April 28, 2014 at 3:26 p.m.
Pelican school celebrates Earth Day
Pelican school celebrates Earth Day
The students participated in a number of activities Friday afternoon including making toilet paper bird feeders, planting their own plants, making a variety of different Earth-centric crafts and learning about the importance of recycling.
Earth Day celebrations have been a staple at the school for years, but Principal Martha Knudtson said the event has grown over the years to include a variety of activities and learning opportunities.
"This is an annual event and it kind of grows and builds and builds each year that we do it," she said.
"With the evolution of things like Pinterest, people find amazing things to do. We have a huge diversity of activities and topics. It's pretty amazing."
The celebration is an all-hands-on-deck event with all staff members, and a large collection of parents, volunteering materials and time to make sure the kids have what they need to learn and have fun doing it.
"They start collecting materials like a month in advance. We'll send an email out to the staff asking for yogurt cup containers or toilet paper rolls, and so that's how they start building this up," Knudtson said.
"We have several parents in the building helping out because you need more hands in the room to organize the topics and make sure everyone's staying on target. It's really amazing how people will donate materials and time to help the kids learn."
A strong desire to teach the students about earth-friendly practices throughout the building helps too, Knudtson said.
"We have several people in the building who have a passion for environmental education, so they kind of spearhead this," she said.
"Amy Rogers (who teaches second grade) always has students, every year, enter the competition for environmental work or artwork at the courthouse. That's her passion and she's usually on this committee (that plans the celebration) and then we go from there. We have a lot of passion for the environment here and that's what makes this so great."
Fun aside, the true objective of the Earth Day celebration is to teach the students about the importance of taking care of the planet.
"We're really trying to push them to recycle, reuse and respect the Earth in that way," Knudtson said.
"It's really cool, the artwork things they come up with when they do this kind of thing, and how we can work in our community and spread the word. We talk a lot about how they can help mom and dad at home when it comes to recycling and sorting and having separate containers and knowing what has to be recycled and what doesn't fall under the criteria to be recycled. That's the stuff we're trying to build up at this level."
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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