Where we take all that paper.

The Green team has taken on a new job this year.  The Paper Recycling.  I write it with capital letters because it's that big of a job.

For the past several years, Mr. Hill and his team of students have been faithfully collecting the school recyclable paper and taking it to a facility near Mr. Hill's home.  And for that, we are grateful.

This year, the job has fallen to us.  And what a job it is!

Every other week the Green Team collects, sorts, and transports many pounds of paper and plastic to the Drop Off Station at Ellsworth and Platt Roads in Ann Arbor.
 

Thanks, Mrs. M, for helping us with your awesome trailer!

There, we make sure the paper gets deposited into the proper bin, so it can then be recycled to get the most life out of each sheet.

Here's where the shredded paper goes.

Here's where all the other paper goes.  Happy sorting!

The dumpster where the plastics go.

This is quite an act of sorting (categorizing is basic, yet important, skill in the science curriculum!) and our team is getting better at it every week!

Want a better look at how the paper is sorted?

This year, the Green Team hopes that, with increased awareness, the school community will use less than the 3200 reams it used last year.

Update to the PTO, September 2013

The Green Team is excited to start another year with environmentally friendly projects in mind.

Here's a quick report of what's been going on while school has been out.

The Meadow.  There are pears!  And flowers!  And wildlife!  And a plaque!

The Brownie vegetable garden.  They had a bumper crop of tomatoes and one gigantic sunflower!

The bottle cap mural.  It's above the water fountain in the Primary Hall.

We've got the official flag hanging in the gym!

Simple steps for a greener year:

• Teachers, please, please, please consider double sided copies and email reminders.
• Parents, please consider trash-free lunches.  It's not that hard, really.  And it's so much healthier.  Here's how.  Here are some more ideas.
• Parents, please consider turning off your car in the parking lot.  We'll all breathe a little easier and it will save you money.

I spy about a million bottle caps.

Remember last year when the South Arbor community collected about a million bottle caps and lids?

Well, these were washed and sorted by color and sat in Mrs. Morad's closet until this summer.  A few Green Team members got out their paint brushes,

hot glue guns,

and power drills to great this little beauty.

Thanks to Annie for finding this fun design!

You can spy it above the drinking fountain in the Primary Hall.  This project helped to keep lots and lots of bottle caps out of landfills and raise awareness about the importance of repurposing.

What other items that would normally go into the trash could be repurposed?

The Brownies create their own vegetable garden!

Last spring the Brownie troop planned, presented, and planted their own vegetable garden.  They were very thorough about their planning, first getting permission to use the space between the Primary and Secondary Halls.  They researched which plants they would like to grow, how much soil they would need, and what kind of container to build.

Here are a couple of pictures from their presentation last spring.

Here they are getting their hands dirty!  Way to go, girls!

Gardening sure does require patience.  

They cared for their garden all through the summer and look what they have to show for it:  a basket full of delicious tomatoes and one mammoth sunflower!  They also harvested other produce throughout the growing season.

Great job, girls!  We can't wait to see what you'll grow next year!

How is that meadow project coming along?

The Green Team was thankful for a rainy summer to do the bulk of the watering for us.  After all that hard work we did in the spring planting 2 pear trees and lots of native perennials, we were glad to take most of the summer off and let Mother Nature handle the watering duties.

So how is it looking now?  The pear trees are thriving!  We were delighted to see three actual pears growing.  We were not expecting a harvest for at least another year, so this was a fun surprise.  We're hoping to do some serious pruning (as was recommended to us by the arborist) and have an even better harvest next year.

This plaque honoring Dr. Fadden, a former school board member will be placed there soon.

Many of the perennials are doing great as well.  Here are some aster,

some goldenrod,

and some others.

One of the purposes of the Native Meadow project was to return part of the schoolyard back to nature.  A sign that we are succeeding is the presence of wildlife.  We are pleased to report that we have sighted several living things back there: moths and butterflies, two impressive spiders, a fuzzy caterpillar, grasshoppers, earthworms, and various birds.

Feel free to take a walk back there and see this unique area for yourself.

Ideas for a greener summer: Tips for teachers, parents, and kids

Summer is a precious opportunity for kids and families to try new things.  Gone are the constraints of the school schedule, the school lunches, the school papers, the school uniforms.  But even though school is out, learning is still in!  Exploring nature, reducing waste, and simply contemplating our world are great activities for the summer.

Here are some specific ideas for teachers, parents, and kids.

Teachers:

• Consider requesting parents to contribute reusable plates, cups, and silverware for classroom celebrations in place of disposable ones.  

Have you considered trash-free parties?  They are easier than you think!

• Consider reducing paper usage by making full page documents fit onto a1/2 sheet, or committing to using double sided copying whenever possible. 
• Consider incorporating science lessons about Michigan wildlife or alternative energy.  
• Consider taking the students to visit our own Native Meadow.  
• Consider a field trip to the Kerrytown farmers market (the market website even has a curriculum for this).

Parents: 

• Consider tackling one aspect of your household and making it a shade greener.  Ideas might be paper recycling, eating foods closer to their natural state to reduce food packaging and artificial additives, implementing some of DTE's energy efficiency pointers. 
• Make an outing to a nature center (Matthaei Botanical Gardens, any zoo/aquarium/farm, the Howell Nature Center, to name a few). 

at the Toledo Zoo

• Consider buying school uniform clothes secondhand or trading with another family (this reduces the demand for companies to manufacture excess clothing).  
• Try to incorporate playtime away from screens (see below for ideas).

