Objectives: Students will be able to: (1) describe the effects of littering; (2) realize that cleaning up provides many benefits; and (3) simulate the roles of characters from a story. Students will discuss and describe the characters in the story The Wartville Wizard.
Method: Students listen to a story, discuss, and then portray the roles of the citizens in the story.
Materials: The book: The Wartville Wizard by Don Madden (Aladdin Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993); writing materials. Available by order at most book stores ISBN 0- 689-71667-2 or on line from: Chapters.Indigo.ca or Amazon.ca
Vocabulary: environment, litter, non-point source pollution, trash, waste
Procedure:
1. Introduce the term ENVIRONMENT. The environment is everything around us. Our environment at school is different than our environment at home. Ask students to name objects from their home and school environments.
2. Discuss the importance of keeping the environment clean. Ask students what happens when the environment is not clean. Introduce the terms LITTER and WASTE. Explain that litter is waste put in the wrong place (e.g., on the ground, on the road, etc.). Ask the students, “What happens to some litter when it rains?” Explain that when litter ends-up going down a storm drain, it is one type of non-point source pollution.
3. Read aloud the book The Wartville Wizard. This story takes place in the town of Wartville. Wartville citizens are illegally dumping their trash and litter: soda bottles under flowers, juice cans by mailboxes, and candy wrappers and papers on the road side. Every day the trash pile continues to grow. One man continues to clean the town litter, and one day, he realizes he has the power to get rid of all the litter forever. He magically sends each piece of litter back to the person who dropped it. The town has a meeting to decide how to handle the problem.
4. Discuss the book as a class:
• Describe the man’s home. How was the inside of his home different from the outside?
• Where was all of the litter that the old man found coming from?
• How did he feel about all the litter? How would you feel if the town was your home?
• What did the old man do with the litter?
• What happens after the old man got power over the litter?
• How would you feel if you had power over the litter?
• How would you feel if the litter stuck to you?
• What did the people of Wartville finally do?
• What would you have done if you had been a citizen of Wartville?
• How did the people of Wartville discover that the old man had power over the litter?
• How did the townspeople solve their litter problem?
• What is litter?
• What can you do to help prevent other people from littering?
• What does litter do to our environment?
• Where have you seen litter in your community?
5. Ask the class to identify the main characters in the book The Wartville Wizard (an old man, Barbette Swartley, the driver, Harvey Bender, Mr. Fullerton K. Hardboard, Mrs. Mabel Botts, Dr. Melvin Splint, Wartville citizens, Jimmy VanSlammer, the sheriff).
6. Ask the student volunteers to pantomime the various people in the book. Read the story again as the students pantomime.
Assessment: Have students describe the effects of littering and suggest ways it can be prevented. Enrichment Have the students create costumes and write the script for a play of the book The Wartville Wizard.
Enrichment: Plan a litter art fair. To enter the fair, students must design a litter character using trash or litter. Display the litter characters at school, a public library, or a local shopping mall.
Developed by Phyllis Mooney, formerly Northwest Arkansas Recycling Coordinator, ADPC&E; now Environmental Coordinator with the Ft. Smith-Sebastian County.