Earth Day Celebration!

We had such a fun Friday. Most students came to school dressed in green to celebrate Earth Day and even if they forgot the class determined that everyone wearing the IST uniforms, which are blue and yellow, represented Earth Day by showing the colors of water and the sun.

Students came in excited to share their projects and is was so much fun seeing what they came up with as homework during the week. I used a Choice Tic-Tac-Toe board and the students had to bring in their projects Friday morning as homework. The thought and time spent was admirable and students learned so much from each other. Here are a few highlights.

Travis made this really cool container and wrote the directions for making one yourself from a recycled water bottle. He found the idea on-line and I found a site that shows you how to make them here (although you should not need it since his directions are thorough and neatly written out for you :-)

Meet made a list of ideas for creating things out of a recycled cereal box... so cool. I like the bag idea. He also made a Venn diagram showing us the similarities and differences between a clean and dirty environment. 

 This is also Travis's. He created this wonderful diorama to show the environmental differences between our environment and what will happen if we don't recycle. I loved his little typed out informational bits.

 This is another of Meets. It was so neat and well done, I had to share it. He was really excited to share some of the interesting facts with us.

 Here is Maiya's collage poster. It is fitting that she drew a hippo since we live in Tanzania. Nice work Maiya!

  

Here is my absolute favorite though. Christophe made an interactive poster and had us play a question and answer game with us. Check out the Challenge: Why do people pollute? The answer: You answer that!! 

 

Next, we participated in an Environmental Scavenger Hunt. The students got to mingle, get some signatures and find out who among them recycled, knew which room in their house had the most light bulbs or could name the last three things they threw away. Both the class homework and scavenger hunt are thanks to this great blogger.Thank you!

At recess Ms. Heitmiller, and her Green Team organized a few games of students vs. adults. It turned into green vs. everyone else. I was out there playing basketball and football with other great teachers and students. It was so much fun!

Something cool and totally unexpected on Friday was watching a HUGE spider take on a praying mantis. During snack time, I was reading Ramona, when all of the student one student shrieked and screamed. Unable to control himself, he ran to the window and we all followed. What we found was round one of a fine insect battle. After about 2 minutes, the praying mantis escaped the web and fell about 7 feet to the ground. Not only was it cool, it solved the mystery of the first grade students throwing rocks at the top of my window. There is always a reason for actions, although at first glimpse, it may not be apparent.

I leave you with an acrostic poem by the very talented Tim. Until next Earth Day, think about this:

Everyday life is not OK.

Alarming pollution will destroy the Earth!

Rescuing the planet is down to us.

Together we can protect the environment,

Help save our planet for our children.