Week 8: Planet Party!

I can't believe the end of the Extended Day session has arrived. What a great group of kids I had the pleasure of having in class! If the rest of their generation is as bright, curious and concerned as these kids, our world is in good hands!

Go Green 2012!



Dirt Cupcakes
(despite the name, the kids
thought they were pretty good!)

For our last day of Go Green: Environmental Explorations, we celebrated with a planet party! First, we had a special treat of dirt cupcakes. (Don't worry: they were really chocolate glazed cupcakes with Oreo crumbles.)


Owen and his cupcake.



Noah eating a dirt cupcake

 
After our snack, we played a game to see what we had learned. Each kid got turns to spin the wheel and answer questions about different topics, including ecosystems, water pollution, solar energy and reducing waste! I was impressed by how much the kids remembered about each environmental exploration.

Finally, we did some creative recycling. We took items that people might have thrown away, and turned them into cool art. Check out some of our creations!

Will and his recycled witch!

Hammond explains his homemade kaleidoscope.

I hope everyone enjoyed this Extended Day session! I will miss our Tuesday afternoons together. And remember ...

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Week 7: Look Up! (Trees)

For our next-to-last Extended Day class, we spent some time outside observing trees. We closed our eyes and listened to the sounds of the ecosystems overhead, examined bark and leaves up-close, and noticed different life forms who make their home in trees.

The ecosystems above us!



Evan and George listen carefully to the sounds of the ecosystem.



Getting up close and personal with bark.

  

We discovered fungus growing on the bark ...

 

An insect living in the ecosystem ...

And part of a rotten tree trunk - the end of the lifecycle!



Scientists at work.
(Top photo: Hammond examining some fungus.
Bottom photo: Scientist friends, Will and George)


After discussing our findings, we talked about why trees are important to our planet. Trees have a role in:
- Maintaining the water cycle
- Producing oxygen
- Preventing erosion
- Saving energy (shading/cooling)
- Providing shelter for animals
- Providing food for animals (leaves, acorns and berries)

Then we returned inside to make a craft by recycling plastic bottles into bird feeders.  Everyone customized their bird feeder with beautiful artwork.

Maddie decorates her bird feeder.

Hunter hard at work on his bird feeder.

I hope everyone enjoys hanging their feeder at home, and observing birds in their tree habitat! 

I can't believe that next week is our last environmental exploration. I'm looking forward to celebrating with a "planet party" - we will play games about what we learned, enjoy a special snack and do some creative recycling.

Week 6: Close to Home (Eating Locally!)

For this week's environmental exploration, we talked about how food gets from the farm to the grocery store to our plate.

In our discussion, we learned that shipping food long distances uses a lot of fossil fuels (for gas and refrigeration), and that food that travels long distances loses taste and nutritional value.

Then we played a guessing game to match up a food to the number of miles it traveled. We had two kinds of apples, a banana, a red pepper, and an egg.  Most kids were surprised to learn that much of the food in the grocery store travels thousands of miles from the farm where it was grown. 

Noah plays "Match the Miles"

We were also surprised to learn that food grown in the U.S. sometimes travels farther to us than food grown in other countries. One apple in our game traveled 3,000 miles from Washington state while the pepper traveled 2,000 miles from Mexico. It's important to pay attention to labels, eat what is in season, and -- whenever possible -- know who grows your food!

We discussed why grocery stores are shipping apples all the way across the country when they are in season right here in our state! And, we talked about how certain types of foods -- like some breeds of apples -- are becoming extinct. 

A N.C. apple (L) versus a Washington state apple (R)

Luckily, some places are preserving vintage apple breeds. Check out these apples, from the historic Orchard at Altapass, right here in NC. They are called King Luscious and they are HUGE (and yummy)! The King Luscious is native to our state. It was discovered near Hendersonville, NC, in the 1930s.

Elena poses with a King Luscious apple.
(Told you it was HUGE!)

Evan enjoying a slice of a King Luscious!

Finally, we made a recipe featuring North Carolina's own King Luscious apples...a healthy apple dip. 

