2016-2017 Highlights
Green Committee Activities for April 2018 - April was a busy month for sustainable activities at the Center for Young Children. April 16th the CYC successfully re-certified as a UMD Green Gold Office. This was the fourth time the CYC has attained this prestigious status. To earn the Gold Office award you must select 15 actions from a list of 20. The CYC kicked off the renewal by surveying each staff member as to how many of the Green Office actions they do at home, and while doing so they reviewed the actions that had been taken in past years to earn the Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards. The winner was Red Room teacher Kristen Bowman who did 34 actions in her home and personal life. Actions include things like composting, replacing appliances with energy star approved ones, making lunches trash free, and not idling vehicles. See the CYC's Gold Office action list.
On April 19th the CYC committed to presenting a display on their Trash Free Tuesday program at the Denton Quad Greenfest. Unfortunately, the Greenfest was canceled due to wind so the CYC display was set up in the Great Room for the parents to enjoy. Kindergarteners decorated some recycled boxes with photos and drawings to show the program and some cloth napkins were bought at the thrift store for people to take for their lunch boxes. Trash free snacks were available including oranges, pretzels, and homemade “wrapper-free” granola bars. A craft activity involved stamping leather scraps and stringing them on string recycled from packages. Many families participated as the children were picked up in the afternoon. This was the third year the CYC had participated in the Green Fest.
The week of April 23rd was the CYC’s fifth “Save Fuel Week” and families were encouraged to walk, bike, bus, or carpool to school. The kindergarten class tallied the results at 22 just short of the 35 goal but showed a nice effort.
April 28 - The month was finished out with Maryland Day. The CYC used this event to also show case their sustainable activities using displays and incorporating earth friendly themes with Mr. M’s sing along and Ms. Bowman’s yoga class. The front bulletin board showed images of the CYC garden over a year and connected the garden activities to Maryland state standards. The great room showcases displayed the steps and requirements that he CYC did to become a Maryland Green School including professional development, the Green Teams, and activities under several domains including transportation, solid waste reduction and healthy schools.
On April 19th the CYC committed to presenting a display on their Trash Free Tuesday program at the Denton Quad Greenfest. Unfortunately, the Greenfest was canceled due to wind so the CYC display was set up in the Great Room for the parents to enjoy. Kindergarteners decorated some recycled boxes with photos and drawings to show the program and some cloth napkins were bought at the thrift store for people to take for their lunch boxes. Trash free snacks were available including oranges, pretzels, and homemade “wrapper-free” granola bars. A craft activity involved stamping leather scraps and stringing them on string recycled from packages. Many families participated as the children were picked up in the afternoon. This was the third year the CYC had participated in the Green Fest.
The week of April 23rd was the CYC’s fifth “Save Fuel Week” and families were encouraged to walk, bike, bus, or carpool to school. The kindergarten class tallied the results at 22 just short of the 35 goal but showed a nice effort.
April 28 - The month was finished out with Maryland Day. The CYC used this event to also show case their sustainable activities using displays and incorporating earth friendly themes with Mr. M’s sing along and Ms. Bowman’s yoga class. The front bulletin board showed images of the CYC garden over a year and connected the garden activities to Maryland state standards. The great room showcases displayed the steps and requirements that he CYC did to become a Maryland Green School including professional development, the Green Teams, and activities under several domains including transportation, solid waste reduction and healthy schools.
December 13, 2017- The Red Room children took a field trip to Andy's Auto Parts in Bladensburg, Maryland during their vehicle study. Prior to the trip the teachers observed and noted that the children had interesting thoughts about what vehicle owners should do if a part of their vehicle stops working. Many of the children thought it best to just get a new car! The teacher's thought that Mr. Andy from Andy's Auto Parts would be just the right expert to show the children how vehicle parts can be recycled, replaced, and reused. Andy's mission at his junkyard is to recycle and reuse at least 95% of non-functioning vehicles. He and his crew work to recycle the oil, gas, wires, metal, rubber, and glass from the vehicles in the junkyard. Mr. Andy gave the children a tour of the junkyard by showing them a work space, the junkyard, the warehouse with all of the vehicle parts, and how they sort and organize everything. The children were even able to see Mr. Andy smash a vehicle that had parts recycled from it! A bonus to the experience is that the children, parent chaperones, and teachers were able to be a part of a television show called Junkyard Empire that is filmed at Andy's Auto Parts! - Kristen Bowman
December 2017- Plans have been made to "dress-up" the CYC Little Free Library- Priya Varadan has made plans to have the CYC Little Free Libraries sanded and base painted. Afterwards the Blue room kindergarten children will paint designs to liven up the look of it. Parents have been encouraged to bring more books to stock the library as it is very popular and gets depleted frequently. After cleaning and reorganizing the CYC storage closet, some used small educational games and toys were donated and added to the library. They proved to be quite popular.
