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The Great Trash Bash

by: Loreen Leedy (1991)

This fictional, narrative tale tells the story of Major Hippo’s search for what is wrong with his seemingly beautiful town of Beaston. As Major Hippo explores his town, he is initially oblivious to the what is obvious to the reader through the illustrations- the town is polluted. When Major Hippo realizes these issues, he creates an initiative to decrease the town's pollution through a “trash bash”. Using engaging dialogue, the citizens come to learn basic methods of conservation including recycling, reusing items and composting. This story uses a narrative storybook structure which is familiar to students as well as comical animal characters to introduce children to the topic of pollution. Through this story, pollution is clearly identified as a problem that needs a solution, aligning well to the NGSS Lead States (2013) expectation that students will develop solutions to reduce human impact on the environment.

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The following "intentional strategies" are suggested to aid in vocabulary and conceptual understanding to maximize oral language development (Neuman & Wright, 2013, p. 8):

As Snell, Hindman and Wasik (2015) explain, children are able to better learn the vocabulary in books when they are given a child-friendly definition prior to reading.  Through explicit instruction (Neuman and Wright, 2013), a child-friendly definition of "pollution" is provided to the students and conveyed further through picture examples, such as images of littering. This will serve as the basis of children's schema on the topic, serving as the "exemplar word" (Neuman and Wright, 2013, p. 44) in which further understanding is based off of.

The word "recycle" is introduced to students. Recycling is prevalent in many schools, but many students might not know the meaning behind the word. Reference will be made to recycling bins and items that can be recycled are shown to the students.

The first text, The Great Trash Bash by Loreen Leedy (1991) is read. Through this book, students will see various examples of pollution and gain a sense of why pollution is a harmful problem for the environment. The story also suggests recycling as a solution and children are exposed to the basic principles of recycling.

After the first reading, students are lead in a guided practice discussion of trash and pollution (Neuman & Wright, 2013). Is pollution good or bad? Where did they see examples of it? Why is it a problem? The text can be re-read and visited with a discussion about what the citizens did to solve this problem, and the steps they took to begin recycling.

Why Should I Recycle? by Jen Green (2002), is read. Through this story, students will learn further details about the items that can be recycled, leading to deeper understanding of this word. The text also applies recycling to many situations in the students' lives, allowing them to connect with the vocabulary.

The word "compost" is explicitly defined to the students. Both of the previous texts made brief reference to a compost. These texts can be referred to enhance the understanding of the word.

Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth by Mary McKenna Siddals (2010) is read aloud. This story informs students of what can be included in a compost and through rhythmic repetition, will help students remember the word. After reading, students can create their own recipe using drawings to represent the steps of composting.

The words "reduce", and "reuse" are explicitly defined to students using the child-friendly definitions. These words have been alluded to in previous texts using the Tier 1 vocabulary that define them, but these technical, Tier 2 terms have not yet been defined (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013). For this reason, students may have a sense of these concepts, but do not know the official vocabulary.

What Happens to Our Trash? by D. J. Ward (2012) is read aloud to the class. This informational text serves as a gentle transition into this genre, as it exhibits the informative characteristics of informational text without being as complex as the final text. This book uses all of the previously taught vocabulary, serving to tie all of the concepts and vocabulary together, helping students to gain a cohesive understanding of the topic.

What Does It Mean to Go Green? by Molly Aloian (2014) is read aloud to the class. Like the prior text, this book uses all of the previously taught vocabulary terms, except this text also uses other content specific Tier 2 and Tier 3 (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013) terms to further enhance the learning experience. This book exhibits more technical features of informational text including a contents page, headings, real photographs with labels and an index. This is the most complex and scientific book in the set, however due to students gradual scaffolding to the topic, vocabulary and text complexity, students will be prepared to understand it.

When the text set is completed further strategies are used such as revisiting the stories and engaging in guided discussions (Schickedanz & Collins, 2013)

Children use their new knowledge to create authentic assessments (Hidden Curriculum, 2015) as they discuss and illustrate a plan to reduce pollution. The class creates posters to encourage the students and staff at their school to reduce human impact on the environment. These activities will elicit further content and vocabulary related dialogue, helping students to apply their new knowledge in meaningful context.

