Earth Week Results

Earth Week was a big success. Here are the results:

Monday- got 2 whole kindergarten classes ( that's 40 kids)

Tuesday- Pledges were so popular we did them on Wednesday too.

Wednesday- More pledges.

Thursday - Mom forgot to come!

Friday- Fun in the dark!

Earth week will return next year. I hope you enjoyed earth week and it's activities. There is one thing I hope you keep in mind, make every day earth day!

This is Addison, signing off. 

Earth Day

In the Beginning - In 1963 former senator Gaylord Nelson began to worry about our planet.  He knew that our world was getting dirty and that many of our plants and animals were dying.

He wondered why more people weren't trying to solve these problems.  He talked to other lawmakers and to the President.  They decided that the President would go around the country and tell people about these concerns.  He did, but still not enough people were working on the problem.

The Idea Then, in 1969, Senator Nelson had another idea.  He decided to have a special day to teach everyone about the things that needed changing in our environment.  He wrote letters to all of the colleges and put a special article in Scholastic Magazine to tell them about the special day he had planned.

The Holiday On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was held.  People all over the country made promises to help the environment.  Everyone got involved and since then, EArth Day has spread all over the planet.  People all over the world know that there are problems we need to work on and this is our special day to look at the planet and see what needs changing. Isn't it great.

Today at school, I organized a pledge day.  People came at lunch time to make pledges to help the earth.  Over 130 people made pledges to recycle, stop littering, use less water and more.  

Earth Week

Starting on the 21st   and ending  on the  25th I will be running a school wide earth week. Each day will have a different activity:

Monday:  Reading during recess.

Tuesday: Earth day activities.

Wednseday: Start a paper pile with writing on 1 side only.

Thursday: Do something to show you love for the earth.

Friday: Turn of the lights for  30 mins.

Each  activity can be done at home (and should!) I encourage you to try each one. I will post at the end of next week. Until then , Bye !  

Earth hour

One hour of last Saturday was known as earth hour. Earth hour is when people and companys turned off their power to save energy.  People all over the country turned their lights off for that one hour. Chicago saved an estimated 420 tons of carbon dioxide. That is saving a lot of energy! This helped the earth a lot. If you missed this great event, try having one of your own.  Pick a day and turn off your power for an hour.  Let me know how it goes.

       This is Addison, signing off. 

Oh,Give Me a Habitat!

That's what most animals want. A habitat. A habitat is the place where a plant or animal naturally lives and grows. Different animals live in different places. For example,a frogs habitat is wetlands. Most animals don't want one, they need one. People destroy the animals home and drive all the animals  off  . One way to stop it is writing letters to different people, like the following:

the new president

state legislators 

governor

If we reduce our destruction, endangered animals will be helped physically and naturally.

This is Addison, signing off.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Did you know that our oceans are not clean? In the middle of the ocean, there is a huge patch of garbage.  This is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  The Pacific Ocean has a clockwise circle of currents that traps the garbage in the center where the winds can't get it.  This garbage patch is the size of a continent and goes 100 feet down into the ocean.  It is full of  millions of pounds of garbage.  (See How Stuff Works)

The garbage patch is made up of little pieces of floating plastic.  This creates problems for marine creates and humans.  It effects the entire food chain, because little fish eats the plastic, bigger fish eat the little fish, birds or humans then eat those fish!    Another problem is birds are choking or feeding plastic to their young.  

So where does this trash come from?  80% of this trash comes from land.  

So what can you do?  Recycle, recycle, re-re-re-recycle!  Another way is to stop using plastic bags.  We can also encourage our legislatures to pass laws to keep our environment plastic free.

This problem isn't going to go away.  But, we can keep it from getting worse by encouraging friends and neighbors to do their part.

This is Addison. Signing off.

One Month Anniversary

I have been blogging for one month now.  In that month, I have learned new things.  When I started this blog I wanted to inform my readers about the earth, but it looks like you have informed me about great ideas and new things.

I am grateful for all the things you have taught me with your comments.

Here are some of the things I have learned:

1.  Plastics can be dangerous for sea animals.

2.  There is a great garbage patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (I'll write more about this later.)

3. Thanks to Aunt Amanda I learned that some dish soaps have petroleum in them.

4. I learned that incandescent light bulbs are harmful.

5. A lot of things we buy have a package - most things in fact!

Thank you for informing me about things you found.  I want to keep writing and learning things about the earth.

This is Addison, signing off.