November 2017- Students collected 358 markers to recycle with Crayola Colorcycle. Kindergartners made containers for each classroom to collect dried markers for recycling. They did this by decorating large recycled containers with labels so that children could easily access them to drop dried markers in. This month the markers were collected and counted by putting them in groups of tens to reinforce the Kindergartners math skills. Caps were removed to be used in recycled art projects. Priya Varadan, the PTP Green Committee parent, sent the counted markers off to Crayola. Children continue to collect markers. This is the third year children have been collecting markers in this way.
November 4, 2017- The PTP sponsored International Picnic was a wonderful event with parents and staff bringing pot luck dishes fro around the world. Some even dressed in native attire for the festivities. A mask making craft from recycled egg cartons was a fun activity for the children.
The Green Committee sponsered it's BYO dish initiative for the the 4th time. The goal was for at least 25 people to bring reusable dished to eat from to the picnic. The PTP agreed to renew each classrooms subscription to Ranger Rick Jr. if this was accomplished. The Green Room counted the chips each person bringing their own dish had added to a can and counted only 19. Because this was a good effort the PTP agreed to go ahead and renew the subscriptions!
Teachers manned a storage closet "yard sale" at the picnic filled with excess books, toys, games and supplies that were cleaned out of school storage areas. Over $150 was earned to go to the purchase new books for the school. Leftovers were donated to other schools, the local thrift store, and put in the CYC Little Free Library rather than be added to the landfill.
October 6, 2017- The PTP had a completely trash free meeting even with pizza being served! All cups, plates, and napkins were compostable and the agenda was written on a dry erase board instead of being printed out. Parents were congratulated for generating less than 1/8th of a pound of trash during the previous week's Trash Free Tuesday.
November 2017- Students collected 358 markers to recycle with Crayola Colorcycle. Kindergartners made containers for each classroom to collect dried markers for recycling. They did this by decorating large recycled containers with labels so that children could easily access them to drop dried markers in. This month the markers were collected and counted by putting them in groups of tens to reinforce the Kindergartners math skills. Caps were removed to be used in recycled art projects. Priya Varadan, the PTP Green Committee parent, sent the counted markers off to Crayola. Children continue to collect markers. This is the third year children have been collecting markers in this way.
November 4, 2017- The PTP sponsored International Picnic was a wonderful event with parents and staff bringing pot luck dishes fro around the world. Some even dressed in native attire for the festivities. A mask making craft from recycled egg cartons was a fun activity for the children.
The Green Committee sponsered it's BYO dish initiative for the the 4th time. The goal was for at least 25 people to bring reusable dished to eat from to the picnic. The PTP agreed to renew each classrooms subscription to Ranger Rick Jr. if this was accomplished. The Green Room counted the chips each person bringing their own dish had added to a can and counted only 19. Because this was a good effort the PTP agreed to go ahead and renew the subscriptions!
Teachers manned a storage closet "yard sale" at the picnic filled with excess books, toys, games and supplies that were cleaned out of school storage areas. Over $150 was earned to go to the purchase new books for the school. Leftovers were donated to other schools, the local thrift store, and put in the CYC Little Free Library rather than be added to the landfill.
October 6, 2017- The PTP had a completely trash free meeting even with pizza being served! All cups, plates, and napkins were compostable and the agenda was written on a dry erase board instead of being printed out. Parents were congratulated for generating less than 1/8th of a pound of trash during the previous week's Trash Free Tuesday.
September 2017- The CYC kicks off the new school year with every member of the staff agreeing to join the Green Committee. Teachers started right off by teaching the children how to sort trash and the importance of making less waste. Many classrooms have a basket for paper the children use that still has some use. These papers are designated as the only paper the children may use on a certain day of the week.
The Kindergarten children unanimously agreed to join the Green Committee as the child representation. They began by helping to set up this years Trash Free Tuesday event. The kindergarten children weighed the trash before (one pound) and on Tuesday (1/4 pound). They are keeping a graph displayed for the CYC community to see. These statistics are amazing since the first Trash Free Tuesdays back in 2012 started with eight pounds of initial trash and 1 pound after implementing the program.
The Kindergarten children unanimously agreed to join the Green Committee as the child representation. They began by helping to set up this years Trash Free Tuesday event. The kindergarten children weighed the trash before (one pound) and on Tuesday (1/4 pound). They are keeping a graph displayed for the CYC community to see. These statistics are amazing since the first Trash Free Tuesdays back in 2012 started with eight pounds of initial trash and 1 pound after implementing the program.
Summer 2017- Wind, The Bay, Playgrounds, Mixing, Camping, and Maps were the theme projects selected this year by the 6 camp classrooms. For the six weeks from June 26th to August 4th, campers had the chance to delve deeply into one of these topics by reviewing what they already knew, asking questions, and finally investigating the topic through books and other resources, hands on activities, interviewing experts, and taking field trips.Children learned about their natural environment and took many on campus field trips. The image on the left shows a group of children visiting the UMD campus farmers market to purchase local vegetables for making gazpacho a healthy summer soup. Read more about the Green Room's Mixing Study on their camp website.