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Showing posts from December, 2018

Reminder: Meeting on 12/14, Zero-Waste Yankee Gift Swap and 2019 Meeting Dates

This will be our last meeting before the holiday break. We hope you can make it, and don't forget to bring a "gift" for our Zero-Waste Yankee Gift Swap (please see the instructions below). This will be our last meeting in 2018.  As a reminder, here are our meeting dates for the rest of the school year:  1/11, 1/25, 2/8, 3/1, 3/15, 3/29, 4/5, 4/26, 5/10, 5/17, 5/31, 6/7

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 schools -- Zervas and Angie

Summary: 11/30 Meeting & Tree Exploration

On Friday, 11/30, Barbara Nes (wonderful parent of Green Team Kid Celina) kindly led our team of Green Team Kids on a tree exploration within our own Mason-Rice campus.  Although we're all regulars at the Mason-Rice playground, most of us have probably not focused our attention on the trees surrounding the playground.  Barbara started off by talking to the students about trees, the important role they play in our ecosystem, their needs and signs of disease.  We then journeyed through the woody area behind the basketball courts, and then along the creek, identifying various types of trees that show signs of sickness. During our journey, the students also observed the squirrels, as well as (unfortunately) the soil erosion and unusual amount of trash in the area.  In particular, Celina pointed out to the rest of the students pollution in the creek in the form of a white foamy substance which she had observed over a week ago. As the students looked into the creek, they point