Earth Day Celebration MIS
By:
Earth Day Celebration 2011
Magellan International School
Austin, TX
Compilation by Sayuri Yamanaka
sayuri.verde@gmail.com
I Profile of the students
School: Magellan International School
Students: 3 years old to 3rd grade
MIS Green Team
Ethan V. - School grounds & Composting
Orlando G. - Community Outreach
Carmen J. - Recycling program
Alexandra C. - Sustainability customized hands on activities
Lulu L. - Health & Nutrition
Gesee S. - Media & Marketing
Mara B. - Campaigns & Environmental stewardship
Green coach: Sayuri Yamanaka
II What we did
The Earth day activity had a huge impact on Magellan International School; 120 children, 40 parents, 30 teachers and volunteers, 100 feet garden, 50 birds in the playground, 20 squirrels, and a whole community of minds and hearts that were touched by the outside butterfly garden. Earth day celebration was the perfect opportunity to plant the seed of environmental awareness in our entire school community.
The kids had fun while they learned specific information about conservation of natural resources, habitats, and effective recycling systems. They got to practice how to separate the compost, recycling and trash. Different age groups rotated among the stations and each group was assigned a different developmentally appropriate experience.
Parents were invited to the celebration and had to opportunity to get involved in the different projects running during the rotations. They expressed very good comments about the event and committed to keep working in the following green projects of the school. They tell about the good green habits their kids display at home. "Every people that walks on our sidewalk in Chimney Corners have asked about it!... Even neighbors had offer to come and read stories to the children regarding garden, plants, recycling or nature". Moreover, the school launched the campaign “Cool the Earth” with great enthusiasm.
III Outcomes
“Cool The Earth” Campaign
Cool The Earth educates K-8 students and their families about climate change and inspires them to take simple actions to reduce their carbon emissions.
Magellan is the first school to enroll in this campaign in Texas; the goal for this year is for students to complete 100 actions to reduce their carbon emissions at home. To help launch the “Cool the Earth” campaign and help nurture a culture of environmental responsiveness, the school took action by bringing environmental awareness to the community of The Magellan International School. We commenced the day by launching a play that talked about climate change and its impacts on natural habitats such as that of the polar bear.
Environmental Education activities
Through different activities around the school we develop the profiles of being caring, reflective, thinker and knowledgeable. We also planned to have the children experienced the concepts of causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility and reflection throughout a dynamic and creative play. The following activities are examples of the Magellan International School Earth Day celebration:
Outdoor activities
Students experience “Sensing the Round Earth” activity. They walked through a mace to observe, smell and feel nature.
Among some of the activities the children actively and collaboratively worked as a team were to rack leaves, up root grass, created planting soil out of compost and gravel, and dig the soil beds for butterfly garden.
Training sessions
The recycling program is one of the priorities at Magellan International School; students and teachers learn about recycling and composting. They watched a video related to where does trash go. Participants realized the importance of recycling to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill; students worked in groups with different materials presented to them. Finally, they helped to create posters to communicate the message to the school community about how to separate trash effectively; teachers, parents and students are working every day to reduce the amount of trash and recycling or composting much more of the waste they produce.
Art activities
Students & teachers create bird feeders:
Students of 3 & 4 years old
Activity: Recycle bird feeders
Materials: Toilette paper rolls with sunflower seeds butter and bird seeds
Students of 4 & 5 years old
Activity: Wild bird feeders
Materials: Pine cones with sunflower seeds butter and bird seeds
Fundrising activities
1st & 2nd run a fundraising campaign to support green initiatives at school
IV What we accomplished
With the students
- Spread the messages of energy conservation
- Empower students with information and tangible actions to reduce carbon emissions, recycling & composting
With the community
- Motivate one hundred families to take simple actions to live in a more sustainable life style
- Train teachers and students about recycling and composting
- Launched a global warming campaign (first school in Texas)
“As a member of the green team, getting to work in the implementation of this campaign has been one of the best experiences due to the excellent structure of it, its measurable goals and also because is easy and friendly for the kids.”
Mara Bernal (Magellan International School)
“Earth day at MIS!..We finished that day with the feeling that we all have learnt something new with creativity , enthusiasm and respect for us, for others and for our Mother earth.”
Alexandra Castro (Magellan International School)
" Miss, what are you going to do with all those rolls?... the teacher said: we might trough them into the compost... and he said: NO! let's reuse them!.. Today we are making new birds feeders with the same old toilet paper rolls and strings.
4 years old student (Magellan International School)