At Meadows, we have lots of ways you and your child(ren) can participate! For more information on GOG and any of the below – please contact Juliette Hart
JOIN THE MEADOWS GREEN TEAM
Fourth Graders at Meadows are all invited to join the Meadows Green Team and can apply here.
Participation in the Meadows Green Team includes:
* Green Leadership at Meadows.
Green Team members will learn about and research best environmental practices for everyday life. They will help incentive, encourage and implement these best practices at Meadows both throughout the school day and at school-sponsored programs and events.
* Rotating “Green Ambassador” position on Meadows Student Council.
The Green Ambassador position will rotate among interested Green Team members throughout the school year. Ambassadors will represent the Green Team at Student Council meetings and provide green tips to the Student Council as they plan their activities throughout the year.
* Participation in fall GOG Water Campaign and Spring Waste Campaign.
This year, GOG is piloting a new program that puts the kids in charge of their own campaign. The Meadows Green Team students will learn about water in the fall and waste in the spring. They will identify a challenge about which they want to educate their school and community. They will research solutions and then develop a video that shares what they’ve learned to the Meadows community – and beyond! Learn more about the GOG water campaign.
During the campaign seasons, we will meet weekly on Mondays, from 12:35 – 1:20 in Room 26 (EDP room near upper playground), starting on October 8, 2018. When we’re not working on campaigns, we’ll meet every other week. More details will be sent home after the first meeting.
REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE AT MEADOWS
Recycling is great, but let’s not forget about the two other Rs – reduce and reuse. All students and families can do their part at home and at school. We provide some tips and resources below.
TRASH FREE LUNCHES
Did you know that the average person in the U.S. consumes twice as many goods today as we did fifty years ago – and generates 4 ½ pounds of garbage every day, two times what we generated just thirty years ago? That is pretty horrifying when you think of the landfill legacy we’re leaving our children and grandchildren. The good thing is that there are some very easy ways to make small changes.
At Meadows, we encourage trash free lunches…every day! It doesn’t matter if your child is packing lunch or buying. There are stations set up where students can empty out milk cartons and juice boxes so they can be recycled, where they can fill the compost bucket with scraps of fruits and vegetables and where they can stack their trays to be recycled. If you’re bringing lunch, you can use some of our tricks every week for all the snacks, drinks and lunches you pack. Start with minimizing use of juice boxes, plastic water bottles, zip top baggies and snack size portions with two or three layers of packaging. You can probably cut your daily trash in half with these little changes!
Here are some specifics (and suggestions for places to buy the basics if what you have isn’t quite working):
RECYCLE USED BATTERIES, INK CARTRIDGES AND CELL PHONES
You can also drop off your old batteries, empty ink cartridges and used cell phones in the office in order to keep them out of our landfills (that sounds better than having heavy metals like cadmium and mercury leach into the soil and groundwater, doesn’t it?). Even better, we send the old cell phones and used ink cartridges to eScrip, so it’s an easy fundraiser for the Meadows PTA as well! Empty Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches are sent to www.terracycle.net to be turned into some really inventive products like fences, purses and pencil cases.
ABOUT GRADES OF GREEN
Grades of Green is changing the course of the future by instilling environmental values in students today. Grades of Green began in 2008 at Grand View Elementary in California by four moms wanting a better world for their children. After receiving an award from the EPA, the founders created a non-profit so that other schools would have free and easy access to the tools and information needed to empower and inspire students to care for the environment. Grades of Green offers 40+ Grades of Green Activities aimed to instill environmental values in students. Whether you want to concentrate on conserving air, energy, waste, water, or toxins, Grades of Green has an array of activities that will help protect the environment today while instilling environmental values in students for years to come. Join the Grades of Green community today.