El Reciclaje -- Recycling in Spanish

I'm so excited that today we started the community action chapter in Spanish class. Part of the chapter focuses on recycling. This gives me a legit way to talk to my (kid) students about what we can and can't recycle. I had already banned throwing away paper in the classroom :) and I make the students use one piece of paper over and over for warm-ups instead of starting on a fresh sheet of paper (Why do they want to do that? I don't get it.) I'm trying to think of something to really push the boundaries and learn Spanish at the same time. Ideas?

Tape

This year I have also been lashing out against tape. In an elementary school it's hard to be a purist about this, because tape is so prevalent. However, I tell the kids that it's better to glue than to tape because tape has plastic and will last forever. Maybe that's oversimplifying things. I'm pretty much making up my explanation, so I thought I'd consult Fake Plastic Fish. Sure 'nuff -- tape has plastic -- she encourages people to use either paper tape or something else.

In the meantime, my students are beginning to think I'm crazy. "She hates tape!" "She thinks the pencil sharpener is too loud!" "She cries out in pain if I throw paper in the trash!"

But come on. The pencil sharpener is REALLY loud. For Pete's sake... what happened to the pencil sharpeners that worked on people power? The electric ones stop class. It can't be money. The manual ones cost about $15 new. The electric ones? Around 30. Wow.

And the magic of giving a kid a little pencil sharpener with a catcher for the shavings? I don't see many of those. But "GGGGGGRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZ!!!!" in the middle of class? ALL the time.