Summary: 11/9 Meeting & Playground Cleanup!

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 bags of trash that they collected on the Mason-Rice playground, along the creek and in Newton Centre Playground. Along the way, they even garnered more than a little attention from other Mason-Rice students playing outside and inspired a few to join the effort.

Before our meeting drew to a close, the students proactively got into small groups to present their findings (we will be uploading some of the videos soon!)

Needless to say, they did an amazing job! See you all at our next meeting on Friday, 11/30!

Comments

Our last meeting!

On June 7, we Green Team coordinators were happily surprised and showered with beautiful flowers, cards and gifts from our Green Team Kids and their parents. Were were thrilled to hear how much the students enjoyed the programming over the year, and we thank the parents for their ongoing support and generosity! To cap off a great year and to enjoy the beautiful summer afternoon, we enjoyed a scavenger hunt outdoors that covered numerous topics we've discussed over the course of the year followed by frozen treats, a short presentation by Kate and Audrey about eating vegan (this was a topic we were going to cover in an earlier session, when we went to visit the Mayor instead!), and then a photo slideshow of the year. Thanks everyone for an amazing year, and have a great summer!

Our Kickoff Meeting (10/26/2018)

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 .

Summary: 12/7 Meeting and Spring Project

On Friday, 12/7, we spent the afternoon teaching the kids about composting and then revealed our exciting spring 2019 project: launching composting during snack-time at Mason-Rice. With Principal Bultema's support, the Green Team Kids will help lead composting at Mason-Rice starting next March! As a quick background: Mason-Rice does not currently compost during snack or lunch. This is probably not surprising, since - as Newton residents would know - the City of Newton currently does not provide for compost pickup. Accordingly, Mason-Rice students' food scraps must be thrown into the trash. However, over the years, a couple of elementary schools in Newton (Underwood and Peirce) have started to compost on their own campuses thanks to the initiative of environmentally-minded and motivated individuals at the respective schools (typically a staff member). This fall, the City of Newton has also launched compost pick-up at its newest elementary s...

Mason-Rice Green Team Kids!

Search This Blog