Spring Thoughts

I just returned home from Costa Rica last night, refreshed for the last few months of teaching before summer comes. The kids looked so much older today, yet small at the same time. Probably because I wasn't around so many kids while I was gone. I missed them and I was glad to spend the day with my class again.

While on our trip, I thought a lot about the environmental impact of my daily life. Costa Rica is exploding with eco-tourism hotels and tour trips. There are small recycle stations set up everywhere with containers for compost, aluminum, plastic, and paper. I was excited. I love recycling. I really do. I feel guilty when I have to throw away one scrap of paper. Earth Day is coming up and I want to do something with the kids. I've come up with a few ideas:

1. Have Earth Day be a "no trash day" - bring compost bucket to school and model not throwing anything away.
2. Read aloud books about helping our Earth. (One of my favorites is Lauren Child's We are Extremely Very Good Recyclers.)
3. Design an activity booklet printed on recycled paper for the kids to learn ways they can be good stewards of their communities.
4. Pass out the Earth Day edition of Time for Kids magazine

I really want to plant a little garden at the school, but I haven't found an area yet/don't know how that would go over.

Today we began our Animals unit in science. We graphed our favorite animals and discussed what animals we would like to learn more about. We talked about where we can find those animals in our area (Woodland Park Zoo, Kelsey Creek Farm, etc.) I put up a new display to create a classroom collage of animal pictures we collect. I haven't decided yet if we're going to have a small class "pet" (e.g. butterflies, tadpoles, a hermit crab...) We did ladybugs at the beginning of the year, though I would love to have some in my garden this spring.