Diana Leahy- PS 84 dleahy2@schools.nyc.gov

Introduction

What is happening at lunch time; are we tasting our food or wasting our food? Each day at school, we’ve noticed that a lot of food goes to waste during our first-grade lunch period.

○ Did you know that a study on school cafeteria waste found that 27% to 53% of the food served in an American elementary school was thrown away? (-Todd Butterworth 3/23/23)

That’s a lot of wasted food!

Task

Let’s work together to come up with ways to fix this problem the best we can! Over the course of a school week, we will work in groups to either create a poster, a graphic organizer, or even a catchy poem to find solutions to our first-grade food waste problem!

Process & Resources

Think back to our lesson on class hygiene “Cover Your Sneeze, Please!” We worked together using the 6 step PPA Process to create policies and come up with ways to keep ourselves healthy and practice good hygiene in our class. Now, we’re going to use that SAME process to create policies and come up with solutions to our first-grade food waste problem!

Let’s refresh our memory on the PPA Six Steps:

Define the Problem (What is wrong?)
Gather Evidence (How do we know this is a problem?)
Identify the Cause (Why is this problem happening?)
Evaluate the Existing Policies (Are there rules to help this problem?)
Develop a Solution (How can we FIX the problem?)
Select the BEST Solution (Which solution works best for us?)

Step 1: Define The Problem

Each day at school, we’ve noticed that a lot of food goes to waste during our first-grade lunch period. Why are we wasting so much food? What could be the cause of this problem? Work in your groups to brainstorm reasons.

Step 2: Gather Evidence

With your group, discuss what you notice during lunchtime about food waste. Are your friends at your table eating their lunch or throwing it away? Check in with your group mates to see if they finished all of their lunch that day or not.

Lunch Survey T-Chart

Step 3: Identify The Cause

Look at the information you collected with your groupmates. Out of the children who said they did not finish their lunch and threw it out, what was their reason? Did they not like their lunch? Did they not have enough time to finish? Discuss some causes with your groupmates.

Step 4: Evaluate The Existing Policies

Now that we know more about the food waste in our school community and what we think might be causing this waste, let’s look at the policies and rules in place!

● NYC Schools Zero Waste Guide

● NYC DOE Waste Reduction and Recycling

● USDA Food Waste Reduction Program

Step 5: Develop A Solution

We’ve gathered the evidence, we’ve thought of some causes, and we’ve even researched policies and rules in place to help with our food waste problem. Now it’s YOUR turn to come up with a solution to fix this problem. You will work with your groups to either create a poster, a graphic organizer, or a poem that can help solve our first grade problem!

Food Waste- Big Problem, Simple Solutions!

Step 6: Select The BEST Solution

Let’s come together as a class to observe all of our group solutions and decide which solution we think would work BEST to solve our food waste problem in first grade.

Step 7: Solution Evaluations

Here are the first-grade rubrics we will use to check over our work and evaluate our solutions.

POSTER RUBRIC	You Got It! 😀	Almost There🙂	Keep Working😕
Group Work	Always worked hard with group mates in a helpful manner. Always contributed ideas and helped with finished product.	Sometimes worked well with groupmates in a helpful manner. Contributed some ideas and helped with finished product.	Rarely worked well with groupmates in a helpful manner. Rarely contributed ideas and helped with finished product.
Content Knowledge	Had an excellent understanding of the topic.	Had a good understanding of the topic.	Had limited understanding of the topic.
Content Presentation	The purpose of the poster is clear and creative.	The purpose of the poster is somewhat clear and creative.	The purpose of the poster is unclear and needs more detail.

GRAPHIC ORGANIZER RUBRIC	You Got It! 😀	Almost There🙂	Keep Working😕
Group Work	Always worked hard with group mates in a helpful manner. Always contributed ideas and helped with finished product.	Sometimes worked well with groupmates in a helpful manner. Contributed some ideas and helped with finished product.	Rarely worked well with groupmates in a helpful manner. Rarely contributed ideas and helped with finished product.
Content Knowledge	Had an excellent understanding of the topic.	Had a good understanding of the topic.	Had limited understanding of the topic.
Content Presentation	The purpose of the graphic organizer is clear with problem and solution correctly sorted.	The purpose of the graphic organizer is somewhat clear with problem and solution correctly sorted.	The purpose of the graphic organizer is unclear with problem and solution incorrectly sorted.

POEM RUBRIC	You Got It! 😀	Almost There🙂	Keep Working😕
Group Work	Always worked hard with group mates in a helpful manner. Always contributed ideas and helped with finished product.	Sometimes worked well with groupmates in a helpful manner. Contributed some ideas and helped with finished product.	Rarely worked well with groupmates in a helpful manner. Rarely contributed ideas and helped with finished product.
Content Knowledge	Had an excellent understanding of the topic.	Had a good understanding of the topic.	Had limited understanding of the topic.
Content Presentation	The purpose of the poem is clear and creative.	The purpose of the poem is somewhat clear and creative.	The purpose of the poem is unclear and needs more detail.

Conclusion

As a class, we worked together in our groups to understand the impact of food waste in the lunchroom and why it happens. With your help, we came up with some great solutions to help solve this problem in our school community.

Standards

1R1: Develop and answer questions about key ideas and details in a text. (RI&RL)

1R2: Identify a main topic or central idea in a text and retell important details. (RI&RL)

1R9: Make connections between self and text (texts and other people/ world). (RI&RL)

1W4: Create a response to a text, author, theme or personal experience (e.g., poem, dramatization, artwork, or other).

1W6: Develop questions and participate in shared research and explorations to answer questions and to build knowledge.

1W7: Recall and represent relevant information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question in a variety of ways.

1SL1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults (e.g., in small and large groups and during play).

1SL2: Develop and answer questions about key details in diverse texts and formats.

1SL5: Create or utilize existing visual displays to support descriptions to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings. 1SL6: Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly, using complete sentences when appropriate to task, situation, and audience.

1STVA:Cr1.2.1a: Use observation and exploration in preparation for making a work of art.