
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Posters that “POP”
Students will learn about the concept and importance of recycling. Students will encourage peers to recycle by creating posters to be displayed around the school.
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Waste Comes Alive
Students collect waste items from school and make them “come alive.” Students will develop a creative biography for their garbage buddy, and learn what the item can be recycled into after it is collected.
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Jellyfish vs. Plastic Bag
Students will learn about the epidemic of plastic waste in the oceans, and its impact on wildlife. After learning how sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, students will brainstorm ways to keep our oceans clean by reducing and recycling plastics. Students consider the Mi’kmaw concept of msit no’kmaq [pronouced, em-set no-gma]—we are all related.
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Compost Creators
This lesson goes beyond the classroom and into the schoolyard, as students will build a fully-functional compost pile. This hands-on lesson teaches students about the properties of soil and how composting is important to the environment. It also aligns with Netukulimk (pronounced: ne·du·gu·limk)—the Mi’kmaw concept of respecting the natural world around us and not taking more than we need.
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Egg Carton Garden
In this hands-on lesson, students will plant a seed in an egg carton containing a soil/compost mixture, and then watch it sprout! Students will learn about the science of composting, as well as the importance of composting at home and at school. Connections to Mi’kmaw practices of using plants for medicine are available. Note: This activity takes 2–3 weeks to have seeds transform into sprouts/small plants. TRY SIMILAR ACTIVITIES: See Compost Creators lesson plan as an option to create your own compost.
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Can a Plastic Bag Live Forever?
Students learn about the life cycle of a plastic bag and create a timeline comparing historic events with a plastic bag’s lifespan. After learning how long bags last when not recycled or reused, students explore creative ways to reuse plastic bags.
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Cell Phone Waste and Chimpanzees
Through engaging activities, students will learn about planned and perceived obsolescence. Students will also learn about the types of metals/compounds that are found in cell phones, and the impact that metal mining has on chimpanzee habitat in the Congo Basin.
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Do the Sorting Shuffle
In this lesson, learners become familiar with the different categories of waste through an interactive sorting activity. The lesson includes a discussion about how to better incorporate the 3Rs into everyday life.
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Food Waste: The Journey from Mother Earth to Table
In this engaging and thought-provoking activity, students will learn about the journey food goes through before it gets to us, and why it is important to appreciate our food.
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How are Plankton, Plastic and Polar Fleece Connected?
Learners will investigate how plastic is formed and how recycling helps create a clean environment. Learners will create a commercial to demonstrate their new understanding of the process from plankton to plastic to polar fleece.
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The Sorting Story
During this interactive lesson, the teacher will share a sorting story and students will listen for important cues. Students will draw a mural to illustrate the story’s concepts.
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Waste Management: Past and Present
Students will learn how attitudes and behaviors around waste have changed during recent generations, and learn about the traditional Mi’kmaw view that all resources are to be respected, and not wasted. The class will invite an older member of the community for an interview, and will reflect on their own recycling habits.
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Guess How Long that Garbage Lasts
Learners will investigate how long various waste items take to decompose. They will learn about chemical changes that take place in landfills from solid waste to the production of methane gas. Through group discussion and creative assignments, students will examine the environmental impacts of landfills.
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Make Your Own Paper
Students will learn about the sustainability of Canadian forests and compare forestry practices in Canada and Brazil. They will establish a link between sustainability and recycling through a hands-on activity—making their own recycled paper.
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Sorting Skits
In this engaging lesson, students use theatre and role playing to teach classmates about recycling. Learners work in groups to create skits that demonstrate the importance of sorting waste.
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Recycling Rock Stars
In this interactive lesson, students will get creative by rewriting the lyrics to a popular song to promote recycling. Students will learn how recycling is connected to sustainable development.
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Slammin’ Slogans
This hands-on lesson teaches students about textile recycling in Nova Scotia. Learners create a slogan to encourage textile recycling, which is then placed on T-shirts and displayed within the school.
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Trash or Treasure: What can we learn from the past?
Learners will apply critical thinking to compare modern life to that of the past. Students learn about artifacts of Mi’kmaw ancestors uncovered in Nova Scotia. Students will participate in a hands-on activity to predict what future generations may be able to discover about our daily life based on the waste materials we leave behind.
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Garbage Collectors
Students learn about the amount of waste generated and recycled in Canada. After a week of collecting their classroom waste, students sort it properly to determine what per cent of the waste is recyclable. Note: This activity takes one week to complete.
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Plastics in the Schoolyard
In this hands-on lesson, students learn about proper waste sorting and put their knowledge to work by doing a garbage clean up around the school. Students use their detective skills to determine that the majority of litter is made of plastic.
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A Recipe for Electricity: How Natural Resources can Power your House
Through engaging hands-on activities, students will learn how electricity is made from renewable and non-renewable sources. Students will draw, act, create models, write poems, or write stories to explain how electricity can be generated from organic material.
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Recycling Film Festival
Students will choose a recycling video from the Internet and host a Recycling Film Festival.
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The Reduce through Upcycling Challenge
Students are challenged to creatively repurpose or “upcycle” common household items and pitch their innovations to their class. Students share their pitch with the rest of the school to promote learning about reducing consumption and repurposing items as an alternative to purchasing new items.
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Single Use Plastic: From Producer to "Pro Reducer"
Students explore "silly" and "smart" ways to package our everyday items. They will learn about how the Mi'kmaq traditionally transported and stored various foods and everyday items. Students explore the concept of a plastic-free grocery store; think about alternatives to single-use plastic; and make a pledge to refuse plastic.
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Solid Waste Surveys
In this engaging math lesson, students learn about percentages through recycling activities. Students create an online survey to assess their classmates’ recycling habits and analyze the data.
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Trading Textiles
In this lesson, students will choose a piece of clothing to trace back to its country of origin, hold a clothing swap and Eco-fashion show. Learners use infographics to demonstrate their understanding of how to divert textile waste from landfills.
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