Aims | Outline | Curriculum Relevance | Background | Activities |
The Blue Dragon
Programme 5: What a Waste
This programme aims to introduce to children ideas
about disposal of everyday waste, litter and recycling. It provides
an opportunity for developing children's ideas about personal
responsibility in looking after the environment.
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The programme opens with the characters walking
through a wooded area with a stream. They come across a clearing
with rubbish left by humans and an area burned because people did
not make sure that their campfire was out. They are cross that
people are so careless and collect the rubbish and think about how
to dispose of it. The animals come across a baby deer that was
separated from its family as the fire spread. As they try to find
her family Cinders notices a van with a blue dragon on the side.
She goes after it and finds herself stuck inside a rubbish truck.
Twiggy the bear joins Cinders, and they find themselves in a waste
disposal depot. Once they rejoin their friends each of the animals
thinks about how they could recycle different pieces of waste.
Eventually they continue their search for the deer's parents and
finally find them.
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The programme
explores:
- sorting different kinds of 'clean waste';
- recycling clean waste;
- thinking about responsibility towards the
environment;
- thinking about the consequences of actions on the
environment.
There are many curriculum
links that can be made, for example:
- Design and technology – make new things from
'found materials'.
- Art – use a range of different materials to
create a collage.
- Literacy – create 'Our Countryside Code': a
set of instructions on how do behave in the countryside.
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Waste is a major environmental issue. Many local
authorities are having to find alternatives to placing rubbish in
landfill sites because of European legislation. Some have their own
schemes to encourage householders to sort waste. Most household
waste can be recycled, including many types of plastic.
Householders are often asked to place their rubbish in different
containers according to the type of material, such as plastic,
glass, metals and paper.
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Have a class picnic and arrange for different groups
of children to work throughout the day, using the help of other
adults in the classroom to create food and drink for a picnic in
the afternoon.
Make a table-top display
with mini-bins for children to sort different materials, for
example a bin for plastic, and a bin for paper. Each day put new
things out to sort, for example:
- yoghurt pots
- paper bags
- plastic bottles
- ring-pull cans
- card boxes
- egg boxes
- sweet wrappers
- crisp packets
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