Teaching Sequence

50 minutes - Part A: Analysing junk mail
10 minutes - Reflection

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Analysing junk mail

Preparation - Begin this activity by asking your class collect junk mail from home (if they have any) and bring it to school. You could do this over one week or several weeks. Also ask other staff at school to do the same so that you end up with a decent pile of junk mail that you can use in the classroom.

Step 1.

Invite students to sit in a discussion circle and in the centre of the circle place all the junk mail you and your students have collected. Engage your students in a class discussion around the following questions:

What is junk mail?
Why do we receive it?
What is it made from?
Do you ever read it?

Use the following points to guide your suggested answers and discussion.

Junk mail:

Is usually advertising for a shop, for something you can buy or for a service you can pay for.
Is not usually addressed to anyone in particular.
Is usually pretty boring - nothing very exciting will come as junk mail.
Is made from paper and comes from trees.
Uses up many, many trees each year (around the world more than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail).
Is one of the main type of rubbish made at home (in America, the amount of junk mail produced over 5 days would reach the moon).

As you discuss your answers, invite students to look closely at the junk mail and to use examples from the junk mail to justify their answers (e.g. "This one is selling something from a shop", "This one is selling a service", and "This one is selling something that I would never use or want").

Step 2.

Now invite students to suggest ways they can use maths to measure the junk mail they have collected. Consider the following:

Sorting the mail from smallest to largest. (TIP: What other categories can you use to sort the mail? Colour? Product? Newspapers? etc.)
Weigh your junk mail. (TIP: You could also weigh the different categories you created.)
Measure the area that your junk mail covers (spread it out on the floor).
Count how many pieces of junk mail you have collected. (TIP: Count how many different types of mail according to the different categories you sorted the mail into.)
Make a junk mail ‘washing line’ and see how far all your junk mail stretches.

Step 3.

To extend the life of your junk mail further, consider using the junk mail in the following ways:

Use your junk mail in paper mache projects.
Use your junk mail as scrap paper to cover tables when doing art projects.
Paint your junk mail and use it in art and craft projects.
Paint your junk mail and use it as personalised wrapping paper.
Make paper out of your junk mail (see Making Paper worksheet).
Make junk mail snowflakes and other cutouts.

Step 4.

Finally, explain to students that the best way to reduce the impact of junk mail on our environment and to reduce the number of trees that are chopped down to make junk mail is to refuse it. You can do this by making a "No Junk Mail" sign for your letter box. Students can create their own or use the one on the Student Worksheet.

Reflection

Invite students to work in pairs to suggest answers to the following question:

Why is it important to look after our environment?

Teacher Reflection

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

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