INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW – “EARTH CARE AND SHARE”
Young people, from many countries on our planet are joining together to demonstrate for adults in power to “grow up” assume responsibility, and join them in the fight against Climate Change NOW before it’s too late. As for me, I am concerned about what our planet will be like for my grandchildren and my great grandchildren! That concern has led me to action, to do what I can, as a teacher, to help children learn how our wonderful, amazing planet works. This, along with our children working together in “Cooperative Learning Teams,” in creative problem solving experiments and activities will prepare them for the greater work of saving us, all of us, as well as our planet. We as parents, grandparents, teachers, and others in our communities, need to join together, at home, at church, in our parks, and at school to live a life of reduce, reuse, recycle so our children assume it’s the natural and normal way to live.
There are many web pages on this website to help you, however I encourage you to try Kid’s Ecology, The School Garden, The Child’s Garden and Sanctuary, Part 1 – Kid’s Chemistry, and Parts 2 & 3 Kid’s Chemistry. To help you manage kids try Classroom Management. Then there’s the Kid’s Ecology – SPICE eBook, “Pink Hat’s Adventure With Seagulls, Hats, and Dancing Feet” in the BOOK section.
GROWING SUCCESSFUL KIDS – It’s Not Just the Grass that’s Going GREEN!
Here is an exciting, fun, character building summer project for kids. You can prevent the summer slide as kids do math, science, reading, and research, as they play and compete in this Earth Care
Learn and Share project.
Working with friends, they develop good habits in Energy Conservation. They learn the power of deferred gratification as they hold each other accountable.
Each child chooses 5 good energy saving habits to learn. As they practice, each time a child forgets, he must put 5 cents in the project jar. They develop good habits, practice math, build their resources.
In a few weeks, they become detectives and spend their money on a meaningful “Act of Kindness.” The giving must be in secret. To accomplish this, they must use their creative problem-solving skills.
Responsible, educated, caring adults don’t just happen. All of our website pages are designed and interconnected to grow successful kids. We think of this as Kid Ecology.
In the book Pink Hat’s Adventure with Seagulls, Hats, and Dancing Feet, at the HAT’S GO GREEN CONVENTION, the hats resolved to practice the following tasks in order to use less energy and help keep our planet clean and beautiful.
1 . Install energy saving CFL (compact fluorescent lamps), to light our homes.
2 . Turn out lights we don’t need.
3 . Walk, ride bikes, or carpool to save gasoline and $.
4 . Grow a garden for food, compost uneaten plant material in your Compost Heap.
5 . Take short showers.
6 . Put junk food wrappers and cups in the bin. Pick up trash everywhere.
7 . Recycle paper, plastic bags, glass, cardboard, and anything else we can. Our Lowe’s Store has big recycling bins for plastic, light bulbs, and batteries. Local Walmart stores have bins for plastic bags.
8 . Use reusable cloth bags for grocery shopping.
9 . Pack lunches in reusable containers.
10 . Replace plastic water bottles with reusable containers.
11 . Close refrigerator door and other doors as you go and come from outside.
The “Act of Kindness” Experiment
Problem – How can I learn these conservation tasks and have fun doing it?
Supplies: nickels, a jar for each participant, paper and pencil, crayons, large pieces of drawing paper, friends, classmates, parents, grandparents, teacher or counselor. I know that the more nickels I put in my jar as I am learning, the more money I will collect for our Act of Kindness.
Procedure – Write down one energy conservation task you want to learn. Ask your friends, parents, grandparents, to join you and give each of them a jar. Each time you forget to do the task, put a nickel in your jar. Ask all the other participants to do the same. (Hold each other accountable.)
Repeat this procedure until you have learned 5 of the conservation tasks and are doing all 5 consistently.
When your jars have lots of nickels, count how much and see if together you have enough to buy a needy kid a new pair of tennis shoes.
Play Observant Detectives and gather evidence. By looking everywhere you can think of, find a needy kid whose tennis shoes are worn out. Meet this kid and tell him/her about the “Feet Are Neat” project you, and your friends are working on. Ask this kid if he/she knows that people from different cultures have different kinds of feet?
All of you show this kid the pictures you drew of your feet, and how neatly they are decorated. Invite this kid to add a drawing of his/her feet to the collection. If he/she agrees, then one of you take off a shoe and draw around your feet. Then help this kid draw around his feet. Take time to let this special kid decorate it as he/she chooses. Did you notice if his/her worn out shoes are too small or too large for his/her feet?
The first kid you ask may say no, so you have to keep looking until you find just the right kid for your act of kindness. You and your friends take the drawing to the store and choose just the right pair of tennis shoes for this kid. They may be like the ones you and your friends are wearing. If you have left over money, buy a few pairs of socks as well.
A Problem To Solve – How can you and your friends deliver these shoes secretly so no one will know what you did. Figure it out, then do it.
For this Act of Kindness, in helping a needy kid get NEAT FEET too, all of you have worked together and earned this award. It’s the “EARTH CARE – Learn and Share Award. Congratulations.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK OF CARING FOR OUR PLANET AND SHARING WITH OTHERS! Can you think of a better way of spending some of your time this summer, a better way to make this summer unique, meaningful, and memorable, and having fun talking about it when you are grown up?
