Greenprint 2012-2013

By:

 

CDR William C McCool

Greenprint 2012-2013

 

Our Pledge:

We, the students and teachers of CDR William C. McCool E/M School,  pledge to keep

working on making our school healthy, safe, and environmentally friendly.

 

 

Cornerstone: Nature Adventure

 

Exploring Native Forests and Habitats

 

In our efforts to continue our Green Ribbon School Efforts under the

Cornerstone: Nature Adventure (Exploration & Play, Outdoor Skills, and Nature Spaces) and cross-grade level/expertise collaboration with science inquiry standards, Mrs. Flores (5th), Ms. Tuquero (1st grade), Paul Wenninger, and Ms. Gretchen Grimm would like to:

a. increase students awareness of Native and introduced Guam Plants and animals

b. plant Native species to increase Native Forest Coverage

c. beautify our school community

 

We will be working with Ms. Grimm and Paul Wenninger from Naval Base Guam's Environmental Division on several topics. The data generated from the field experience will provide meaningful data that may be compared and contrasted over time.

 

To begin this project, students will explore seed dispersal of flowering plants and their immediate habitats.  First and fifth grade students will work with the Navy base Natural Resources program team for several months.  We will record the project by taking video, pictures, and collecting, analyzing, and sharing data. We will ask for any funding needs from our Parent Teacher Organization and donations from community volunteers. Project dates: 9/1/2012 through 6/1/2013.

Cornerstone: Eco–Campus

Project: Robot Recycler

The purpose of this project is to take trash and turn it into treasure.  This will help show students ways they can reuse items and using things more than once will help our landfills.  It also lets students see the potential of using one thing for an entirely new purpose.  Reusing is a critical skill to teach the students in order to help them become good stewards of future resources.  Students in the Resource program in grades K-5^th will create their own robots designs using trash.  They will use the engineering design process to design the robots and then create a story to tell a story about it.  They will use the program Frames to create a story using digital photography and chromo key editing.  A sample student project will be uploaded to the website.  The students will keep their finished stories in their electronic portfolios.  Since recycled materials are being used, no additional money will be needed.  This project will take place during the first quarter of school with a finish date of Nov. 16^th, 2012.

 

Cornerstone: Eco-Campus

Project: Recycling for the Stars

The entire 8^th Grade will participate in the STEM engineering design process of building a telescope using recycled materials. We will use recycled cardboards, old newspapers, paper cups, empty plastic bottles, caps, soda cans, broken mirror lenses and glasses, and some wooden stick materials to build a workable telescope. The idea is to build a telescope out of scrap materials and then determine if the built-in telescope is equipped for vision.   There are written journaling entries that come with their projects. No money is required since we are re-using supplies.  This is a first quarter activity to be finished by November 15, 2012.

 

Cornerstone: Health & Fitness

Spreading the NEWS

This project will help to get kids interested in healthy eating, nutrition, exercise, and living a healthy lifestyle.  We have a closed-circuit television system and broadcast daily news written and produced by students.  We will have students focus on topics that include healthy eating, cool exercises, and green projects they can get involved in.   All students will be participating in grades Pre-K through 8^th.  We will create a video and take photos.  We will keep a running list of topics covered.  No budget will be needed for this project.  This will last all year, specifically running from 11/1/2012 through 6/1/2013.

Cornerstone: Natural Classrooms

Nature in Pre-K

We will focus our learning on trees and the seasons of a tree and work on understanding and practicing helping nature by Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling.  We will create a recycled family art project. Our focus is to get the young ones to see nature and want to protect it. We are also again going to study the works and style of nature artist Georgia O Keefe (sketching and watercolor painting of plants and flowers) during our Artists Study.   We will invite the media to attend our Art Show featuring student works of art focusing on nature. 

During our Snack Time we will encourage parents to pack snacks in eco-friendly containers. Photos will be taken and published in our newsletter throughout the studies. We do not need a special budget for this.  This project will be complete by Earth Day 2013.

 

Cornerstones: Natural Classrooms

Parent-Teacher Organization Earth Day Contest

Earth Day is a wonderful way to show the students how to protect the earth from our abuse.  The PTO office will hold a Drawing/Writing Contest for the students to participate…and the winning overall entry will win their entire grade a very special project from Home Depot (more details for the overall winner will be released after the contest is over).  The winner of each class will get a gift certificate to our Spirit Store.

Here are the details from the contest:

Theme: What does your earth mean to you? (Unless you have already started a topic related to Earth Day, then please feel free to build off that topic with our contest.)

Details:

Pre-K thru 1^st Grades needs to draw a picture.

2^nd thru 5^th Grades needs to draw a picture and write a poem to go with it.  (Any poem will do just as long as it goes with the theme and picture.)

6^th thru 8^th Grades needs to draw a picture and write a paragraph to accompany the picture.  The paragraph needs to be a minimum of 100 words.  Also, if we can’t read it, it won’t be judged.

Please insure each entry has the student’s name, teacher’s name and class room number on the back. 

We will announce the winners on or before April 30^th by 3:00 pm.