Will (L) and George (R) enjoying NC apples with dip.

If you'd like to make the apple dip at home, here's the recipe:

Cream Cheese Apple Dip

• 1 - 8 oz. package low-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel), at room temperature
• 1/4 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 6 medium apples, sliced

Directions: Combine the cream cheese, yogurt and brown sugar in a food processor and mix until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I can't believe we have only two more weeks of Extended Day! Don't forget that next week we will meet on MONDAY because of Election Day on Tuesday. We'll be talking about the amazing world above us ... trees!

Update: Reusable Bags

When you finish your bag at home, send me a photo and I'll post it here on our Green Gallery. Evan and Elena finished theirs and realized they will make the perfect trick-or-treating bags! Hope you have fun finishing them and, of course, using them!

Week 5: Talking Trash

People don't spend much time thinking about garbage. But, maybe it's time we did. Every day, each American throws out almost 5 pounds of trash -- and over half of that ends up in the landfill.

Once we throw garbage away, we usually forget about it. But the trash can is far from the end of the story. Our class talked about the two most common ways to dispose of trash (burying and burning), and why both can cause problems for our planet. Next, we played a game called, "Reuse. Reduce. Recycle." We went through a bag of typical items people throw away, and figured out how we could have avoided the landfill by reusing, reducing and/or recycling. The kids had lots of creative ideas!

Hammond pulls a toilet paper tube out of the bag!

Noah, Will and George ponder how to 
Reduce, Reuse or Recycle a cracker box.

Evan and Porter find a new use for an old toy.



 Elena was surprised to find an old banana
in the garbage bag.We talked about recycling them
into banana muffins --
and then we ate some for snack! 



Enjoying "recycled bananas"

Finally, we took old T-shirts and transformed them into reusable grocery bags -- a great example of reducing, reusing and recycling. Most of the kids didn't finish the project, so here's an easy-to-follow YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6JNEsOx3U

Next week we'll be talking about eating locally and how many "food miles" it takes to get our dinner to our plate. Plus, we will make a recipe featuring local foods. See you then!

Week 4: Super Sun!

After back-to-back Tuesdays with gray skies, we finally had sunshine. And, sunshine means it's time to talk about solar power and other alternative energy sources. Luckily, it also means it's time for solar s'mores!! (I might even be more excited than the kids about these!)

We started our classtime by putting the finishing touches on a solar oven (made out of a pizza box) and assembling s'mores. We discussed how the solar oven works -- by reflecting the sun's rays off the foil panel into the oven, where the black interior absorbs the heat.


Our solar oven cooking the s'mores!

We found a sunny spot for our oven, and angled the reflector to capture the sun's rays. We also made some hypotheses about what would happen to our s'mores. Noah made a hypothesis that the s'mores would be yummy!

While we waited for our food experiment to complete, we talked about fossil fuels versus alternative energy and played "Energy Bingo." In this game, the kids got to mingle and find classmates who could answer the questions on their Bingo card, such as "Name a fossil fuel," and "Name a way you can save energy." Everyone did a great job working together!

Owen and Anika help each other with "Energy Bingo!"

Noah and Audrey playing "Energy Bingo!"

Finally, we checked on our solar oven, observed which of our hypotheses were correct and ate our delicious experiment!

Next week we will be talking trash! If you forgot to bring in an old, adult-sized
t-shirt, be sure to have it next week for our project about reducing waste.
Can you believe that our fall Extended Day session is already half over? I hope your kids are enjoying our environmental explorations so far!

Update: Ecosystems in a Jar!

Some of you have asked about caring for your child's ecosystem in a jar. They are designed to be self-contained, so you shouldn't need to water them often. I suggest checking on them every week or two by opening the jar and making sure the soil is moist and the plants look healthy. You also should be able to observe water droplets on the inside of the jar, which indicates there is sufficient water inside.

A note: If your child's ecosystem contains a plant that looks like the photo below, you may need to remove it from the jar. It seems to be ill-suited to the very moist environment and will start to rot. Sorry about that! Let me know if your child needs a replacement plant.