Earth Day Celebration MIS

By:

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

 

1^st  & 2^nd  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)