LEARNING TO RECYCLE

At school, Marco's favorite class was crafts. He loved to bath his hands with paint, to draw his colored
pencils from the backpack or to make caster figures and then to give them color. One week, the
teacher announced that they were going to build mini recycling bins. He explained to the children
that they would learn how to distinguish what is going on in each of them. They were going to make
three colors, like the ones we have on the street. Marco noted well in his notebook that blue was for
paper and cardboard, green for glass and yellow for plastic containers. "And cans of soda, Asked the
boy intrigued. "They're in the yellow, Marco. And the milk and sardine cans you love so much, too,
"the teacher explained carefully.

With all his notes well organized in the notebook, Marco asked his mother to accompany him to the
store for the material he had to take the next day to school. She needed large cardboard plates,
yellow, blue and green paint, a fat marker, glue for glue, and scissors.The teacher explained to the
class that this was the symbol of recycling. Marco understood that the arrows meant that things can
be reused when we think they no longer serve us. He understood that recycling is a very useful way
of helping our planet.

If we recycle the newspapers and magazines we've read, we'll have to cut down less trees to make
more paper," she explained.

Marco understood that it was the same with the soda cans, the glass bottles, or the toilet paper flaps.
Everything could be recycled and that's why the children had to learn well in what container
everything went.
In two kinds of crafts, Marco finished his containers and took them home. Because they were small in
size, he could place them in his room.
Since that day, every time he took a juice to snack he knew that the container had to go to the yellow
container and when he wanted to throw a sheet of paper, he knew he had to do it in the blue. Marco

was very happy because, in addition to having done something he liked as much as crafts, he had
learned something very important.

APRENDIENDO A RECICLAR
En el colegio, la clase favorita de Marco era la de manualidades. Le encantaba baarse las manos
con pintura, sacar sus lpices de colores de la mochila o hacer figuras de yeso para despus darles
color. Una semana, la profesora les anunci que iban a construir unos mini contenedores de
reciclaje. Les explic a los nios que as aprenderan a distinguir qu cosa va en cada uno de ellos.
Los iban a fabricar de tres colores, como los que tenemos en la calle. Marco anot bien en su
cuaderno que el azul era para el papel y el cartn, el verde para el vidrio y el amarillo para los
envases de plstico. -Y las latas de refresco, profe? -pregunt intrigado el nio.-Esas van en el
amarillo, Marco. Y los de la leche y las latas de sardinas que tanto te gustan, tambin -le explic
detenidamente la profesora.

Con todas sus notas bien organizadas en el cuaderno, Marco pidi a su madre que le acompaase a
la tienda por el material que tena que llevar al da siguiente al colegio. Necesitaba unas planchas
grandes de cartn, pintura amarilla, azul y verde, un rotulador gordo, cola para pegar y unas tijeras.
La profe explic a la clase que ese era el smbolo del reciclaje. Marco entendi que las flechas
significaban que las cosas se pueden volver a usar cuando creemos que ya no nos sirven. Entendi
que el reciclaje es una manera muy til de ayudar a nuestro planeta.

-Si reciclamos los peridicos y las revistas que ya hemos ledo, habr que cortar menos rboles para
fabricar ms papel -explic la profesora

.
Marco comprendi que pasaba lo mismo con las latas de refrescos, con las botellas de cristal o con
los canutillos del papel higinico. Todo se poda reciclar y por eso los nios tenan que aprender bien
en qu contenedor iba cada cosa.
En dos clases de manualidades, Marco acab sus contenedores y se los pudo llevar a casa. Como
eran de tamao pequeo, los pudo colocar en su habitacin.
Desde ese da, cada vez que se tomaba un jugo para merendar saba que el envase tena que ir al
contenedor amarillo y cuando quera tirar una hoja de papel, saba que tena que hacerlo en el azul.
Marco estaba muy contento porque, adems de haber hecho algo que le gustaba tanto como las
manualidades, haba aprendido algo muy importante.