For this month’s blog, I wanted to show the Knoxville community how Keep Knoxville Beautiful’s educational lessons can increase environmental awareness in youth. In the fall of 2025, two of the Knox County schools that KKB frequently visited were Christenberry Elementary and West View Elementary. The 1st graders at Christenberry did the Litter Lesson with litter lookers (binoculars made from recycled toilet paper rolls), the 3Rs Lesson, and the Pollution Lesson. The 3rd graders at West View did the Litter, 3Rs, Composting, Carbon Footprint, and Pollution Lessons. All the students really enjoyed the lessons, so I reached out to the teachers to get the students’ perspectives on the lessons and what they had learned over the fall months. Mrs. Andrews’s 1st-grade students and Mr. Strasser’s 3rd-grade students gave lots of great, eye-opening, and funny answers!

#1: What was your favorite lesson and why?

“The recycling lesson beacuase it helps you know which place you’re supposed to put trash and recycling.” - Emmanuella, West View 3rd Grade
“The [compost] bottles because we got to compost stuff.” - Paizlee, West View 3rd Grade

#2: What activity, book, or game did you like the most?

“Michael Recycle!” - Reuelah, Christenberry 1st Grade
“I liked when we made the toilet paper rolls into litter lookers!” - Sydnei, Christenberry 1st Grade

#3: Why is littering bad?

“Littering is bad for the planet and it doesn’t help our environment grow. It kills most of the plants and it’s also bad for the oxygen, the animals, and if it gets into the rivers or oceans it will pollute it.” - Jackson, West View 3rd Grade
“Because it doesn’t help the Earth” (What will happen if there’s litter on the ground?) “The Earth will feel bad and sad.” - Sydnei, Christenberry 1st Grade

#4: What are you going to do to stop littering in Knoxville?

“I am going to make an announcement by saying everybody listen! Nobody should litter or else somebody could get hurt. When I be president, I’m going to tell everybody to not litter!” - Reuelah, Christenberry 1st Grade
“Put lots of trash cans nearby where people can see them.” - Ráique, West View 3rd Grade

#5: Why should we recycle and reuse things instead of throwing them away?

“Beacause if you throw it away, it adds more to the landfills so they are taking up more of our Earth. And we should recycle because they will go to a factory and they crush it to make it into new stuff.” - Colton, West View 3rd Grade
“Because maybe what you recycle it into can be better than what you throw away! And if you throw it away it’s not going to get turned into something and they’re just going to burn it down and crush it with trucks and put it into a dump pile and it’s going to be a big pile of trash that is going to smell bad. It is taking up space and wasting stuff while we could be reusing and turning it into better things.” - Trendon, West View 3rd Grade

#6: Why is it important that we stop littering, start recycling, and help prevent pollution?

“Because the Earth doesn’t like it and we will make the earth dirty and sad.” - Sydnei, Christenberry 1st Grade
“Help stop global warming!” - Dani, West View 3rd Grade

#7: How will you help keep Knoxville and the Earth clean and beautiful?

“Telling people to treat the Earth the way it is supposed to be treated!” - Reuelah, Christenberry 1st Grade
“If you see things on the ground you can obviously pick it up and if you see somebody throwing stuff out their window you can pick that up for them and give it to them. Also, why are y’all being lazy [littering]?!” - Cali, West View 3rd Grade
“I’m thinking about getting my church to get gloves and bags and do a daily or once a week clean up around the neighborhood and pick up trash.” - Dani, West View 3rd Grade