Believe it or not, we have been learning about things other than composting. We have been learning about civics and the election process in the past few weeks. Students have developed a great understanding of the importance of voting to have a say in the government. Last week students wrote about what they would do if they were president. Their answers included lowering gas prices, giving money to the poor, giving out free ice cream, and fining people if they don't compost and recycle. Stop by and see our bulletin board with everyone's comments.
On Monday we participated in a school-wide mock election. Students filled out voter registration cards ahead of time, and we talked more about the election process. A few students expressed concern that they were unsure who to vote for. We talked about the candidates generally, and the morning announcements included a few facts about each candidate, but we did not talk a lot about the political views of each candidate. One student commented that she was torn because "responsible citizens vote, so I need to vote, but it is also important to be an educated voter." I love that second graders can understand the importance of voting.
Students wait their turn to vote, while fourth-grade leaders help us out.
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.
Just when you thought we had learned it all about composting...
Today Kim from Earthways (a division of the Missouri Botanical Gardens) came to our classroom to do a presentation about composting and recycling. We learned a lot of interesting facts, like:
Paper can be recycled 5-7 times.
In the United States, one person makes about 5 pounds of trash each day.
In Missouri, one person makes about 6 pounds of trash each day.
In St. Louis, one person makes about 9.5 pounds of trash each day.
The top 5 most common things in the landfill.
1. paper
2. food
3. plastics
4. metal
5. glass
We can recycle or compost ALL of those things!
Students got to practice sorting trash into compostable, recyclable, and landfill piles. This is perfect before our cafeteria recycling and composting starts on Nov. 5th.
Some students got to act out a food chain, learning about the important role of decomposers. Then we got to dig through real compost, finding all kinds of critters. It was very engaging and educational.
Ms. Kim taught us lots of great information.
Madeline and Clayton sort their trash.
Sydney and Kira discuss how to sort their trash.
Some students act out a food chain.
Compost digging- Eddie, Olivia C., Max, and Alexis
Olivia C., Sarah, and Wyatt
Marin, Madeline, Clayton, Olivia, and Kira find some critters.
Pete, Audrey and Maya look at some worms and roly polies.
We have been waiting for weeks for our worms to arrive. After ordering them from two different companies and waiting for a month, they finally arrived via FedEx on Friday afternoon (sadly, after school was out). I was already gone for the weekend myself, so we were lucky to have Mrs. Wellman, Mr. Pursley, and Mrs. John around to set them up for us. I certainly owe them one!
Our Worm-A-Way worm bin
Our worms (all 1,000 of them) are living in a special box in our room. They have newspaper bedding and a little soil, mixed with water in their tub. We will feed them a few pounds of compostable material each week, and wait for them to do their work. Hopefully, we will have some great compost by spring to use in our new Project IDEA gardens.
Everyone was very excited to open the lid and check out the worms. The worms like to hide, so we have to dig to find them.
We have decided to make it a classroom job to be the weekly worm keeper. This person will help feed the worms, keep their tub moist, and keep a log of everything we are feeding them. It's not easy to look after 1,000 class pets!
One cool effect of this project already is that more kids are bringing compostable snacks, which tend to be healthier. Kids are very excited to feed their banana or orange peels or leftover fruit or veggies to the worms. This is am outcome I hadn't even anticipated.
Today Mr. Krena, our talented third grade teacher, sang his original worm song with us. The song is absolutely perfect for this learning.
In case you were wondering, we can not tell them apart. We have decided to name them all Bob.
We have been learning about soil and composting for weeks now. To show what they know, students selected a compost project to work on. Their goal was to teach other people about composting, and they had 7 different choices about how to do that. I wanted students to be creative and to choose a project they would enjoy. After discussing the expectations of each project, students made a choice and signed the Composting Project Contract.
A big part of working on this project was choosing the audience and the goal. Some students chose to teach younger children about composting, while other chose to teach parents about how to compost at home, or teach the entire school about composting in the cafeteria (which we hope to start soon). I think this focus helped make their projects more meaningful.
We worked on the projects every morning for two weeks. I was amazed at how seriously the students took their work. Some kids were researching on computers and in books, while others dove right into writing scrips and rough drafts.
At the end of the two weeks, everyone has completed a project. We are working on editing some of the videos, or binding a few books, but all of their learning and producing is complete. I love how invested the students are with their projects. They are so excited to share them with others. Some students will be reading their books to other classes next week. Others are excited to show off their songs and videos. Posters are now hanging in our hallway.
Here are a few of the many projects that are complete:
This is a video by Trevor, Pete, Clayton and Gus demonstrating how they set up a composting experiment with worms. We are still observing the experiment in our classroom. We owe a BIG thanks to Mrs. John for helping with the experiment and video.
Alex made a poster of a Log Hotel. We read a book called The Log Hotel, about a tree that fell over, and all of the living things that helped it decompose. Alex cut out pictures of animals and fungus that caused his log to break down.
Max made a brochure about how to compost at home. We sent it home with
each student in our class and gave it out to other teachers at Keysor.
Audrey and Marin
create a nonfiction book about critters that live in a compost bin. They
even included a table of contents. They will read their book to a
kindergarten class next week.
Madeline wrote and illustrated an ABC book about composting. She will share it with kindergarten students next week.
