Classroom activity Grade 2 Math

Amber Marsh Creek Cleanup Relay: A Grade 2 Sorting and Counting Game

A 30-minute grade 2 relay where two teams race to sort litter picture cards from Amber Marsh Creek into Recycle or Trash bins, then compare their correct-sort totals.

Grade: Grade 2
Subject: Math
Material: Classroom activity
Time: 30 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: 32 litter picture cards (16 per team, described in the Student Handout), 2 labeled bins per team: Recycle and Trash, Timer or stopwatch, Blue painter's tape to mark the creek bank

Standards

2.OA.A.1 Common Core Math

Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

How this material aligns: During the debrief, students solve compare and put-together word problems using both teams' correct-sort totals from the relay, matching this standard's word-problem types with unknowns in different positions.

All materials for 2.OA.A.1 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-16.

Objectives

Students will sort pictures of litter items into Recycle or Trash categories.
Students will count each team's correct-sort total.
Students will compare and combine two teams' totals using addition and subtraction within 100.

Vocabulary

Key words: recycle, litter, combined, compare

Teacher overview

This is a whole-class relay for two teams of equal size. At Amber Marsh Creek (a fictional cleanup site marked with blue tape along one wall of the classroom for this activity), litter picture cards stand in for real trash a volunteer might find along a creek bank. Two bins per team, labeled Recycle and Trash, let each team physically make the same sorting decision a real cleanup volunteer makes with every piece of litter picked up.

Activity Directions

Before class, label two bins "Recycle" and "Trash" for each team, and prepare two identical decks of 16 litter picture cards, one per team (see the Student Handout for the full list). Read the concept aloud once: items like bottles, cans, and jars can be recycled and go in the Recycle bin; items like wrappers and broken plastic pieces cannot be recycled here and go in the Trash bin.
Divide the class into Team A and Team B, and have each team line up single file behind its own shuffled deck of 16 cards, placed face down on a table.
On "go," start the timer. The first student in Team A's line runs to the table, turns over the top card, decides Recycle or Trash, places it in the matching bin, and runs back to tag the next teammate, who repeats the process with the next card.
Team A's relay ends once all 16 cards have been placed in a bin, or after 4 minutes, whichever comes first. Record Team A's time and pause the game.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 for Team B with their own separate deck of 16 cards.
With the class watching, check each team's bins against the answer key in the Student Handout and count how many cards each team placed correctly.
Lead the debrief: as a worked example, tell students, "Suppose Team A sorted 13 cards correctly out of 16, and Team B sorted 15 correctly out of 16." Use these example totals to answer the debrief questions, then repeat the same questions using the actual class results.

Amber Marsh Creek Cleanup Relay: A Grade 2 Sorting and Counting Game — Grade 2 Math

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Litter cards (16 per team):

Recycle: plastic bottle, aluminum can, glass jar, cardboard box, plastic jug, tin can, newspaper, glass bottle
Trash: snack wrapper, plastic bag, foam cup piece, broken toy piece, food wrapper, drinking straw, candy wrapper, foam packing piece

Debrief questions:

Look at the 16 cards for one team. How many cards belong in the Recycle bin, and how many cards belong in the Trash bin?
Suppose Team A sorted 13 cards correctly and Team B sorted 15 cards correctly. How many more cards did Team B sort correctly than Team A?
Using those same team results, how many cards did both teams sort correctly altogether?
Why is it important to keep trash like plastic bags out of a real creek?

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key

Answer: 8 cards belong in the Recycle bin (plastic bottle, aluminum can, glass jar, cardboard box, plastic jug, tin can, newspaper, glass bottle), and 8 cards belong in the Trash bin (snack wrapper, plastic bag, foam cup piece, broken toy piece, food wrapper, drinking straw, candy wrapper, foam packing piece).
Debrief question: "Using the example results (Team A: 13 correct out of 16, Team B: 15 correct out of 16), how many more cards did Team B sort correctly than Team A?" Answer: 2 more cards. 15 minus 13 equals 2.
Debrief question: "How many cards did both teams sort correctly altogether, using the example results?" Answer: 28 cards. 13 + 15 = 28.
Debrief question: "Why is it important to keep trash like plastic bags out of a real creek?" Answer: Litter left near a creek can wash into the water, where it can hurt fish and other animals or make the water unsafe, so keeping trash out of the creek in the first place matters.

Differentiation

Support

Reduce each team's deck to 8 cards (4 Recycle, 4 Trash) and post a picture-only answer key at each bin for self-checking.

Extension

Challenge students to sort three additional "tricky" items, such as a juice pouch, a paper towel, and a greasy pizza box, and defend whether each belongs in Recycle or Trash.

ELL supports

Use picture-only cards for every student, and pair the spoken direction "recycle" or "trash" with a simple hand gesture (a circular motion for recycle, a flat toss motion for trash) that the whole class performs together before the relay starts.