Voki Lesson Plan

Class Title: Social Studies

Lesson Title: Landfills
Grade Level: Second Grade
Author: Stephanie Bushman
Objectives:
Students will
1. Define the term landfill.
2. Sort sample contents of a typical landfill.
3. Understand that everything they throw away does not just go away.
Materials:
1. Landfill pie chart
2. Paper plates
3. Glue
4. Scissors
5. Assorted representative garbage
6. Voki.com (http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=3253510&height=400&width=300)
Class Duration: 1 day
Activities:
Lesson
1. I began this lesson by reading a picture book that related to the earth and our environment.
Some suggestions are: The Wump World by Bill Peet, The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry,
or The Magic School Bus Gets Recycled by Joanna Cole. We also talked about what happens to
trash when we throw it away.
a. If you are working with older students you can have them prepare the pie chart.
Otherwise, you will need to do it. In any case, the pie chart categorizes what
percentage of different kinds of trash are in our landfills:
i. paper = 35.7%
ii. yard waste = 12.2%
iii. food = 11.4%
iv. plastics = 11.1%
v. metals = 7.9%
vi. rubber, leather, textiles = 7%

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 vii. wood = 5.7%
viii. glass = 5.5%
ix. other = 3.4%
Copy completed pie chart onto red paper (older students can do this by hand, I photocopied ahead of
time for my K-2nd graders). This will be the sauce of your "pizza". Your pie chart should be slightly
smaller than a regular-sized paper plate.
Voki Character: “Hey kids, I’m chef Mikey at the Pizza Palace. Today we will be making a very special
kind of pizza to remind us that even though we throw away trash, it stays on the earth for a long
time!”
2. Cut out the "sauce" and glue onto the paper plate. Be sure to use the side of the plate that
you would normally eat off of.
3. Glue samples of each kind of trash onto the pie chart in the appropriate section. These are the
"toppings" of your "pizza".
a. Ideas of trash to use:
i. paper: old newspaper and magazines, construction paper scraps
ii. yard waste: leaves, grass clippings, fake flowers
iii. food: pasta, cereal, beans
iv. plastics: cut up grocery bags
v. metals: paper clips
vi. rubber: leather
vii. textiles: rubber bands
viii. wood: crafts sticks, toothpicks, twigs
ix. glass: clear beads
x. other: small enough to leave blank
4. Voki Mikey the chef: “This pizza doesn’t look very yummy. I wouldn’t want to eat this pizza,
would you? No way!”
5. Teacher: Look at how much paper is on your pizza! Next time you throw away old papers,
remember to recycle them. That way, if you were to make this pizza again next year, there
would be less paper. Less paper on your garbage pizza makes a healthier planet!

Adapted from the Cook County (Illinois) Farm Bureau and Nadia on teacherlingo.com

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