Crazy week!

Wow what a week! On Monday our End of the year trip was rescheduled then I had stomach flu on Tuesday! We missed our first teaching appointment for the third graders from Monday due to the six flags trip. We tried to reschedule but there is no time. We did teach Mrs. Halka's winning class today and it went beautifully! The kids had fun so did we and we got some great pictures for our final presentation! Although i am still not feeling my best i will be going to school for the rest of the week. We had scheduled another 3rd grade class for Thursday but they cancelled last minute. We only taught the class that gets to plant the tree! That date is still not set in stone due to a few people not answering emails. Everything will be in order soon.
    Our project has not gone as planned but it is ending up well. We all loved teaching the third graders and they we no trouble to us. We hope that they went away with the message of Recycling Can Be Fun! you just gotta know how to do it! And we taught them how and many other ways that they can at home. All or their little designs said something about each of them and it was terrific. The expression on their faces when they point our something they loved specifically about their bug. Doing this was my favorite part of the whole project! everything went smoothly and just as planned.

So close to the Finish line!

Today we did not have the opportunity to get that much done. Because Mrs. Thornton needed to have every one read their grad speeches. So we only got about an hour and a half. AND we did not have our whole group. It was just me and Hannah. But, we did get a great idea for our final presentation and started working on the outline of it. WE did not get the chance to prep any more bottles but that will be our main priority tomorrow and Tuesday.The flowing days and the last week will be devoted to the finishing our our presentation. This is turning out nice!

Update

To day was a great day. We got a lot that will help us done. Hannah finished the lesson plans and it was approved by Mrs. Thornton. We have prepped A TON or the bottles probably something like 50. We have the exact dates of when we will be teaching put in to stone for next week. All we did today was prep bottles and that was it. I think our project is going to be fantastic when it is done! We have still to begin our final presentation but next week between the lessons is when our time will be devoted to that. Our team is perfect for this project because we work really well together and that is crucial for ANY team.

the remainders

This week our main focus is only two things. One: Prep for the 3rd graders. Mrs. Fickle asked us to hot glue gun on the eyes and legs of the bugs and the 3rd graders would decorate them. Today we completed about 15 or so. We have a lot of work to do if all 90 3rd graders want one.If we work together we can get this done! The second thing we need to focus on is our final presentation.It is vital that this be a very good power point. all of our grades depend on it. We need to take pictures of us doing things that involved us with recycling.We have failed to yet meet up and discuss this. The importance of completing these two things is absolutely crucial to our group's success. Our last thing we need to do is going to take place next week which is the actual teaching of the 3rd graders. We are very prepared with the lesson and as mentioned before just need to prep 75 more bottles with legs and eyes. We have had a lot of participation with the plastic bottle collecting. we had enough bottles for all the 3rd graders on two or three days. Thank Yous go out to everyone who has helped us with that. :)

Finishing Touches

This week and it's affairs are pretty strait forward. We are mainly focusing on the 3rd grade project. We need to establish exact dates with Mrs. Fickle, when she is ready. As well as collect everything needed to do the project. recently Mrs. Fickle emailed me with an idea of her own and it was very cute. But, you needed to cut and staple the 2 liter bottles. That will be an issue for the little 3rd graders. Although we could take some extra time to prep them i think it would be better for them to take an item and transform it completely by themselves. That is why I still would like to do our previous idea mentioned and pictured in my blog two posts prior to this. I will post a picture below with Mrs. Fickle's idea. We still need to make the lesson plans and map it all out. Although we have the power points they they will see we need to write down what each of our jobs will be. Just like always our plan is going to be put in action starting the 16th of May.

Challenges

Our team has definitely had our challenges. But, we will prevail in the end! First there was the issue of bins then once that was resolved, thanks to Mr. Verkaik. We have new problems? Most definitely. Next we had the issue of working around Mrs. Fickle's schedule. That is taken carer of because we found we only need Mrs. Fickle in the end! How we over came our challenges is what is making our team .... well, our team!!  After that and more recently we had the paper drive disaster. Which you can read more about in my previous paragraph. But, we have put forth our best effort and that is all anyone would ask. Recycling is crucial in our long term stay on our beloved planet. So don't leave a dirty foot print in our white carpet with your trash!!!!
              

Week 5 Begins

This week we plan to have a great week. This week we are really focusing on collecting materials for the 3rd graders and everything else for normal recycling. We don’t have a whole lot planned this week but next week we will start with our 3rd graders. Starting in the 16th we will be making the projects and teaching the 3rd graders. The paper drive was on Saturday. and it was disastrous. Only three of the eight people responsible for it showed up on the day. NO ONE came to drop off paper. And it was pouring rain! Everyone left halfway through. But, the point is that we tried our best and we put in our optimal effort. The 3rd grade project is GOING to go MUCH better. This week we are determined to make it count. Here is what we plan to do with the 3rd graders!

Update week 4

Yesterday I was sick at home but my group got stuff done without me. I am glad that they know how to operate perfectly without me. They made a 3rd grade letter explaining everything to them and their parents. That will be sent home on Friday I believe. The part where mrs. Fickle comes in is underway but on hold for a little while. She said she has a lot on her plate already but she is willing to help us as long as we take care of everything. That will be done and it will be a wonderful outcome. We made the video and have finished editing it. Hannah will be putting that on youtube and then give all the teachers the URL to it. I think the video is better than our last one.That way we don’t have to have that email mess up like last time. Overall we had a very productive week and have made tremendous progress. Our 8th grade project is going to be amazing.

What's Next?

