Happy Earth Day!

Normally we wouldn't be able to spend a whole day celebrating Earth Day, but since we just finished 2 weeks of state testing, it was a nice treat!  The kids really enjoyed all the activities and valuable learning took place too!

We began by brainstorming ways we could help the earth.  They came up with the ideas below.  We also talked about how we have to make every day Earth Day, not just April 22nd!

Then I read aloud my favorite Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax. They were more attentive during that book than they have been in a long while!  After, we watched the movie (the older one).  Student colored Earth Day books marks at this time too.

After the movie, I introduced our Earth Day ReUse Challenge.  Boys vs. Girls would create something beautiful and artistic out of something ugly- TRASH!!!   I'd been collecting boxes and all sorts of reusable trash for a little while in preparation for this.  I didn't expect how excited and pumped up they would be for this competition.  They really surprised me!  They split up and split up the trash and got to their design plans.  

Here are their final creations (both teams seemed to go in the robot direction).  The girls created the vending machine robot on the left and the boys made the robot family on the right, even including a dog!  (And be sure to notice the sharp dressed robot in the tuxedo!)  This challenge led to so much more than the original objective of "REUSE materials."  I was glad to hear them talking about the structure and stability of their bots too!

The next project was a modern artistic representation of the earth via marble painting! 

We posted these in the hall along with their Earth Day pledges.

We also passed out water and energy conservation kits that had been sent to us by Oklahoma Natural Gas.  These kits were free to the students and included such things as energy efficient light bulbs, faucets, and shower heads. 

And what better way to top of the day than with Earth Day Pie!!  Chocolate pudding, oreo crumbles, and gummy worms are a favorite combination for all kids (and us older kids too!)

Happy Earth Day 2012!