Kids:

• Take advantage of the warmer weather and play outside! Notice bugs, plants, birds, rocks.  

at North Bay Park in Ypsilanti

• Read a book with an emphasis on nature (The Magician's Nephew, The Secret Garden, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Farmer Boy are some great ones).  
• Plant an easy vegetable and eat it (peas or tomatoes are fun and easy). 
• Ask your parents for a nature outing (see above for ideas).  
• Turn off the screen and take a bike ride, a swim, or a walk to the park.

The Green Team would love to hear about the ways you are interacting with nature or reducing your waste this summer.  Feel free to tell us about it!

The third grade visits the Leslie Science Center!!!!!!!

(All text and photos for this post are contributed by 3rd grader Abigail Middaugh.)

Our Field Trip

            My grade took a field trip to the Leslie Science and Nature Center. We first rode on a yellow school bus for about 20 minutes until we arrived. Then we all filed into a large room. There, we got to meet a barred owl!

some type of owl

We talked about what character traits the owl had and what they were meant for. After that, we split up into different groups with our own specific tour guides. My group’s tour guide was named Michelle. We then discussed what adaptation meant and what different adaptations different birds have. As we toured some birdcages, we noticed what adaptations they had and for what purposes they were.

peregrine falcon

I think my favorite bird that I saw was the turkey vulture. I had never seen it before!

turkey vultures!

We soon gathered in a rocky clearing to examine some bird body parts. First, we looked at a turkey wing, which was stiff as a newspaper hot of the press! The other things we explored included a duck scull and a pelican beak bone (Those bones were surprisingly hollow! Michelle told us that birds that can fly have hollow bones whereas birds that can’t fly have solid bones, such as penguins or ostriches.).

We also identified some very (and when I mean very, I mean that they were the largest eggs in the world, literally!)large eggs as ostrich's eggs. One was black — as black as a cat on a halloween night!

We then went to another (bigger) clearing to play a game. Before we started, though, we discussed how birds migrate and if it is hard for them or not(which it is). Then we played a migration game. Here is how it went: There were about 20 stations (pieces of paper lying on the ground) that each said something different on them. You would role a die, then move that many stations. When you stopped at the right station, you would do what the card said. By the end, you either "made it" or "didn't make it". That was probably one of my favorite parts about the field trip.

Next, we went into the large room that we started in. There were stations too! At each of them, there was a bowl of something and 3 utensils, resembling bird beaks, to pick the thing(s) in the bowl up. The object of the activity was to find out which utensil beak picked the thing(s) in the bowl up best.

By the time we walked outside, we were almost done with the field trip! We were going to walk on a nature trail next. Before we started, Michelle told us to be very quiet so we could listen to all the different bird calls. She also told us that there are millions of different kinds! In other words, as many bird calls in the world as there are pennies in a million dollars! By that time, it was so hot outside, I felt like I was in the middle of a burning house!

And I bet you can't guess what happened next. As if I had called it down from the sky, it started to rain! What a relief! Before long, I felt much better. Also at that time, we had to get back on the bus to go back to school.

I would have much to tell when I got home!

                                                    

Native Meadow Project and Grant Award!

The Green Team has undertaken a sweet and non-traditional project this spring in the back area of the schoolyard near the evergreen trees.  We were inspired by the children's book On Meadowview Street by Henry Cole,

roped off a 20' by 20' area,

 

hung a no-mowing-please sign, 

and turned this space into a meadow.

The purpose is to increase our community's interaction with nature, educate ourselves about plants that are native to our state, and create the beginnings of an outdoor classroom.

We planted two pear trees on April 22, purchased from Nature and Nurture in Ann Arbor.  This also served as part of our culminating event for our Paper Renewal Project.

Here are the branches being trained to grow out instead of up, for a healthier tree that is easier to reach for harvesting those juicy pears.  This method was learned in a Fruit Tree workshop offered by Growing Hope.

We also planted 32 native perennials, purchased from Native Plant Nursery in Ann Arbor.

Here is a list of what we planted, with the Latin name, then the common name:

Aster laevis, (Smooth Aster)

Aster novae-angliae, (New-England Aster)

Monarda fistulosa, (Wild bergamot, Beebalm)

Penstemon digitalis, (Foxglove beard-tongue)

Ratibida pinnata, (Yellow coneflower)

Rudbeckia hirta, (Black-eyed susan)

Schizachyrium scoparius, (Little bluestem grass)

Silphium terebinthinaceum, (Prairie dock)

Solidago rigida, (Stiff goldenrod)

Solidago speciosa, (Showy goldenrod)

Sorghastrum nutans, (Indian grass)

Just a few feet away are the birdhouses, built and installed by the Boy Scouts a while back.

The Green Team is so pleased that this Native Meadow Project is funded by the grant we received from the Master Gardener Division of the MSU Extension Office.  Here we are holding the award check, displaying our green thumbs!

We look forward to a closer interaction with nature through this Native Meadow Project.

Career Awareness Bonus (jobs related to this post): children's book author, bookseller, nursery owner, landscape designer, park ranger, tree farmer, botanist.