Plastic shopping bags became widely used in the 1980s. They're popular
with manufacturers because they are cheaper to make than paper bags and
popular with consumers because of their convenience. (How many of us
have carried four or five bags of groceries in one hand while bringing them
into the house, right?)
Manufacturers have justified making plastic shopping bags by claiming it was
good for the environment... it reduced the number of trees being cut each
year. However, plastic shopping bags have actually hurt the environment
in large parts of the world. One Plastic Bag by Miranda Paul is
the true story of how plastic shopping bags have wreaked havoc in one
community and how a woman named Isatou Ceesay was determined to do something
about it. Keep reading to learn more about One Plastic Bag, how
you can use it in the classroom, and for a simple art enrichment activity that
repurposes plastic shopping bags.
Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.
Author's Summary
The inspiring true story of how one African woman began a movement to recycle the plastic bags that were polluting her community. Plastic bags are cheap and easy to use. But what happens when a bag breaks or is no longer needed? In Njau, Gambia, people simply dropped the bags and went on their way. One plastic bag became two. Then ten. Then a hundred. The bags accumulated in ugly heaps alongside roads. Water pooled in them, bringing mosquitoes and disease. Some bags were burned, leaving behind a terrible smell. Some were buried, but they strangled gardens. They killed livestock that tried to eat them. Something had to change. Isatou Ceesay was that change. She found a way to recycle the bags and transform her community. This inspirational true story shows how one person's actions really can make a difference in our world.🍎🌍 Title: One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia
🍎🌍 Author: Miranda Paul
🍎🌍 Illustrator: Elizabeth Zunon
🍎🌍 Publisher: Millbrook Press
🍎🌍 Date: February 1, 2015
🍎🌍 Pages: 32
Geography Minilesson
One Plastic Bag takes place in The Gambia. Chances are that
the majority of your students won't know where The Gambia is. Before
reading One Plastic Bag with your students, pull out a world
map. Help your students locate where they live. What
country? What city/town? What state/province? Next, find
The Gambia in Western Africa. The Gambia is a small country along
the Atlantic Ocean and surrounded by Senegal. What is the capital of
The Gambia? What other cities and towns in the Gambia do you
see? What is the main river in The Gambia? The Gambia is near
the equator and along the Atlantic Ocean... what do you think the weather
and climate might be like?
Language Arts Minilesson
"People thought I was too young and that women couldn't be leaders. I
took these things as challenges; they gave me power. I didn't call out
the problems- I called out solutions." -Isatou Ceesay
One Plastic Bag is the true story of how Isatou Ceesay saw a problem in her community and came up with a solution to do something about it. The plastic bags thrown on the ground were causing major problems... village goats were eating them and dying, food couldn't grow in gardens because the soil was smothered by the bags, and villagers were burning the bags which caused toxic fumes to fill the air.
As you and your students read One Plastic Bag together, talk about
Isatou and what you learn about her from the book. What do you learn
about Isatou's values and character? Help your students use their
inferencing and cause-and-effect skills. For example...
We know Isatou cares about other people. We know this because she uses
the earnings from selling the coin purses to help the people in her village.
We know protecting the environment is important to Isatou because she takes
the time to pick the plastic bags off of the ground and make items out of
them.
What are some other examples your students come up with?
In the story One Plastic Bag, Isatou Ceesay becomes frustrated by the number of plastic bags littering her community, so she decides to do something about it. She and some of her friends gather the plastic bags, cut them into strips, and then crochet coin purses out of them.
Art Enrichment Activity
“One plastic bag becomes two. Then ten. Then a hundred.” -Isatou
Ceesay
In the story One Plastic Bag, Isatou Ceesay becomes frustrated by the number of plastic bags littering her community, so she decides to do something about it. She and some of her friends gather the plastic bags, cut them into strips, and then crochet coin purses out of them.
This art enrichment activity is inspired by Isatou and her
friends. Your students won't be crocheting coin purses... it's too
time-consuming and difficult for small fingers... but this simple
activity will help them understand they can repurpose plastic bags into
something creative and useful... just like Isatou and her friends did!
(If you want to try crocheting plastic bags, however, watch this video
featuring Isatou Ceesay for directions.)
For this activity, you will need:
🍎🌍 three plastic shopping bags per student
🍎🌍 scissors
🍎🌍 glue
🍎🌍 cardstock, cardboard, or tagboard
- Cut the plastic bags into strips. (I used one white, one blue, and one yellow plastic bag.)
- Tie these strips together until you have three long strands that are even in length. (I made one long white strand, one long blue strand, and one long yellow strand.)
- Braid these strands together.
- Roll the finished braid into a circle and glue it onto the cardstock.
- Lay flat to dry.
After the glue has dried, you can leave the end product as is or turn it
into something else. If I were to keep the end product as it looks
in the photo above, I could add a moon and some stars to the cardstock
and create a planet in outer space! Instead, I cut around my
braided circle and made a coaster that can be used to hold little
cups. Use your imagination to reduce, reuse, recycle, or repurpose
your plastic braids into something else. What else can you do with
plastic shopping bags?
(My cat photobombed my photoshoot. 😻😻😻 Meet my cat,
Sheldon!)
Did you enjoy reading about One Plastic Bag and
Isatou Ceesay? If so, check out these blog posts about more
children's books and activities with environmental themes:
- Craft: How to Upcycle and Reuse Old Books to Make Beautiful Bookmarks
- Book + Printable: Watch Over Our Water by Lisa Bullard
- Book: Saving Planet Earthly by ClimateScience
- Craft: How to Make a Milk Carton Gingerbread House Christmas Craft
- Podcast: The Adventures of Scout by the3engineers
- STEM: How to Grow Celery from Scraps STEM Activity
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