GOOD GARBAGE

POLLUTION MATTERS: GOOD GARBAGE

Learning Description

In this lesson, students will examine the effects of pollution on the ecosystem through music! This project includes students creating new lyrics to a song about pollution. Students will step into the role of lyricists and use music to help others understand the causes and effects of pollution around them.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 3,5
CONTENT FOCUS: MUSIC & SCIENCE
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

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"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can write song lyrics that explain the various types of pollution.
  • I can create an adaptation for a song that relates to pollution and its effects on the environment.
  • I can rehearse and perform a song for an audience.
  • I can explain the effects of pollution on people and the environment.

Essential Questions

  • How can I use music to evaluate and communicate information about the effects of pollution on people and the environment?
  • What are the effects of pollution on people and the environment?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 3:

S3L2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the effects of pollution (air, land, and water) and humans on the environment.

a. Ask questions to collect information and create records of sources and effects of pollution on the plants and animals.

b. Explore, research, and communicate solutions, such as conservation of resources and recycling of materials, to protect plants and animals.

Arts Standards

Grade 3:

VA3PR.1 Creates artworks based on personal experience and selected themes.

VA3PR.2 Understands and applies media, techniques, and processes of two-dimensional art processes (drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed-media) using tools and materials in a safe and appropriate manner to develop skills.

VA3AR.1 Discusses his or her artwork and the artwork of others.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 5:

5-ESS3-1. Evaluate potential solutions to problems that individual communities face in protecting the Earth’s resources and environment.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.

Anchor Standard 2: I can use different materials, techniques, and processes to make art.

Anchor Standard 4: I can organize work for presentation and documentation to reflect specific content, ideas, skills, and or media.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Compare/contrast - To find similarities and differences between two things
  • Cause and effect - A relationship between two events or situations where one event (the cause) directly results in the other event (the effect)
  • Pollution - The introduction of harmful or toxic substances, known as pollutants, into the environment
  • Conservation - The careful management, protection, and preservation of natural resources, the environment, and wildlife to prevent depletion, degradation, or extinction
  • Environment - The conditions and factors surrounding an organism or group of organisms, influencing their development, behavior, and survival. It includes both biotic factors (living elements like plants, animals, bacteria) and abiotic factors (non-living elements like sunlight, temperature, water, soil, and air)
  • Air pollution - Harmful gases and particles are released into the atmosphere, often from vehicle exhaust, factories, and power plants. Common pollutants include carbon dioxide (CO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter
  • Land pollution - Chemicals, pesticides, and waste materials contaminate the soil, often due to improper waste disposal, use of pesticides, or industrial spills. This affects soil quality, plant life, and can contaminate crops.
  • Water pollution - contaminants enter water bodies like rivers, lakes, and oceans, often from agricultural runoff, industrial waste, sewage, and oil spills. This pollution harms aquatic life and can make water unsafe for human consumption.

Arts Vocabulary

  • Color - An element of art with three properties: 1) Hue: the name of the color, e.g. red, yellow, etc., 2) Intensity: the purity and strength of the color (brightness or dullness), 3) Value: the lightness or darkness of the color (shades and tints)
  • Warm colors - Yellow, orange, red (and shades of each)
  • Cool colors - Purple/violet, blue, green (and shades of each)
  • Shape - A flat, enclosed line that is always two-dimensional and can be either geometric or organic
  • Texture - The surface quality, or "feel" of an object, such as roughness, smoothness, or softness. Actual texture can be felt while simulated textures are implied by the way the artist renders areas of the picture.
  • Contrast - The arrangement of opposite elements in a composition (light vs. dark, rough vs. smooth, etc.) Similar to variety, which refers to the differences in a work, achieved by using different shapes, textures, colors and values.
  • Landscape - A type of art that shows a wide expanse of land and shows depth through a background, middle ground, and foreground
  • Background - The area of the artwork that appears furthest away and is smallest
  • Middle ground - The area of the artwork that appears in the middle of the picture plane between the background and middle ground
  • Foreground - The area of the artwork that appears closest and is largest

Materials

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Teacher pre-work: Review the list Suggested Collected Items with students, and ask students to find five or six items to bring into the classroom.

  • Review the items that students brought in. With the class, use Padlet (padlet.com) to generate ideas on how the items can be reused.
  • As a whole class, use the Carbon Footprint Calculator or http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ to determine students’ carbon footprint. Discuss students’ reactions and how their footprint can be improved.

Work Session

Part 1

  • Listen to the song “Good Garbage” by Tom Chapin.
  • Discuss in whole group vocabulary such as compost, biodegradable/non-biodegradable, recycle, reuse and reduce.
  • As a whole group, discuss the author’s purpose of writing the song. Why is it catchy? Discuss the melody, rhythm, tempo, lyrics, chorus, verse, rhyme, etc.
  • Tell students that they will write a verse about pollution to the tune of another song.
  • As a whole group, discuss well-known songs that students may like to use to create/write a class pollution song.
    • Discuss the form of the song (rondo form would be chorus-verse 1-chorus-verse 2-chorus-verse 3-chorus-verse 4-chorus, etc.), rhythm, and tempo of the various songs to ensure that it matches the topic: Pollution and conservation.

Part 2

  • After the song has been selected, write a chorus collaboratively as a class. The chorus should be generic.
  • Divide the class into four groups. Have students create verses for the four categories: Air, land, water, and conservation. Facilitate the writing process.
    • Remind students to communicate their main idea (air, water, or land pollution or conservation) and use supporting details in their lyrics.
    • Students must use at least four relevant facts about their topic in their verse.
    • Students must define their topic (i.e. air pollution) in their verse.
    • Students’ lyrics must fit the form of the song the class selected (tempo, rhyme scheme, melody, rhythm, etc.).

Part 3

  • Review “Good Garbage” song as a whole group.
  • Have the students revise or edit their verses for their song.

Optional: Come up with music for the class song using Quaver or GarageBand.  

Closing Reflection

  • Have students perform the class song. Review audience etiquette and expectations prior to performances.
    • The song will be performed in rondo form: Whole class will sing the chorus, group one will sing their verse, whole class will sing the chorus, group two will sing their verse, whole class will sing the chorus, groups three will sing their verse, whole class will sing the chorus, group four will sing their verse, whole class will sing the chorus.
    • Audience members should discuss the main idea and supporting details of the lyrics of each verse after the performance.

Assessments

Formative

  • Teacher will check for appropriate usage of unit vocabulary during lyric writing.
  • Teacher will observe students’ ability to identify the melody, rhythm, tempo, lyrics, chorus, verse, and rhyme in “Good Garbage”.

Summative

  • Students’ verses meet the following criteria:
    • Use at least four relevant facts about their topic in their verse.
    • Define the topic (i.e. air pollution) in their verse.
    • Fit the form of the song the class selected (tempo, rhyme scheme, melody, rhythm, etc.)

DIFFERENTIATION 

Accelerated: 

  • Students can also create their own instruments to create their music for their group’s songs or use body percussion (stomping, snapping, clapping, etc.)
  • Have students come up with music for their verse using Quaver or GarageBand.

Remedial:

  • Provide students with the lyrics from the “Good Garbage” song to use as a model for writing their verses including sentence frames and a word bank.
  • Have students choose three to five key vocabulary words from the vocabulary list generated in project one to include in their verse.

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

CREDITS

U.S. Department of Education- STEM + the Art of Integrated Learning

Ideas contributed by: Jill McNally, Alisa Moore, Julie Palmieri, Edited by Dr. Carla Cohen, Edited by Jessica Espinoza and Katy Betts

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  June 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

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