Green Living in the Music Classroom.

Brittany Peterson

Classroom Materials• Usage - Each year Americans use more

than 50 million tons of paper. This is equivalent to more than 850 million trees.

• Waste - Paper is the leading product thrown away and makes up around 31% of our landfills.

• Energy Use – Paper manufactures are the third highest energy consumers, using 11.5 % of all available energy.

• Pollution - Paper manufactures are ranked third in pollution to the air and fifth in pollution to surface water. – Forest Ethics. "Catastrophic Consumption." Forest

Ethics. www.environmentalpaper.org/documents/ catalog-impacts.pdf.

Non-Paper OptionsProvide each student with laminated staff paper, a dry erase marker, and a small piece of material to use for erasing. Not only will this reduce the amount of paper used each day, but it can be used as a fast assessment tool. Simply ask students to hold up their answers!Technology is a wonderful thing. Format homework and class notes to be used on a computer. Flash drives could be used to store and transfer work. Smart boards are also a great way to teach without using paper. Any actions taken to reduce paper can greatly affect our rainforests.Make sure to take an opportunity to educate students on the importance of reducing paper consumption, as they are the future population. (Peterson, 2011)

Lessons• Plan your lessons to involve concepts of green

living such as:– Sustainability ("Meeting the needs of the present generation

without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.“) (Merriam-Webster, 2011)

– Recycling– Helping Honey Bees– Planting Trees– Waste Reduction

Recycling Lesson• Ask students to bring in different

“instruments”.– Snap

• Rubber band on a soda bottle– Thud

• 2 Liter soda bottle and something to hit it with

– Clank• Aluminum Can and something

to hit it with.– Ping

• Glass bottle and something to hit it with

• After playing instruments take time to explain the importance of recycling.

• Be an example and take all “instruments” to a recycling center. (Peterson, 2011)

JUNK BAND

Honey Bees Lesson• Honey bees are responsible for

approximately one third of our food supply.

• In the past three years one third of all colonies have died. This may be cause by CCD.

• CCD – Colony Collapse Disorder – when bees desert their hive and die as a result.

• Scientists are unsure of what is causing CCD, but it may have something to do with any of the following:– Mites– Chemical Exposure– Viruses– Poor Nutrition(Häagen-Dazs, 2008)

• As a listening example have students listen to Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.• Explain the honey bee crisis and let them know what they can do to help.• Something many students will be

able to do is plant a bee friendly garden.

Save the TreesEvery year across the planet, more than 13 million hectares of forests are cleared for paper, use of the land, or lost to natural causes. Thanks to afforestation programs last year we added nearly seven million hectares of forest. While it is wonderful that we have reduced our deforestation slightly and have started to put back what we take, this is still a net loss of five million. We are taking steps in the right direction, but it only makes sense to plant as many trees as we cut down!

Deforestation - the action or process of clearing of forestsAfforestation - the act or process of establishing a forest especially on land not previously forested (FAO, 2011)

1 hectare = 10 000 m2

Planting Trees Lesson• When teaching folk tunes such as:

– Land of the Silver Birch– The Birch Tree

• Conclude the lesson with an activity where students have a hands on experiences where they get to plant a tree and learn about their importance.– Team up with the school science teacher

to make this a combined classroom activity.

– Of course you can still have the children sing the new songs they learned!

– Could take a field trip to local wildlife facility on arbor day! (Peterson, 2011)

GREEN LIVING SONGS

• What better way to teach children about Green Living than through song?– Singing has been proven to help

children retain knowledge– This would combine both music

and green living into one subject. – Write your own songs– Have kids write the songs– Find songs online

• http://catalog.classroom-plus.com/product_info.php?products_id=1514105

• (DTLK’s, 2011)

What Can Teachers Do?• Be a good role model, students are ALWAYS watching!– Energy Consumption• Turn off lights, computers, and other electrical

appliances when not in use.• Many appliances actually continue to use electricity

when they are idle. – Plug all appliances into power strips so you can

simply flip a switch when you are done.• Get together with other teachers and make a

designated lunch room.– Have one large refrigerator for the entire building

rather than individual miniatures.–One microwave–One coffee maker (Sarah Russel, 2008)

– Purchase earth friendly products that are biodegradable. (capable of being broken down especially into innocuous products by the action of living things) (Merriam-Webster, 2011)

• Cleaners• Materials – markers, glue, paper, ect. (Sarah Russel, 2008)

– Use as little water as possible• Turn off faucet in between washing hands and using

soap.– Set up a classroom based competition to see which class

can recycle the most! (Peterson, 2011)

•New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Too Many Bottles - It's a Waste. Last modified 2006. http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/waterbottles.pdf.

Plastic Epidemic

Public Awareness•In 2006 nearly 32 million bottles of water were consumed in America.•Plastic can take up to one thousand years to decompose.•Concerts are a great way to raise awareness. • Set up a fundraiser in advance to

sell water canteens in different colors, maybe even a school logo.

• Encourage parents to purchase canteens rather than water bottles for their children’s lunches.

• This would raise money and reduce the consumption of plastic and the amount of waste sent to landfill (NYSDEC,2006)

Works Cited• Forest Ethics. "Catastrophic Consumption." Forest Ethics. www.environmentalpaper.org/documents/

catalog-impacts.pdf.• TopicSites. "Save the Environment Paper Usage Statistics." TopicSites. Accessed 2011.

http://www.topicsites.com/save-environment/paper-usage-statistics.htm. • Bear Springs Blossom Nature Education. "Sustainability." How to Keep Earth Beautiful. Last modified April

2011. http://www.keepbanderabeautiful.org/ sustainability.html?gclid=CPqss4b_pqgCFeQSNAodECLpH• Häagen-Dazs. "Honey Bee Crisis." Help the Honey Bees. Last modified June 9, 2008.

http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/#crisis. • New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Too Many Bottles - It's a Waste. Last

modified 2006. http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/waterbottles.pdf.• DLTK. "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." DLTK Growing together. Accessed 2011. http://www.dltk-kids.com/

crafts/earth/rrr.htm. • 1. Merriam-Webster, s.v. "Deforestation," last modified 2011, http://www.merriam-webster.com/

dictionary/deforestation. • FAO. "World deforestation decreases, but remains alarming in many countries." Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United Nations. Last modified 2011. http://www.fao.org/news/story/pt/item/ 40893/icode/en/.

• Creative Catalog Concepts LLC. "Classroom." Going Green! . Last modified 2011. http://catalog.classroom-plus.com/product_info.php?products_id=1514105.

• Russel, Sarah. "50 Ways to Go Green in the Classroom." TeachingTips. Last modified 2008. http://www.teachingtips.com/blog/2008/06/23/50-ways-to-go-green-in-the-classroom/.