In addition to the above outline, formative assessments can be used throughout the text-set engagement to provide real time feedback on students' understanding of the concepts and vocabulary (Roskos & Neuman, 2012). If students are struggling with specific words, stories may be repeated, or sections revisited to help students acquire an understanding (Schickedanz & Collins, 2013).

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Aloian, M. (2014). What does it mean to go green? New York: Crabtree Publishing Company.

Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction (2nd edition). New York: Guilford Press.

Green, J. (2002). Why should I recycle? Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.

Hidden curriculum (2015, November 10). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from https://www.edglossary.org/assessment/

Leedy, L. (1991). The great trash bash.New York: Holiday House.

Neuman, S.B., & Wright, T.S. (2013).  All about words: Increasing vocabulary in the common core classroom, PreK-2.  New York: Teachers College Press.

NGSS Lead States. (2013). Next Generation Science Standards: For States By States. Washington,DC: National Academies Press.

Roskos, K., & Neuman, S.B. (2012).  Formative assessment: Simply, no additives.  The Reading Teacher 65(8), 534-538.  DOI: 10.1002/TRTR.01079

Schickedanz, J.A., & Collins, M.F. (2013).  So much more than the ABC’s: The early phases of reading and writing.  Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Siddals, M.M., (2010). Compost stew: An A to Z recipe for the earth.New York: Tricycle Press.

Snell, E.K., Hindman, A.H., & Wasik, B.A. (2015).  How can book reading close the word gap? Five key practices from research. The Reading Teacher 68(7), 560-571.

Ward, D.J. (2012). What happens to our trash?New York: Harper Collins

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The chosen vocabulary words are content-related terms (Neuman & Wright, 2013) that are critical to understanding the topic of human impact on the environment and the “cause" and "pattern" relationship between pollution and prevention (NGSS Lead States, 2013).

This text set focuses on the harmful impact of pollution, thus making it a key important word for students to understand.

Through interacting with this text set, children learn the "possible solutions" (NGSS Lead States, 2013) to the problem of pollution: Reducing, reusing and recycling. These words serve as key vocabulary as students understand how they can initiate each one in their own lives.

Another solution to an overabundance of waste is to create a compost. Composting is central to the reduction of household trash, which is the type of waste children are most exposed to. Therefore, this a meaningful, motivational vocabulary term. Not to mention, many young children love talking about worms and dirt!

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This text set is designed for a kindergarten classroom to teach children about human impact on the environment.  Through listening and interacting with this set of predictable, narrative storybook, and informational texts, children will learn key vocabulary and gain conceptual understanding related to pollution and pollution prevention.

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What Does It Mean to Go Green?
by: Molly Aloian (2014)
“Go green” is a phrase often used to summarize the ideals behind environmental conservation. This informational text enlightens readers of what "going green" actually means while providing cautionary insight into the harmful impacts of human created pollution. Readers are informed of the changes that can be made in order to use less and protect environment. Decreasing water use, using items again, donating clothing and recycling  are various means of conservation provided in this book. The text utilizes many features of informational, non-fiction texts (Neuman and Wright, 2013) including bolded headings to navigate the readers, real pictures, labels and subtext to further describe pictures, bolded key-terms and definitions as well as an index. Although the text uses higher level Tier Two words (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013) such as “fumes”, it also provides brief definitions and examples to explain these terms, making it suitable for the read aloud format.

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What Happens to our Trash?
by D.J Ward (2012)

This informational text describes what happens to trash after it is put into our garbage cans and the alerting statistics about the amount of trash we make in the United States. After providing insight into the harmful impacts of so much trash, the author explains the steps that can be taken to stop creating so much waste and the concepts of reduce, reuse, recycle and compost are explored in depth. This text exhibits many of the characteristics of informational texts including “technical vocabulary” with definitions and some simple diagrams (Neuman and Wright, 2013, p. 66). Despite being informational in nature, the author attempts to relate the content to the reader by using the pronoun “you” to bring the reader, or students into the text. This text describes all vocabulary included in the text set, serving as a cohesive collection of concepts related to the topic.

