We have been working hard this quarter! We connected with the 2nd grade classes to teach them all about recycling. We created presentations about recycling and shared them with the 2nd grade classes. First we planned and practiced our PowerPoints, then we shared our information in small groups with each of the four classes. We helped them complete a review paper on Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. We had great feedback from the teachers and some of the students even made posters after we left! We also left them with some Earth Day treats, and also delivered these to all the staff on Earth Day. Feedback from 2nd grade teachers: "My group was outstanding. They were well prepared and all participated fully." "It was awesome! I really like the fact that my Green Team group stayed a while and helped my second graders complete the follow up Three Rs sheet. I think it was much more beneficial since it put the Green Team in an authority/expert role. Because of this, I was able to stress to the second graders that they could later join the Green Team by being responsible and setting a good example for others. Overall, the Green Team was very well prepared and helpful. It was great to see some of my old students take a leadership role!" "They were wonderful! They answered all of our questions and were eager the help with the written activity." Posters created by 2nd graders. We were also excited to distribute 30 new recycling bins to classrooms throughout the building that we purchased using funds from our earlier fundraiser. Our recycling initiative must be working because the custodian asked if I had been monitoring the recycling as he is seeing a lot less trash and a lot more recycling! Rebecca Davis came in and spoke with our students about Air Quality. She will be working with team throughout may to help them learn about air quality, measure the air quality around our school and learn how to improve the air quality. She started by giving us some background information. In the next session we will take a walk through the community and measure the air quality. We have 2 more sessions and a celebration planned for the remainder of the year. See attendance sheets below.
drive.google.com/file/d/0B9mlXhNLFOusU0g4Y00wRVQzRVU/view?usp=sharing
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This quarter we had visitors from the Waterfront Partnership come to talk with us about the Trash Wheel and how to reduce water pollution. We also looked at the Chesapeake Bay's Report Card and discussed ways to decrease pollution in our community. We are excited about being able to purchase all new recycling bins for our classrooms at PPPCS with the money we raised from our Candy Gram sale. However, we wanted to make sure that all teachers and students knew what could be recycled. We created posters to distribute with our recycling bins.
Our Green Team members have been working hard and learning a lot. Everyone has been so excited to get our projects underway. We met to bring our action plans together and divide into some work groups. There was so many great ideas that came from our individual action plans, that it made more sense to split into some subcommittees. After we divided up the tasks and responsibilities, students accessed our "Google Classroom" where they found articles, videos and games to help guide their research. Some students were working on creating Green Tips to share with the school, others were planning a fundraiser, some were planning ideas to share with younger grades and much more. We also went on a great field trip the the Phillip Merrill Center in Annapolis. Students learned about the Chesapeake Bay and conservation efforts. They also had a chance to sane and categorize and learn about the creatures they collected. We also had guest speaker, Brigid, return this year as the "RecycQueen." Brigid came to talk with our students about trash and recycling. She showed up in her Halloween Costume- "RecycQueen"- a completely recycled costume. She shared a presentation that highlighted the impact trash can have on our neighborhoods and communities. She then was able to share ideas on how the students can help their neighborhoods and communities. We are hoping to partner with her later this year. Students were so inspired by her speech that many told me that they when out and collected trash in the park on the weekend. One student even created a poster at home and shared it with the rest of our 4th grade students.
The 4th Grade Green Team is off to a great start! Students joined the green team by completing applications and getting teacher recommendations. We had so many great applicants, we decided to keep everyone! As a result, we have a much larger group than usual, but everyone is excited to get started!
You can see the applications here. At our first meeting we completed a survey to learn about everyone's interests. We also shared our reasons for joining the green team and what we hope to accomplish. You can see our surveys here. At our next meeting we met to come up with our action plan for the year. We have decided to spend some time tackling the paper usage at our school, as well as focusing on recycling in our school and community. We hope to help the school and community cut down on waste as well as pollution. In addition to this, we will continue to work on reducing the energy use at our school and plan to conduct energy audits and monitor energy use throughout the school building. You can see our action plans here. |
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