      First official day back to school. Today we pretty much just got the first of our bins into place and clarified a few things. We also started on our second lesson plan for the 3rd graders. It is all turning out great so far!! I am really happy with where our project is going! Today we also planned what we will be doing all week. This week we will mainly focus on our 3rd grade adventure. Planning everything and getting the needed materials. We also plan to make our second video, the one featuring plastic instead of cardboard. I think we have a good week ahead of us!

Week 4 Beginnings

Last week as usually a lot was accomplished! We finally decided on what our project as a whole would be. Now all that's left to do is finalizing details and carrying it all out. This coming Saturday we have our Paper Drive at the back parking lot of the school from 1-4 pm. WE need to find a better way of advertising because we have recently found that putting fliers in mailboxes is illegal. So we will either find a different way to distribute the fliers or something completely different. Either way it needs to be done very soon. this week we plan to finalize the teaching the 3rd graders. We need to talk to Mrs. Fickle and decide what craft we will  be doing most deffinetly. I hope we have a good and productive week ahead of us!

Our New and FINAL plan

We had a crazy few days. Mostly because we rewired our whole project AGAIN. It is my understanding that we will be teaching either 3rd or 4th graders about recycling while they are making something individually out of recycled materials. We had a few ideas about that. the only problem is that we need materials. We have to figure out how to get  supplies for 75 kids! WE have either cancelled or postponed our weekly recycling pick ups because we failed to be prepared for that. We are still doing the paper drive as planned and we have ways to make sure people know about it already going on.

We are doing a different contest just with one or two grades. We want them to recycle as much as they can without bringing stuff from home. That means they will have to learn what to recycle from the things in their lunch, and the things in their everyday lives at school. The winning classroom will get to plant a tree no the Vanguard Charter Academy school grounds. We had a slight problem. WE were going to do a different contest and we were really excited about it. So, we wrote a letter to the teachers who would participate explaining what it was. But, then we changed our minds and before we could recall the papers the teachers had already all read the papers. there will be some confused 3rd and 4th grade teachers soon. OOPS!!

This is what we are hoping to do with the kids. http://img.ehowcdn.com/article-new/ehow/images/a04/hp/ot/making-plastic-bottle-animals-800x800.jpg

We had an Idea

The end of last week and the weekend resulted in a new path for our group. We have decided that the weekly recycling pick ups was not going to be enough and so we thought. What else could we do? We came up with two great ideas. One of them is a paper drie held to collect newspaper for a another group. The other group wants to make newspaper plant pots but, they were in need of newspaper. That also helps our cause because they are recycling something unwanted into a life up helder. The paper drive will be held as well to collect any other paper discarded by our community. This will take place on May 5th between the hours of 1 and 4 pm.
We are very excited to see the turnout of our paper drive.

The second marvelous idea that took place last week was a contest. Each class in the elementary and possibly the middle school will make something out of completely recycled materials. The contestants’ products will be judged by Mrs. Fickle and our group. There will be a winner from each wing. The prize, you get to plant a tree on the school grounds. We think this is a great idea because it is fun, encouraging children to recycle, and very “green”. This still has to be OKed by Mr. Vriesinga and there will probably be some adjustments but as of right now we are confident.  Before the weekend we decided to make a video for the every two weeks of recycling pick up to explain to the younger kids about what we are doing and what we expect of them. That was accomplished over the weekend. We have shot and edited it and hope it can be displayed Tuesday of this week.
http://www.stunicholls.com/gallery/trees/t4.jpg

End of week 2

We are working on polishing everything off before our first collection date right now. And we have made progress! We might have someone who will give us recycling bins for free, and if not be have a backup plan of regular cardboard boxes if needed. We have compiled a lot of research in the past few days that can really benefit us in the future of this project. We want to make a video for each of the two weeks explaining things about what we are collecting that week and also to connect with the elementary kids. I have made the script for the 1st week’s cardboard video and we plan to shoot the video at Kendall’s house on Thursday. I am hoping that we can show the whole school each video every two weeks so that they are all aware of what we are doing. The plastic video will be planned and shot sometime within the next week and a half. This project has a fantastic effect on each of our group members and we are all having a lot of fun planning each part of the final product.

First Week Up and Running

Today we accomplished a lot. In my previous paragraph I stated what we planned to get done and it all still applies. Today we have established a pick up day for our recycling movement which is Thursday of each week. We will all help with the collection of the bins and everything they contain. Then Carly and her family will drive it to the recycling plant. We all offered to take charge of the drop off if necessary. We also established which weeks we will be collecting what. Starting on monday we will collect Cardboard for the next two weeks. The following two weeks will be plastic bottles collecting weeks. Finally batteries will be collected for the last weeks of the collections. We still have the dilemma of nothing to collect the items in. But, that issue will be solved shortly. This next week will be very important for us to finish planning the project and after that carrying it out will be our main focus.

Little Steps To :)

This week we plan to tie up the last details so that we can get the recycling weeks all ready to go. We still have to find bins to collect it all in and decide on a place to put them in each wing. Lastly we want to make videos for every two weeks of recycling. Each two weeks for the next six will have either cardboard, plastic bottles, or batteries. With these videos we want to educate our younger friends about the ups and downs of recycling that specific item. Hopefully it will convince them to recycle and they might even think its fun! We have a website up and running with things being added to it frequently. As well as a Facebook page to connect to all the teens on the web. We are excited about this project.

Urban Recycling Starts

The project Urban Recycling is about how a few teenage girls and a little help can make a huge difference. We plan to contact people who can help and raise public awareness and see what we can do as a community to help the earth we live on.