Celebrating Earth Day
This week we had our Earth Day book swap. Trying to be "green," Ms. Rivera and I only posted the information about the book swap on our blogs last week. (I incorrectly assumed that when the specialists' blogs are published, an email notification goes out to the parents; we corrected the situation by asking Mrs. Hussey to email a notice about Book Swap this week.)
It was so much fun to see the children excitedly poring over the boxes of books, then becoming engrossed in the books they found. How wonderful that they have such a love of reading! Not only was it an Earth Day celebration, it was also a celebration of reading. Every child got to browse through the books, whether he brought a book to swap or not.
As I stood on the side watching the book swap, it was interesting to see the children's interactions and feelings. Several children did not bring books. I felt sad for them, but sometimes in life we don't get what we want to get (like an appealing book). That is a real part of everyday life. Although we may try to shelter our children from disappointment, they need to learn how to deal with it.
How can we help our children deal with unfortunate situations? It was interesting seeing them try to handle their feelings of wont. A few came to me and begged me to save a particular book for them on the side (asking an adult for help is a strategy)-- except that I wasn't saving books for anyone. When I said I couldn't save books, a few tried to hide their books deep among the boxes so no one else would take them. A few begged their friends to give them a book, which is another strategy, to ask a friend for help-- but I had to stop them, for the sake of the child who brought the books as well as to make it fair for all the children who didn't bring books. A few told me they didn't want to participate, which is fine. And a few excitedly saw books that they thought their friends (who had brought books) would like and brought it to them.
I did reassure all of them that they could bring in a book another day. Thus most of the children looked through the books, read a few, and vowed they would come back the next day with their book from home. Problem solved.
Several children did come back the next day. Some found the book that they were hoping to get. Others didn't, but seemed to find an acceptable alternative. Thankfully, many times an initially disappointing situation can become a happy one. There are life lessons to be learned everywhere, even through a seemingly mundane Earth Day book swap! (Next week we will see how many books are left over; we are considering allowing every child take home a book next week, whether they brought one in or not.)
On another side note, it was fun to see these young children in what was possibly their first "shopping" trip alone, being able to choose whatever book they desired. What a rush! Some chose quickly and sat down with their books. Others took their time going through every single box. It's interesting how each child is different. (Aren't you curious to see which book your child will bring home?)
Another Earth Day activity we did this week was talk about trash and how we need to reduce the amount of trash we generate, especially since we live on an island. I told the students that we will talk about recycling different materials, and this week we talked about recycling plastic.
I showed them photos of the new containers put out by the City-- gray for waste, green for green waste, and blue for recyclables. Many children eagerly chimed in that, yes, they have those containers at home! I also showed them a photo of the large, metal container that we see at our neighborhood schools that look like a Matson container. This year we even have one here at MPI. Even if our home doesn't have the City containers, everyone can put those recyclables on those big Matson container ones.
Then we talked about how we look for the little triangle made of arrows, symbolizing recycling, and that here in Hawaii we can recycle plastic containers with the number 1 and number 2 in that little triangle. The children turned into "plastic detectives" where they had to look at 18 different objects, find the triangle, look at the number in the triangle, and decide whether or not they could put it in that big blue container at home or the big Matson container to recycle it. I told them that was something they, as young children, could do to help the earth regarding plastic recycling. They can be on the lookout for what is recyclable (that 5 mm little triangle might be hard for grandparents to find!), and maybe even go and put the recyclables into that blue container. (One child said one of his chores was to put recyclables outside into the blue container.)
So if you see your child carefully scrutinizing a plastic container in your home, look for the arrow made of triangles with him and see what number it is. Can you recycle it?
On a final note, today was my last webcam conference with Mr. Young's class in California for this school year. Because Ms. Field's class is studying plants, we asked them what their favorite plants are. Two girls who volunteered their answers replied, "Poppies...tulips." Our children were, "What? Poppies? Tulips?" (Have you ever seen the orange California poppies in the spring when they're blooming-- even all along the highway? What an amazing sight...) Then they asked us what our favorite plant was, and one of our students volunteered to answer and said, "Plumeria!" The California children said, "Plumeria?" I think I will try to find photos of poppies and tulips and show them to our children. Perhaps I should email Mr. Young photos of a plumeria plant as well. In our communication with others, we need to remember that everyone's experiences in life are different...
We also asked the California children what they recycle at school, since we're talking about recycling. They said they recycle paper at school. I asked if they can recycle plastics with the numbers 3, 4, and 5 in the little triangle, and Mr. Young said yes. Hopefully one day we can catch up with California in terms of recycling!
