This week our student teacher Miss LaSpina did a guided read aloud activity using this book: One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul.

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.

Miss LaSpina lead the class in predicting, discussed some African words, and read the story. Students discussed the message the author was teaching all of us and found details to support this theme in the characters actions.