We are targeting the following curricular standards: *Civics/Government Standard-Benchmark 3: "The student demonstrates leadership qualities by taking on responsibilities in the classroom and home. (The leadership will actually be in the lunchroom. Students from two classrooms will help sort the lunch waste.) Benchmark 5, K1: The students list ways people can maintain or help the quality of their environment. (We will make posters for the hallways informing other students and school visitors about ways they can reduce the amount of food and other trash that is dumped into our landfill. We will also send information in our class newsletters...possibly even in our school newsletters. ) *Science, Standard 1: Science As Inquiry B1K2: The student classifies and arranges groups of objects by a variety of properties, one property at a time. (We will sort things according to their properties, i.e., paper, plastic, glass, styrofoam, etc.) *Math, Standard 1, B3: Estimation-The student uses a computational estimation with whole numbers in a variety of situations. (We will estimate the weight of the food waste and the compost that it produces. ) Benchmark 4: The student models, performs, and explains computation with whole numbers using concrete objects in a variety of situations. (Students will compute the difference between our estimates and the actual weights. They will justify their calculations verbally &/or pictorally.)