Classroom Tools & Worksheets
The Solid Waste District offers worksheets, education materials and lesson plans for teachers, educators and youth leaders.
The District's educator has worksheets, education materials, lesson plans and a newsletter for teachers and classrooms in Cuyahoga County.
For details about resources for teachers, contact our education specialist at (216) 443-3731 or send an email.
Classroom Tools & Worksheets
Mission: Recycle Newspaper
Youth learn how to reduce, reuse and recycle correctly in Cuyahoga County. This newspaper is intended for students in grades 3 - 4. A teacher guide is included.
Request copies of the Mission: Recycle Newspaper + Teacher Guide for your classroom by contacting our education specialist.
- Mission: Recycle newspaper, fourth edition (2019). Available in hard copy.
- Mission: Recycle newspaper, third edition (2018). Available in hard copy.
- Mission: Recycle newspaper, second edition (2017). Available in hard copy or see the PDF.
- Mission: Recycle newspaper, first edition (2016). Available in hard copy or see the PDF.
Early Education Worksheets
Early educators teach the youngest recyclers. The Solid Waste District offers a series of early education worksheets that allow kids to practice motor skills, math, language, and thinking skills while focusing on the sustainable material management known as reduce, reuse and recycle.
Working with other early educators, the District created a series of worksheets to use in the classroom. Consider using the worksheets with lessons, during free time, or as extras during bell work. If time is limited during school or daycare, consider sending the worksheets home with students.
By using the worksheets during a child's early education years, parents and educators can pass along good environmental habits like reducing waste through using less, reusing, recycling and composting.
- Compost Worksheets: 4 pages, PDF download
- Recycle Worksheets: 6 pages, PDF download
- Reduce Worksheets: 3 pages, PDF download
- Reuse Worksheets: 5 pages, PDF download
Lesson Plans
Our educator provides lesson plans and classroom activities for teachers, educators and student organizations.
- Composting Lesson
- Litter Prevention Lesson
- Municipal Solid Waste Lesson
- Pollution Lesson
- Recycling Lesson
Lessons have been adapted from:
Reduce, Reuse Recycle, Sandra Ford Grove and Dr. Judi Hecktman Creative Teaching Press, 1996.
Super Savers Investigators, ODNR, DRLP, 1995.
Investigating Solid Waste Issues, David Landis ODNR, DRLP, 1994.
Keep Middletown Beautiful, Activity Guide Pre-K to 3 grade, Lynn Getter, 2000.
Newsletter for Educators
Our education specialist issues a quarterly Recycling Education Resources newsletter about recycling education, environmental-based contests and sustainable projects happening in Northeast Ohio and Cuyahoga County. Sign-up for the newsletter.
Links for Teachers
Websites of interest featuring reduce, reuse, recycle and other topics for educators.
The oldest national nonprofit conservation organization in the United States. Acts as pathfinders for creating healthy forests from coast to coast.
Creating opportunities for people and organizations to plant trees around the world.
Ensures America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.
Connects people with scientists worldwide to conduct environmental research and empowers them with the knowledge they need to conserve the planet.
Formed by a group of concerned neighbors and health professionals in response to pervasive health hazards in Northeast Ohio homes and communities.
STEM and education activities that focus on the development and enhancement of workforce skills to engage and inspire the future clean energy workforce.
Tracks and reports greenhouse gas emissions, leverages sound science, and works to reduce emissions to combat climate change.
Develop citizens literate about the relationships between agriculture, the environment, and human populations.
Global nonprofit that pioneered the ecolabeling movement with a mission to transform the economy for a healthier, greener world.
Learn how to become a savvier consumer and an effective environmental and public health advocate with toolkits and how-tos.
Connects people, businesses, and communities through local groundwater education and action, making us all part of the solution for clean, sustainable, groundwater.
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Has a vision of thriving, diverse, equitable communities.
Support educators and families with grant funding, original educational resources, inspiration, and community to get more kids learning through the garden.
An interdisciplinary environmental education curriculum for middle and high school students.
America's largest and most trusted conservation organization, works across the country to unite Americans from all walks of life in giving wildlife a voice.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Provides environmental education opportunities for students, educators, and the general public with a focus on Ohio’s plants and animals, geology, wetlands, and other natural resource topics.
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment.
Provides K-12 teachers with innovative, hands-on lesson plans and professional development to teach about human population growth and its effects on the environment and human well-being.
Renewable Natural Resources Foundation
A consortium whose primary purpose is to advance science, the application of science, and public education in managing and conserving renewable natural resources.
Organization of experts across disciplines working to accelerate the clean energy transition and improve lives.
A grassroots environmental organization in the United States that works to defend everyone’s right to a healthy world.
Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of Natural History
Dedicated to inspiring people of all ages to better understand the natural world and our place in it, by instilling a sense of wonder and responsibility through exhibitions, programs, and online resources.
Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation
A nonprofit public-private partnership, committed to environmental education.
Union of Concerned Scientists - Confronting Climate Change
Uses rigorous, independent science to solve our planet's most pressing problems.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Provide economic opportunity through innovation, helping rural America to thrive; to promote agriculture production that better nourishes Americans while also helping feed others throughout the world; and to preserve our Nation's natural resources through conservation, restored forests, improved watersheds, and healthy private working lands.
U.S. EPA: Learning and Teaching About the Environment
Provides K-12 students and educators with access to quality homework resources, lesson plans and project ideas for learning and teaching about the environment.
U.S. EPA: What's Up With Our Nation's Waters?
EPA office works to protect our freshwater, estuarine, coastal and ocean ecosystems, including watersheds and wetlands.
Works with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.
U.S. Geological Survey: National Map
Includes topographic maps and geographic information system (GIS) data for elevation, hydrography, watersheds, geographic names, orthoimagery, governmental units/boundaries, transportation, and land cover.
A web-based environmental research organization specializing in the field of Zero Waste. Provides information on associated legislative, legal, technical, environmental, health, and consumer issues.