Posted by: Dad
6:30am
Here's a little list I like to call, "Twelve Things Any Kids Can Do To Greenify Their School". Can you make YOUR school go green?
- Reduce! Make a list of anything new you use at school in a week. Then look back and decide if you really needed it all.
- Reuse! Do you know all that paper people leave by the printer? Here's a tip: it's white on the back!
- Recycle! Collect bottles, cans, and paper. If you don't have a regular collection system, ask some parents to volunteer to take it to be recycled.
- Make money for your school! Collect the cash from redeemable cans, bottles or similar items. Sometimes you can get money back on toner cartridges for printers or old cell phones too.
- Measure your footprint! How much does your school spend on electricity? Or on gasoline for buses? Or on food?
- Plant stuff! Grow a garden, or even herbs in pots on a windowsill. There's lots of science in there and plenty to learn about taking care of nature.
- Compost! See if your school cafeteria can compost its waste.
- Be a role model! It only takes one classroom to go green to make all the others want to join in too. Maybe you can even influence your school's office or the whole school district to go green.
- Exercise your noggin! Build science and math challenges around measuring what your school does. Like how much boiled vegetables get thrown away. Extra credit was never this much fun.
- Give awards! Pick the best green ideas from kids or teachers every month. Then let your whole school know who is the greenest.
- Make a Web site! Lots of schools have Web sites. It's something that even kids can do. Post poems, photos, essays or videos about what it means to you to be green. Like this one at Park School in Brookline, MA. It was made by 4th graders. And we'll be hearing more about them soon on this very Web site!
- Be seen! Maybe your school can tell the local newspaper what you're all doing. A school is a big community and its power reaches into every family and every town. Use that power!
