Checkpoint: Reusing magazines and newspapers

Reusing magazines and newspapers is not a new idea for South Arbor's Kindergarten teachers.  They've been doing it for years!  

Not only are magazines and newspapers used to contain artistic enthusiasm (aka paint spills), but they also provide a hands-on way for children to experience letters, shapes, and numbers; while fine tuning their motors skills along the way.

For example, one activity requires the students to find and cut out all the letters in their name.

Another activity asks them to find and cut out examples of certain shapes.

When making an alphabet journal, students find and cut out items that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

When a Kindergarten teacher asks for donations of old magazines and newspapers, you can be sure they are put to good use!


Career Awareness Bonus (jobs related to this post): kindergarten teacher, mixed media artist, magazine editor, newspaper editor, journalist, free-lance writer, photographer

Update to the PTO, December 13, 2012

Just what is that Green Team up to these days?

1)  Mrs. Morad and her enthusiastic team of students have been sorting and boxing the MANY foil-lined snack packaging that is being collected in the TerraCycle boxes during the lunch periods.

2) The Primary Hall won the bottle cap collection in a dramatic upset over the highly-favored Intermediate Hall.  The Green Team students will be fashioning a wall mural with all the caps.

3) The Girl Scouts are planning for a raised garden bed.  Their planning includes site location, budget items, planting specifics, and bed construction.  You go, girls!

4) Have you seen the many green-themed signs popping up around the school?

Thanks, Green Team, for raising awareness.  Because knowing is half the battle.

5) Get excited, because the Green Team is organizing a Cell Phone Recycle Event!  Is your family planning to upgrade your telecommunications this holiday?  Don't toss that old cell phone.  Recycle it during morning or afternoon traffic on Thursday January 17 and Friday January 18.  The phones will be donated to Cell Phones For Soldiers and will result in calling cards for soldiers to call home.  What a cause!  And don't fret, this reputable charity erases all sensitive information.

6) As the holiday parties pop up and teachers ask for donations of food and supplies, consider making a small change to reduce the holiday trash.  The biggest culprits for party trash are individually packaged snacks and disposable tableware.  Consider volunteering to bring a class set of cups, or a tray of cut fruit.  You will be amazed at how much little differences can make and I've found teachers are open to wise suggestions.

Students speak: TerraCycling and Bottle Cap Collection

From the written contributions of 8th graders Sam, Pavitra, and Sarah:

In order to conserve materials and aide the environment, our school has undergone a system of terra-cycling.  We have implemented a number of systems.  

One of these is the bottle cap collection, in which students compete to recycle the most bottle caps for their hallway. 

This effort has yielded over a thousand bottle caps, and these will be used to create a mural for the school halls.

photo by Abi, 3rd grade

At lunch, students are encouraged to recycle their chip bags, candy wrappers, and other foil-lined bags.  

Each day, this system produces two boxes of materials that would have otherwise gone to the landfill.  At the end of each week, our school ships these materials to the TerraCycling program to be made into other goods, such as backpacks.

As you can see, this will accumulate a massive amount of waste over the school year.  Our school is quite involved in the process and we hope it will aid the world in its struggle for good.



The Green Team is delighted with the enthusiasm the students are showing for these responsible green efforts.  One first grader handed me this the other day.

Finally, congratulations to the Primary Hall who won the bottle cap competition in a dramatic upset over the highly-favored Intermediate Hall.  The Green Team students will be planning and constructing a mural with these bottle caps in the coming weeks.

Career Awareness Bonus (jobs related to this post): packaging engineer/designer, recycle center manager, mixed media artist, 8th grade teacher

Dolphin, welcome to the family!

The primary hall is pleased to announce the addition of a dolphin to the South Arbor Family!

While we adults were busy casting ballots for the president of these United States, on November 6th the primary hall students were exercising their voting rights by choosing an endangered species to adopt.

And the winner is...

A dolphin family!

The Wildlife Adoption Center helped the students choose and adopt this amazing creature.  We learned that dolphins not only use tools, but also pass knowledge on to their young.  Sounds a bit like what we're doing with our own children!

Thanks, Primary Hall, for helping to protect this special animal!

Career Awareness Bonus (jobs related to this post): marine biologist, non-profit worker, wildlife advocate, early childhood teacher, politician, fundraiser

Announcing...The Butterfly Garden

Forgive the delay about announcing the Butterfly Garden, but so much has been going on behind the scenes with the Green Team, that there was little time for announcing.

