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