Mason-Rice Green Team Kids!

On Friday 11/9, we continued our discussion on the problem of trash, focusing specifically on oceans and ocean plastics.  We were blessed to have our veteran Green Team member, former Mason-Rice parent and children's book author/illustrator, Claire Nivola open up the meeting with the students by reading an excerpt from her book, " Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle" .  We were all absolutely engaged with Claire's beautiful illustrations of the ocean. Next, we took the students through a brief presentation and set of short videos to learn about the magnitude of the ocean plastics problem facing us today, and how everyday trash from faraway cities can make its way to the oceans.  A copy of the presentation/videos can be viewed here . Given the nice fall weather outside, the students were all ecstatic to work our way out to the playground to do a playground cleanup.  With an empty bag in one hand, each of the kids quickly filled up bag

On the afternoon of October 26th, we launched our first Mason-Rice Green Team Kids meeting for the year.  We had approximately fourteen 3rd and 4th graders with a mix of knowledge and interest in environmental issues and actions they can take to help protect our planet.   As a group, we discussed what they would like to do as members of Green Team Kids (the most popular response was "making posters" to raise awareness, which we will be doing at the next meeting).    Then we launched into our first substantive topic: TRASH.  Below is a copy of some of the slides and videos from our presentation.  October 26 Presentation Slides For those who would like to learn more about how the City of Newton manages its trash and recycling, please check out the "Where Does My Trash and Recycling Go?" section on the  City's website .