THE VAN METER GREEN TEAM
The Van Meter Green Team is a parent lead group that works with our home & school club, our teachers and staff and our students to help engage and educate our community on ways to operate our school in a more efficient, innovative, and healthy way.
Dear LG Students, Teachers and Parents,
Earth week is April 19-23! Please look through the following information to learn about daily activities to help the Earth this week. Please read this with you kid/s, along with the Fun Facts & videos. The videos vary in age appropriateness, so please watch through first. We really need your help encouraging student involvement!
Many thanks, The LG Green Teams
SUMMARY OF EARTH WEEK ACTIVITIES
Meatless Monday
Students will try to have one meal or whole day without meat. The school Grab n Go lunch will be veggie too!
Facts - It takes 55 sq. feet of rainforest & 2500 gallons of water to make 1lb of beef. If a 4 person family gave up beef & cheese for 1 week, it would be the same as that family not driving their car for 35 weeks.
Trash Free Tuesday
Students will all bring trash free snacks and think about the same for all their meals that day. This means no disposable wrappers, no Ziploc bags, no straws, and no juice boxes. Items for composting are permitted. Rinsed milk cartons are recyclable! TOTALLY TRASH FREE. Think about all the ways that you can RECYCLE, REUSE, REDUCE.
Facts - Plastic can take up to 450 years to disintegrate, so every single piece of plastic ever made is still around today. There is a Pacific Ocean garbage patch that is 1.6 million km2. Micro plastics have already entered the food chain. The majority of microplastics comes from synthetic textiles like clothes. 448 million tons of plastic is made per year. 83% of the world’s tap water has microplastics, and 93% of top water bottle brands contain microplastics.
Monterey Bay Microplastics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiH3f6AKFbc
Approx 9+yrs https://youtu.be/RS7IzU2VJIQ
Elementary https://youtu.be/VUUUxOl715s
RRR song for younger kids - https://youtu.be/AOvcW8l3RzE
Walk & Roll Wednesday
On this day students are encouraged to walk, ride or roll to somewhere rather than using the car. Courtesy of Safe Routes to School, there will be a Scavenger Hunt that you can do or you could do a neighbourhood trash collection . If you take a photo and submit it (with your name, school, teacher) to jessica.williams@vanmeterhsc.org, then there will be prizes!!
Facts - Carbon footprint is the pollution emitted by burning of fossil fuels like gas, petrol and coal which produces way too much carbon dioxide, and is upsetting the balance of gasses in the air, which causes climate change. Other than China, America is the world’s worst offender. Reducing use of transport, plastics and energy can be your way to help.
https://youtu.be/wbR-5mHI6bo - older kids?
Nasa on the effect of using Fossil Fuels - Old Carbon https://youtu.be/uvfXYM6J4m4
Bill Nye on Climate Change/Greenhouse Gases - https://youtu.be/EtW2rrLHs08
Carbon Footprint - https://youtu.be/YseZXKfT_yY
Turn-off Thursday
On this day kids are encouraged to use less water and electricity. By turning off your tap while brushing your teeth, having shorter showers or watering the garden in the early morning or evening you can save water. Turning off lights and unplugging appliances, reducing the use of heating or air conditioning reduces electricity.
Facts - By turning off electrical appliances & air drying your laundry, you can reduce your carbon footprint. Due to climate change, we now live in a drought area. The Earth is 70% water, but only 2.5% of the earth’s water is drinkable.
Freaky Friday
On this day students and staff can wear green and BE green for the final day of Earth Week. Show your support for the planet and the ways that we can all make a difference!
Facts - The green chlorophyll in plants is what changes the carbon dioxide back into oxygen which helps reverse climate change and gives us oxygen to breathe! Hurray for algae, kelp forests and rainforests! You too can help by planting trees and eating more vegetables.
Fisher - https://youtu.be/dBviC797sTk
WHAT IS EARTH DAY
Elementary Schools - https://youtu.be/Kz1YnhCxaso
https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-minute-film-festival-celebrate-earth-day-amy-erin-borovoy
Fisher Middle School - https://youtu.be/7I0sFyDKKBA
E-Waste Collection Drive
All schools, except Daves Avenue, will have a collection box outside during school hours for the whole week. Items Accepted - Computers & their peripherals, Laptops, Hard drives, DVD players, VCRs, IT Equip, Computer Monitors (LCD), Printers, LED & Plasma TVs, Servers, Cell phones, Scanners, Copy & Fax Machines, Radios, Telephones, Stereo Equip, Server Switches. Anything not on the list is not accepted, so please don’t bring in.
Daily Earth Day Focus for the Kids Flyer (for all to help save the planet!)
Each day will focus on different way that kids can make a difference in helping the environment. There will be a couple of fun facts for each day that can be read out at the beginning of class. These prompts could be used by the teachers to have a discussion around the subject and what they’ve done/could do at home to help. Fisher kids may also be doing video presentations on this.
Librarians will be doing Earth Programs
Librarians are reading relevant books or activities for the kids.
Santa Clara Valley Water
Santa Clara Valley Water will be doing a Earth Day presentation/talk via Zoom for kids - during the weeks around Earth Day.
Download and print this fun scavenger hunt!