Second Grade Leaders Bring BIG Results

I could not be more proud of our second grade students. Their leadership with our school-wide composting initiative has been one of the coolest things I have seen in my 11 years of teaching. They have been so passionate and invested in this project, and their excitement has spread. Last week, second-grade students appeared on the announcements every day to tell the school about composting. Here are Gus and Sydney with an important message:

Last week our second grade students taught every class in the school about composting and recycling. They prepared a presentation, including interactive sorting activities, to teach every single student at Keysor how to sort their lunch leftovers into landfill, composting, and recycling bins. The Bartin Bunch personally taught all of the fifth grade students, as well as Mrs. Jansen's kindergarten class.
Some students led a presentation at the ActivBoard, while others led sorting activities with groups of students or a whole-class sorting practice. All of our students were great leaders in these presentations.

Sarah and Max teach some kindergarten students how to sort their trash.

Marin and Alexis lead an activity.

Trevor and Maya are patient as they teach younger students.

Wyatt, Madeline, and Marin led our presentation on the ActivBoard.

Kira, Zachary, and Pete teach fifth-grade students about composting.

Our hard work has paid off. On Monday, we kicked off our school-wide cafeteria program. We went from about 12 bags of trash a day, to only 2 bags of trash for the landfill. That is amazing! When I showed the students a picture of the trash that Dr. Painter sent at the end of the day, they all cheered. They were so proud of themselves and our school, as they should be. They even wanted to set a goal of making only one bag of trash on Wednesday. I love showing our students that their hard work has been worth it, and that kids can make a difference.

This picture says it all. The difference in the amount we are sending to the landfill is, and will continue to be, HUGE!

Our class made this pictograph to show the amount of trash we were sending to the landfill before. We will update it with the after amounts.