Late in September, four South Arbor families gathered to get their hands dirty and plant 29 butterfly-friendly perennials in front of the school.  (Thank you to the Clark, Middaugh, Spann, and White families!)

After consulting two nursery owners, a stack of library books, and plain old common sense, the list of perennials included lavender, aster, sedum, butterfly bush, butterfly weed (asclepias), butterfly flower (tuberosa), and coneflower.

The day was beautiful, the children were willing, and the plants were healthy.

After only an hour, we had ourselves a proper garden.

 

And just days later we received our first report of an actual butterfly fluttering about.  If we build it, they will come!

Then in October came the plant identification labels.

One woodburning tool, one creative family, a box of wood scraps, and a pile of wire hangers adds up to some charming ID tags.  (Thank you to the Peterson family!)

We're hopeful that the spring will bring more winged beauties to South Arbor's Butterfly Garden!

Update to the PTO, Nov 8, 2012

What’s the latest?

Well, in the last month the Green Team has moved forward with a handful of the checkpoints that put us closer to earning the Michigan Green School Certificate.

• We now have a blog (SouthArborGoesGreen.blogspot.com) to highlight the projects, collect ideas, and keep a record of the checkpoints for submission by March 2013.

• The Boy Scouts have constructed 2 bluebird houses, and hope to install them in the schoolyard come spring (permission pending).

• The Girl Scouts are researching and planning for a raised bed garden, to be installed in the spring.
• The Butterfly Garden is now complete, and has plant ID labels. There was even a report of a butterfly fluttering around in early October!

• Another Boy Scout troop is researching and planning to construct 2 bat houses, and hope to install them in the back of the property in the spring (permission pending).  (try to revise your feelings about bats to include the fact that they eat 1000 mosquito-sized insects in just 1 hour, thus reducing the need for crop pesticides.) (United Nations’ environmental division (UNEP) has declared 2012 the International Year of the Bat in recognition of the essential role that bats play in ecologies and human economies.)

• There are now TerraCycling containers in the lunchroom for collecting foil-type packaging from Capri Sun, chips, granola bars, candy and cookies, to be shipped to TerraCycle and made into other products such as backpacks, purses, pencil pouches, etc.  This process is called upcycling.  The Green Team is looking for a family that would be willing to box up all this packaging and send it to the TerraCycle company.  

• There are now posters in the halls reminding our community of the importance of recycling.

• We've opened the conversation with 2 classroom teachers about reducing the waste at holiday parties. The biggest culprits are individually packaged snacks and disposable tableware. When your child's teacher sends home a list of items to be donated, consider the landfill consequences and offer to donate a class set of reusable cups (and the service of washing them), a fruit tray, or supplies for a repurposing craft. Teachers generally welcome wise ideas!

One of several trash bags lining the halls after a recent holiday party.

Do you have any ideas for wise interactions with the environment?

The Green School Project Strive Event

Introducing Recycling to Our Students!

Waste production and waste management are a part of everyone’s lives. You already know a lot about making, and getting rid of, garbage. It’s time to review our waste management habits and make a significant difference in the environment around us.

Students at South Arbor were introduced to Category 1 - Recycling, of our Green School Project.  A Student Council and Green Team lead presentation on what a recycling program involves prompted great discussion amongst our students.  Containers are in place to recycle paper, batteries, print cartridges, newspapers and magazines, and most importantly Terra Cycle wrappers.

During all three lunches, the Green Team has placed labeled boxes to collect foil type wrappers that can be shipped off and made into other types of items.  Wrappers from Capri Sun, chips, granola bars, candy and cookies are recycled to make backpacks, purses, pencil pouches and varies items.

The culminating activity for the lesson was to create awareness signs that are displayed throughout the school.  Think Green and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are definitely the motto for South Arbor this year!
http://prezi.com/otanjp_frlw6/edit/#47

Bonus checkpoint: Birdhouse habitat!

Recently, a group of South Arbor students tackled a project that satisfies the Environmental Protection category of the Michigan Green School Certification program.

Armed with their library cards and safety goggles, they researched and constructed bluebird houses!

Specifically, eight boys from Scout Pack 495 met at the Ypsilanti District Library one evening and researched birds that are native to our area, what food is available to local birds, and what type of bird houses they prefer.

