...garbage processing Mexico City. The article documents the children's exploration of the topic, including their visits to a landfill and recycling plant.

Background Information

The students involved in this project belonged to a kindergarten class in a private school in Mexico City. Only English is used in the classroom. Even though Spanish is the children's native language, the children were able to undertake an in-depth study of garbage in their second language--English. During October 2004, the children had been working on a topic about different jobs and services found in the city. The children started telling stories about garbage collectors they had seen around the city. The children also expressed a special interest in garbage trucks. Seeing their interest in topics related to garbage, I decided to pursue a project on the topic.

Phase 1

Beginning the Project

To generate the children's interest, I placed trash all over the classroom while the children were at their P.E. class. I waited inside the classroom to see their reaction as they walked into their trashed classroom. The children started to come in one by one. They were all surprised and could not believe their eyes. The children could not sit on the carpet or at their chairs because garbage was everywhere. Everyone was asking: "What happened?" "Who did this?" "What are we going to do?" With this last question, our project took off.

[FIGURES 1-2 OMITTED]

I asked the children to sit around the carpet, around the garbage. When all of us had sat down around the garbage, I asked the following question: "What is this?" Several children responded that it was a problem because they could not sit and work. Everyone agreed that garbage was a problem in the classroom. I asked: "Do you have garbage at home?" All the children said yes. We then discussed how...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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