Sustainable Living Field Trip to Hofstra

During the first two weeks of March, Hofstra University had a sustainable living exhibit. The sixth graders from Roosevelt Children's Academy took a trip to the exhibit one Thursday morning. We learned so much!  We learned about reusable containers and how they help our environment. We learned about composting and the purpose of the worms in compost. We got to hold worms in our hands, look at the picture! We each planted our own vegetable seed to take home with us. They also gave us two plants to care for at our school. We read books about going green, we learned how much energy we could save by bicycling to and from school and we learned so much more. It was a great morning and we are so happy we went. We thank Hofstra for allowing us this opportunity and helping us with this learning experience!

 

   

Sixth Graders at Roosevelt Children’s Academy Simulate a Landfill!

The sixth grade students here in Roosevelt were very confused about what happened to our garbage. The students felt that they threw away so much garbage a day and they did not understand what happened to it all. In technology class with Ms. Gallo the students were asked to bring in some garbage that they would normally throw out. Students brought in plastic bottles, paper dishes, cardboard boxes, plastic silverware, juice pouches, cookie wrappers, an old tee-shirt, clothing tags, and a broken cell phone, lots of paper, pens and pencils. Ms. Gallo brought in food items including a school breakfast, a school lunch, chicken bones, carrots, cucumbers and old cold cuts. We then put all of this garbage in a plastic container. We got some free dirt from a neighbor of our school; we covered the garbage with dirt, closed the container and put it out back. We plan to check back with our landfill in a few months to see what has decomposed and what hasn’t.

Glenwood Landing Elementary ~ Green Footprint Project

 

Mrs. Cortez-Riggio’s class kicked off an event for their environmental project focusing on carbon emissions and its impact in relation to greenhouse gases and global warming.  

On January 22nd Glenwood Landing Elementary school will host its first annual "Green Day" event.  Students and teachers will participate in a variety of environment related activities.  It is the goal of this class to make their peers and the community aware of the environmental issues that are affecting their neighborhood and how they can make a difference.

Together, the class created a slogan which said, “S.T.O.P (Stop Turn Off Pollution)” and made a symbol comprised of a “Green Footprint” to help prevent carbon footprints from spreading. The students hand painted the logo onto charms for necklaces, key chains, and magnets and sold them at the Glenwood Landing Book Fair. All of the profits from the sale will be used to buy a Moon Sycamore tree which they hope to plant on school grounds to help reduce carbon emissions produced from nearby cars.

Currently, students are working on another environment project by collecting and analyzing data that studies the effects of carbon emissions on our air quality. Through this project, students hope to gain a greater sense of awareness towards human environment interactions on both a local and global level.

 

Super Recycling with Terracycle!

Fourth graders at Kramer Lane Elementary School in Bethpage have joined up with www.terracycle.net to start a recycling program which goes above and beyond just recycling paper and plastic.  We have been collecting empty wrappers and containers from Capri Sun drink boxes, Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies, Kashi products, and Frito Lay chip bags over the past three weeks.  In return, Terracycle will donate anywhere from $0.02 to $0.05 per wrapper/package to our school!  Terracycle provides shipping envelopes so that we can send the wrappers back to them for recycling.  What's even more incredible is that Terracycle takes these wrappers and creates various products that can be purchased, such as backpacks, binders, pencil cases, and lunchboxes!  What a great way to reduce, reuse, and recycle!  Our goal is to make this recycling program a school wide project next year.  We are so excited to be doing our part to help save the environment, and are amazed a what Terracycle can do with the items we collect!  Check out their website (listed above) for more information on how you can get involved and participate in their recycling program.

The Great Kapok Tree Visits Room 307

  In honor of Earth Day,my students read the Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry.  After reading the book, we had lively discussions about all of the animals in the rainforest.  We focused on all of the good things that come out of the rainforest.  Each student chose an animal and tried to persuade the woodcutter not to cut down the tree.  These were displayed in the classroom.  In addition, we learned about adjectives while describing the animals.  The students created "silly" animals.  A good time was had by all.

Today is Earth Day

Share your Earth Day lesson plans and activities with other Long Island teachers.  Please post a comment below and let us know what you and your students are doing to celebrate Earth Day this year.

Classroom Earth

High school teachers will find loads of resources at ClassroomEarth, a site that features teaching about the environment. Even though the stress is on environmental science, the site includes sections that promote learning in social studies, the arts, mathematics, and language arts. All the information at Classroom Earth is available in both Spanish and English. Resources can be searched by subject area or topic (such as climate, pollution, water, government, urban environments, energy); language arts material is divided into Grades 9-10 and 11-12. There's a section to help with teaching about the environment and a list of some really nice professional development opportunities for teachers.

Check Out These Environmental Education Grants

ClassroomEarth has a list of grants for those interested in environmental education. Grants and awards include the Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation grants (available in seven states, $500-$3000), due 06/01/09; SCA Green Your School Contest for high school projects (awards of $2,500 to $5000, due 10/09/09; GreenWorks Grant for student-led service projects (awards up to $5000), due 10/31/09; Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Training, K-12 math or science teacher, ($10,000), due 05/01/09; NEA Student Achievement Grants for improving achievement ($5000), due 06/01/09; and a number of others. Some of the deadlines have passed, but if you are interested in these grants, be sure to be on the lookout for the 2010 announcements.

Welcome to Power to Learn's Go Green Blog!

Schools Go Green with News12 and Power to Learn is a classroom-based, incentive program designed to facilitate the sharing of environmentally friendly classroom programs, their successes and encourage Long Island schools to "Go Green".

For more information, visit Power to Learn's Go Green website.