The boys also considered a spot to eventually mount the birdhouses - near the open field of the schoolyard.  The boys discussed their findings and settled on a bluebird house.

At their next meeting, the boys gathered in one of the parent’s garages and constructed two birdhouses for swallows and blue birds, using wood and power tools.  The boys incorporated some math skills along the way (measuring and adding up the cost of the materials).

They will install them in the schoolyard in the spring of 2013, either on existing fences or on posts that they install themselves, pending principal approval.

Thanks, Scouts, for your contribution to our schoolyard by creating a habitat for birds!

Career Awareness Bonus (jobs related to this post): librarian, carpenter, park ranger

What's this I hear about checkpoints?

The Michigan Green School certification is awarded to schools who complete and show documentation for 10, 15, or 20 checkpoints.  Checkpoints are events, lessons, or programs that have an environmental theme.  The Michigan Green School website outlines specific checkpoints within thematic categories, and also allows for creative projects designed by the school.

So, don't worry, these checkpoints don't involve you getting out of your car and showing appropriate paperwork at the border.  Whew.

These checkpoints are fun, educational, and most importantly, focused on responsible interaction with the natural world.

When this whole green initiative first began at South Arbor, the Green Team brainstormed an impressive list of ideas.  See the presentation first made to the PTO in September, 2012.

May I suggest 10 checkpoints to get us started?
1. Encourage office staff and teachers to be purposeful in creating only double sided documents for printing and copying.
2. Revamp the paper/plastic recycling program and increase awareness about what can and cannot be recycled.
3. Encourage the use of the uniform exchange option.
4. Trash-Free Tuesdays in the lunchroom.  Weigh lunch trash before and after introducing the program.  Get aware!
5. Compost food waste.
6. Present a unit on alternative energy.  (Are any teachers doing this already?)
7. Promote fuel efficiency by discouraging idling in the parking lot, via parent surveys to increase awareness. (Hint: for every 2 minutes of idling, your car uses enough gas to drive 1 mile.)
8. Host an alternative energy presentation or event, such as a Solar Cookout.
9. Plant a themed garden (How about a Butterfly Garden in front of the new building addition?)
10. Implement an animal habitat project (birdhouse, bat house, natural meadow).


Other ideas include:  Upcycling foil wrap based consumables (capri sun), having a school-wide thermostat setting, student-made posters for the hall promoting environmental awareness, reference material visible in the media center, and encourage teachers add links to green sites in their newsletters or on their class websites, planting trees to offset our paper consumption, field trips to landfills or nature preserves, adopting an endangered species, art projects using repurposed items.

The Green Team has recently been able to focus our efforts and identify 10 simple checkpoints.  These specific green efforts are either already underway or easily implemented.  The Green Team is excited to use these checkpoints as a solid starting place and grow in the future to include more visible and comprehensive projects.  As stated in a previous post, it's a process.

Here are the 10 checkpoints for the 2012 - 2013 school year.

1. The school recycles paper. (Mr. Hill oversees this effort.  Thank you, Mr. Hill!)

2. The school has a butterfly garden. (This was completed on Sept 29th, and still needs plant ID labels.  Any volunteers? I have the supplies.)

3.  The school recycles cellular phones. (Student Council is researching security measures and making a collection basket for the Parent Room.)

4. The school recycles batteries. (We just learned that regular batteries are safe to put in the regular trash.  It's the rechargeable batteries that should be recycled.)

5. The school reuses its magazines and newspapers for other projects. (The art classes do this already.  We're looking for other classes to do this also.

6. The school recycles printer cartridges. (The entry fee at the Ann Arbor Recycle Center on Ellsworth and Platt has been waived for South Arbor!  We are looking for a family to take phones, batteries, and ink cartridges monthly.)

7. The school reads books with an environmental theme to elementary students. (The 7th/1st grade reading buddy system could work for this.)

8. The school has adopted an endangered or threatened species and informs others.  (Would the primary hall be interested in this fun project?)

9. The school has a visit by an animal species show or similar presentation.  (We have a fun idea for this for the Intermediate Hall, but are open to other ideas as well!)

10. The school has a Terra Cycling program. (We need to research this and move forward.)

They are also posted outside Mrs. Morad's technology lab.

We're so glad to hear the positive feedback from families about these efforts!  Keep your ideas coming!