Summary: 3/29 Meeting and Playground Cleanup (and the Red-Tailed Hawk)

Happy Spring!

On March 29, we kicked off the first of a series of fun activities that our wonderful high school members, Kate and Audrey, will be leading throughout the remaining sessions. After a quick debrief of our March 26 assembly (e.g., what went well, which areas we could improve on, what our friends or classmates thought), Kate and Audrey introduced the "Bug Hotels" activity that the students will get to work on next Friday.

Kate and Audrey facilitated a discussion about bugs and insects, and also explained how we will be making the hotels. If you/your child missed the March 29 session, check out Kate and Audrey's slides below and don't forget to bring in any materials you might have at home.

Now that spring has arrived, everyone was excited to go outside to resume our regular playground clean-ups. As usual, the Green Team Kids found a wide variety of trash and recyclable items around Newton Centre Playground. They also got a special treat on this particular afternoon: a visit from a red-tailed hawk:

It was wonderful to see the kids watch in awe as the beautiful hawk suddenly appeared and elegantly glided above the playground, landing on top of a fence. Thanks to Audrey, we all learned to identify the bird as the red-tailed hawk. To honor Matteo's request (and some others, who wanted to share this experience with their parents), I have included a photo of the hawk below for all of you to enjoy!

See you soon for our Bug Hotels activity!

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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!

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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!

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