Great Meeting Today!

Was that experiment with the apple cool or what? We learned how little space we have on this planet to grow crops and raise cattle to feed our growing population. Just think--wherever those tennis balls goes when they roll down the storm drains, that's where the lawn chemicals, motor oil, and other pollutants go! And it all ends up in our soil.

Like Mrs. Bango's styrofoam cups at the bank story, it's our job to raise awareness!

We talked about some upcoming contests for artists in the group. Here are some links to check out:
- http://www.cleanaircampaign.org/Kids-Schools/2011-Young-Lungs-At-Work-Art-Competition/Elementary-School-Comic-Strip-Contest?j=25950994&e=cristin_zegers@yahoo.com&l=15413711_HTML&u=298824428&mid=15728&jb=0

This is a cool comic strip contest that can earn money for our school's science, environmental, or art programs!

- http://eeingeorgia.org/resource/about.aspx?s=87260.0.0.4863

There are cash and trip prizes awarded to top winners in this painting competition!


We also talked about some upcoming activities we can have some fun with:
- Saturday, April 16 from 11-1 we are scheduled to do some tree climbing in Sandy Springs. I am so excited for this! There is a cost for this trip and a parent should plan on attending. The charge is $20 per climber. I need to know as soon as possible who wants to and is available to attend this outing. Please look at your calendar and let me know if this is something you can commit to. Here's a link for more information:
http://www.treeclimbing.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106&Itemid=100

- On Saturday, February 26 from 7-9 there is a night hike at Chattahoochee Nature Center. I'm not available to attend this but if a group of you want to get together with your families, I'm happy to organize it!

- Keep Cobb Beautiful is rallying Cobb residents to clean up our community on Saturday, March 5 from 8:30-12:00. I am available to do this at 8:30 but only for a short time. Again, if you want to gather your parents and siblings I can do the leg-work to sign us up for an area (like our school grounds and surrounding areas). Some supplies will be provided for this project.

I'm working on setting a date for us to walk to the East Cobb Park and start work on cleaning up the stream area and doing some planting to help with erosion. I'm also working on getting a Bee Keeper to come and give us a presentation after school one day. Honey bees are so important...we'll learn why!

Thanks for coming today! I enjoyed our discussions and hearing all of your ideas and input. Please email me at environmentaleducation@eastsideelementary.com if you have any questions or want to let me know what events you want to participate in.

GO GREEN!
~ Mrs. Zegers

This week's Recycle Friday volunteers

Thanks Chloe and Eric for your help with Recycle Friday today! It was much appreciated on this rainy day at East Side!! Good work~

Keep Georgia Beautiful Field Trip!

On Thursday, February 3rd Planet Patrol visited the Keep North Fulton Beautiful Recycling Center in Sandy Springs and saw first hand what happens to the glass, plastic, tin, aluminum, cardboard, and more in the first steps of the recycling process. What a blast! We sorted (and smashed!!) glass bottles, crushed and compacted boxes, and witnessed aluminum cans being shot out of a "can smasher."


We learned that the average American makes 5 pounds of trash every day, but the average Georgian makes 6 pounds of trash every day! Yikes!!

Here's how long it takes some common items to break down in the landfill (if we reuse or recycle them we don't have to worry about this!):
Orange peel: 2-1/2 weeks
Paper bag: 1 month
Wool sock: 1 year
Milk/OJ carton: 5 years
Plastic grocery bags: 10-20 years
Tin cans: 100 years
Glass bottles: 1 million years
Styrofoam: NEVER!!


(This is a sign made of different colored bottle caps. Ms. Debbie offered to help us make a cool sign like this for our new outdoor classroom! So fun!!)

And a big thanks to Ms. Freeze, Ms. Rockaway, and Ms. Bango for accompanying us and providing taxi service (what a ride!).

Recycle Center field trip coming up!!

Planet Patrol is taking a field trip to the Morgan Falls Recycle Center on Thursday, February 3. We'll meet at the flag pole at the front of the school (parents should send a note that their child is being dismissed with walkers) and we will drive to Sandy Springs to learn the details of what happens to all those items we put in the recycling bin. Pick up will be at 4:30 at the front of the school. Have questions? Contact Cristin Zegers at environmentaleducation@eastsideelementary.com.

Ava and Shira did a great job and had a few laughs helping out on Recycle Friday last week! East Side PTA gets cash for all the paper and cardboard we recycle, and plastic bottles and cans go in the single-stream dumpster.

Thanks to everyone for getting up early for our first Planet Patrol meeting! I was so happy to see that all of you were interested in almost all of the categories we talked about today. Here's a list of the different areas of interest we talked about and some of the ideas you all had on how we can help (and we noticed that many of the projects can help in multiple areas!):


Insects, Animals, and Wildlife
Collecting and studying bugs, building birdhouses for the new school grounds, protecting animals' natural habitats, planting trees

Oceans, Lakes, and Streams
Cleaning up along the Chattahoochee River, the creeks at East Cobb Park, visiting the Chattahoochee Nature Center, promoting the use of reusable grocery bags so ocean life isn't harmed by plastic bags

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
East Side Recycle Friday, making sure recyclables don't go in the trash at home, turning something old and used in to something new and usable (repurposing!)

Gardening, Composting, Plants & Trees
Planting trees and plants, being involved in garden space in the new school, visiting the new vegetable garden at the Chattahoochee Nature Center

Outdoor Activities: Clean Air, Trails, Outdoor Classroom
No Idle Awareness Week at East Side, scavenger hunt and maybe geocaching at East Cobb Park, nature hikes, helping in the outdoor classroom at the new school

Several of you signed up to help out with Recycle Friday. This is what Recycle Friday is all about: every Friday we meet in the cafeteria at 7:20am. As students start arriving, one or two students from each classroom (except the 4th grade classrooms) brings their recyclables to us in the cafeteria. Our job is to collect all the paper, cardboard, plastic, and aluminum into bags, do a little sorting, and bring the bags to the recycling dumpsters behind the school. East Side PTA actually earns money for all the paper and cardboard we put in the dumpster! So cool!! If you volunteer to help with this, we'll make sure you get to your classroom by 7:50, and we'll let your teacher know that you were helping out with this very important project. Once you see how much we recycle each week, you'll understand why we don't want all of this going to the dump! I'll send your parents an email with a day you can help out with Recycle Friday if you signed up for it.

I'm going to spend the next few days figuring out our first activity and I will post all the details on the blog. Our next meeting is going to be Tuesday, February 15 at 7:00am. I'll be posting more information on that meeting at the date gets closer, but in the meantime, check out all the fun contests that we can enter on the right-hand side of this page. If something really interests you, bring it to the next meeting and we'll form a group to do it!

Thanks again, everyone, for your active participation this morning! And thanks to Mrs. Bango for all your help and great ideas. I'll look forward to getting together again for some Earth-minded fun soon!

GO GREEN!
~ Mrs. Zegers

New date for first Planet Patrol meeting!

We will be meeting at 7:00am on Thursday, January 20 in front of the school then moving to the media center for our first official meeting. See you then!!