Star Logs: #154

Reading Star Logs

Each year the Learning Commons at Edwards hosts a Readers are Leaders reading week.  Students log the books they have read and we track our minutes read as an entire school.  The event is in it's third year and it runs pretty smoothly.

This year we shifted our thinking a bit.  This is another one of those small shift changes.  With that shift comes small subtle ways of changing how we do things to be more environmentally aware.  Below there are 2 photographs.  The first is of the original reading star log posted to the school website (this link will take you to that posting) for students to download, fill out and return to school.

The second photo is the revised version of that star log (our students read A LOT of books!).  What do you notice about the 2 different logs?

The best part about our small shift projects is that they often happened after the fact.  Someone had a look at how an event was rolling out and said hey, we can do better.  Let's make  small shift change.

21st Century Competency:

We are communicators.  In this case the Readers are Leaders Week had already begun, the star logs were already posted to the school website, and some students had already submitted completed stars to their teachers.  Did that stop Madame B.?  No way!  She heard the suggestion, posted a link to the environmentally friendly star logs, and carried on.  

Grade(s) Involved:     All

Date Submitted:         April 2012

Leaders Involved:      Madame B., Madame W.

Autographs of Student Participants

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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:

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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:

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Clean-Up Follow-Up: #153

Clean Sweep follow-up

Our clean sweep was followed up by a project by Mr. Mac's grade 4 students who plotted the types of litter they found and how it was distributed across the playground.  The waste poster below was created so that as students found waste on the schoolyard, they plotted it with coloured pins to create awareness of where litter was of the greatest concern and where each piece of waste should have ended up.  It also allowed the students to discuss wind and other factors that move waste in our community.

This legend suggests where the waste should have been placed or recylced by students:

21st Century Competency:

We are critical thinkers.  It seems inevitable that some trash will end up in the schoolyard.  For Mr. Mac's class they not only picked up the trash but analysed where trash was the biggest problem and where it should have been placed.  Most of the items found were 100% recyclable.  By moving beyond trash collection to data analysis these students have the information they need to find real solutions to the problem of trash in the school yard.

Grade(s) Involved:     Grade 4 (1 class)

Date Submitted:         April, 2012

Leaders Involved:      4Mac

Autographs of Student Participants

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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:

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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:

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Up-cycled Scraps: #152

Learning Commons building challenge

To celebrate our Scholastic Book Fair theme students were invited to create robots from found materials only.

21st Century Competency:

We are

Grade(s) Involved:     Grade 3 & 4 English (5 classes)

Date Submitted:         October 2011

Leaders Involved:      3/4G, 3D&K, 3L, 4Mac, 4H

Autographs of Student Participants

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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:

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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:

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Up-cycled Lids: #147 - 151

Plastic lids as frames for art work

These stunning self-portraits are contained in a recycled frame.  If this collection of projects is to demonstrate environmental awareness it must also be mentioned that Edwards students are creators of beautiful works of art.  Bravo to the teachers who inspire them.

21st Century Competency:

We are

Grade(s) Involved:     Grade 3 & 4 English (5 classes)

Date Submitted:         October 2011

Leaders Involved:      3/4G, 3D&K, 3L, 4Mac, 4H

Autographs of Student Participants

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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:

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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:

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Up-cycled Rolls: #145 - 146

Penguin Projects out of toilet rolls

Grade 1 students found a use for toilet paper rolls - they made penguins!

21st Century Competency:

We are

Grade(s) Involved:     Grade 1 (2 classes)

Date Submitted:         June 2012

Leaders Involved:      1W, 1K 

Autographs of Student Participants

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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:

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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:

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Used Book Sale: #144

The Spring Fling Book Thing

Students at École Edwards donated used books for a huge school wide book sale.  Proceeds from the sale were divided evenly between new books for the school library and a local charity the students chose.

21st Century Competency:

We are

Grade(s) Involved:     All

Date Submitted:         May 2012

Leaders Involved:      Madame Brownell (librarian)

Autographs of Student Participants

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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:

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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:

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Digital Projects: #143

This virtual collection

Last year our GREEN Projects were well catalogued in an organized binder like this:

It included pages, and pages (lots of paper pages) of our projects, signatures, and photos.  It wasn't the physical binder that was the problem.  It wasn't even the issue of paper conservation, I mean come on, it's ok to put stuff on paper.  The real problem was that our students' environmental stewardship didn't have an authentic audience.  The binder was on a shelf.  This fabulous work cannot sit on a shelf!  It should be shouted out to Airdrie, to Alberta, to other schools wondering how they can make a difference.

And now, here on this blog, in the universe of the internet, our students' work will have the audience it deserves.  We hope for comments, feedback, support, encouragement.  We hope to inspire other schools to LEARN from our projects, to SUCCEED at implementing their own, and to LEAD others to environmental awareness and action.

21st Century Competency:

We are

Grade(s) Involved:     Grade 2 English and French

Date Submitted:         June 2012

Leaders Involved:      2F, 2J, 2L, 2K, 2L, 2S, 

Autographs of Student Participants

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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:

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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:

begin typing here