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Why Should I Recycle?
by: Jen Green (2002)
In this narrative story, a group of children discover the different benefits and means of recycling. This book uses question and answer dialogue between a teacher and his students as they explore their fictional town to explain recycling, including the recycling of cans, bottles, paper, plastic as well as food items to create a compost. This story was chosen as it provides a familiar, narrative structure that tells a story while also introducing children to content related vocabulary and information. Throughout the story, the characters are eager to implement their newfound knowledge, encouraging readers to be motivated  to begin their own journey to discovering and learning about pollution prevention. Through this context, the information comes to life, making it more meaningful for young learners (Neuman & Wright (2013).

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Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth
by: Mary McKenna Siddals (2010)
This playful, predictable text explains the steps of composting using rhyme. The story refers to readers as “environmental chefs” as it compares a compost to a stew. In alphabetic order, ingredients such as, “Apple cores, bananas, bruised, coffee grounds with filters, used” are gradually added to the pot by an illustrated girl and her human and animal friends until finally the stew is ready for them to “moisten, toss lightly, cover, let it brew”. This text exposes children to details about composting, a topic often missed in discussions of reducing, reusing and recycling. From engaging with this text, children will gain a sense of the steps of composting, and how a compost benefits the earth. The phrase “compost stew” is used throughout the text, ending each verse, allowing children to “anticipate” which aids in their memory of it. (Neuman & Wright, 2013, p. 70-72).

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Pollution: When chemicals and garbage make the air, water or earth dirty, causing danger to the humans, animals and plants nearby (Tier 2)

The Great Trash Bash (Leedy, 1991, p.11), What Happens of our Trash? (Ward, 2012, p. 14), What Does it Mean to Go Green? (Aloian, 2014, p. 4)

Reduce: To make smaller by using less of something (Tier 2)

What Happens of our Trash? (Ward, 2012, p. 23), What Does it Mean to Go Green (Aloian, 2014, p. 14)

Reuse: To use something more than once (Tier 2)

The Great Trash Bash (Leedy, 1991, p. 30), What Happens to our Trash? (Ward, 2012, p. 24), What Does it Mean to Go Green (Aloian, 2014, p. 16)

Recycle: To make something new from something no longer wanted or needed (Tier 2)

The Great Trash Bash (Leedy, 1991, p. 22),  Why Should I Recycle (Green, 2002, p. 4), Compost Stew (Siddals, 2010, p. 30), What Happens to our Trash? (Ward, 2012, p. 28), What Does it Mean to Go Green (Aloian, 2014, p. 18)

Compost:  A collection of food and plant waste, or leftovers,  stored in a container to break down and turn into dirt (Tier 2)

The Great Trash Bash (Leedy, 1991, p. 23), Why Should I Recycle (Green, 2002, p. 26),  Compost Stew (Siddals, 2010, p. 3), What Happens to our Trash? (Ward, 2012, p. 26), What Does it Mean to Go Green (Aloian, 2014, p. 19)

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From engaging with this text set, children will learn the following big ideas:

Humans create pollution and an overabundance of trash

Pollution has various harmful effects on the environment

Items can be recycled, or made into something new, to decrease the amount of trash

Humans can reduce, or use less of resources to protect the earth

Humans can reuse or donate unwanted items to someone who will use them

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In accordance with the NGSS Lead States (2013), a “crosscutting concept” throughout the science curriculum for kindergarten is “cause and effect” with a focus on “events have causes that generate observable patterns.” In the kindergarten curriculum particularly, students are expected to discuss and develop solutions that aid in the reduction of human impact of the environment. By engaging with this text set, students will meet these standards by learning about the negative pattern of behavior leading to pollution as well as investigate solutions to reduce this impact, specifically through reducing, reusing, recycling and composting.