Empowering Jefferson Elementary School Students to Save the Planet

By Ann Krueger Spivack

How do kids respond to lessons about our environment? In teacher Sean Keller’s fourth-grade class at Jefferson Elementary School, two students felt strongly enough to write a mission statement.

Fourth-graders Sydney James and Rowan Kennedy expressed a sentiment that many adults experience. “Our class really wanted to do something to help the environment… but what?”

After Colleen Mahoney, from A Kid By Nature, explained to the class what happened to toys and plastic once they hit the garbage can, both Sydney and Rowan took the lesson to heart.

“It is our hope that you think twice before you throw your plastic toys in the landfill,” the girls wrote. “Maybe you can turn your ‘trash into treasures’ or in our case ‘trash into art.’ “

Student Jackson Smith brought bags of plastic toys from home, and he was pleased to use them in the eco-art project. “It feels really good to do this when you know each toy you put [on the art project] could be saving a bird’s life.”

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Rowan Kennedy agreed. She said she learned “we shouldn’t buy as much plastic toys and other plastic stuff...it ends up in the landfills and washes out to the ocean, which is not good for animals and the planet.”

The students saw a video by Chris Jordan called Midway Island; the video shows how birds ingest bits of plastic, often with fatal results.

The eco-art panels that resulted from the broken toys that the kids brought from home are now hanging in the school libraries at both Jefferson School and Rosa Parks School.

Related: Rosa Parks Elementary Students Look at Plastic Waste Differently

Mahoney showed the students alternatives to throwing plastic toys into the trash.

“Repurpose, recycle, share,” she said. Mahoney taught the students which items could be donated to charities such as Goodwill Industries or repurposed by groups such as TerraCycle.com.

Will this lesson leave a lasting impression? Mahoney nods. “I believe it will. Kids this age are eager to learn about the wider world. When kids get the chance to create and build something, they absorb the ideas that we’re discussing in class. And we had fun doing it,” she said.

Teachers interested in learning more about eco-art projects like this one can contact Mahoney at A Kid By Nature or email her at colleen@akidbynature.com. For more information about Nature’s Voices, visit NaturesVoices.org or email Silber at susansilber07@gmail.com.

Photo 1: Jackson Smith, Sydney James, Rowan Kennedy and Colleen Mahoney, founder of A Kid By Nature

Photo 2: Fourth-grade teacher Sean Keller helps with the eco-art project.