White Plains Church St Elementary Students scavenge through environmental information

March 24, 2019 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

We Future Cycle had the pleasure of taking 4th and 5th grade students of Church St. Elementary School in White Plains on an environmental Scavenger Hunt during indoor recess.

The interest of the kids was immediately piqued by our colorful “Did you know?” posters. The posters are filled with many details about our impact on the environment including how Westchester County disposes of all of our waste, the effect of plastics on our environment and effects of processing of aluminum.

The students would scavenge through all of the information on the posters and find the clues needed to complete a questionnaire. They were eager participants and very proud to be able to find the answers.

Asked at the end of the activity if they learned anything new, every participant answered with a resounding “YES!”. All in all a great success…the kids had a lot of fun while learning a great deal.

New Rochelle Ward Green Team makes recycling posters to educate the whole school

March 22, 2019 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

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New Rochelle Ward Elementary school has a bustling green team, comprised of 35 3rd, 4th and 5th graders under the leadership of the Science teacher David Nodiff. It is a coveted position to be part of the green team and students actually have to write an essay at the beginning of the year to become part of it and not every applicant makes it.

Lunchroom recycling station helpers are members of the green team and they make sure that K and 1 students are sorting correctly. With great pride, gloves and a badge around their neck, they are making sure all material goes into the correct bin.

In order to help with the classroom and building wide recycling system, the green team decided to make a series of posters explaining some of the trickier details to the whole school through captive audience education. On stairs, where students are often lined up in an orderly fashion, with some delays if there is “traffic”, students tend to look around and Green Team students have now strategically placed information posters at these locations.

And it is working!

Students now know that only hard plastic items go into the green commingled bins. Soft plastic items like wrappers or baggies go into the trash. All paper and cardboard can go into the blue bin for paper recycling.

Thank you Ward Green Team for educating the whole school community!

New Rochelle Davis Elementary School replaces thousands of single use water cups with reusable bottles

March 22, 2019 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

Some of New Rochelle’s buildings have these stylish water fountains, where kids got a little cup if they wanted a drink.

New Rochelle Davis Elementary School decided to do something about these 1000 of paper cups and and under the leadership of Principal Anthony Brambrola and the PTA, every child was supplied with a reusable water bottle, decorated with the Davis Dolphin to encourage reusable rather then single serve when it came to going to one of their temporary water dispensers in the hallways.

This has cut down on the usage of literally thousands of small paper cups per day.

Thank you Davis PTA for investing not only in the water bottles, but also bringing this kind of sustainable thinking to the fabric of the school.

White Plains Post Rd students participate in Environmental Scavenger Hunt

March 12, 2019 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

We Future Cycle had the pleasure of taking the 4th grade students of Post Road Elementary School in White Plains on an environmental Scavenger Hunt.

Outside of the lunchroom, We Future Cycle representatives set up a series of colorful “Did you know?” posters which outlined with graphic pictures environmental issues and what can be done by everybody to help.

Students got a detective sheet and searched for clues on the posters, all the while learning many details about how everyday behavior impacts our environment. They stared at the mind boggling number of 500 million straws used every single day in the US alone, while cringing at the picture of a poor loggerhead turtle with a straw in her nose. They expressed shock seeing the mountain of garbage floating in our oceans due to litter on land getting washed into the water ways. And they all learned, that everything we do matters. Small everyday behavior changes can make a big impact.

The students read through all of the information and were able to answer all of the questions. We had quite a few Girl Scout members participate! Math teacher Ms. Schmidt came by and was very interested in how the posters gave the kids a way of understanding math principles such as percentages and other relative values.

Indeed, a very successful day of Scavenger Hunting at Post Road Elementary. Post Road Elementary School is participating in the We Future Cycle recycling program for 3 years now and all students are total pros when it comes to sorting their lunch waste into compostable, recyclable and non recyclable materials, thus reducing their waste by a whopping 97%.

These kind of games help connect their hands to their hearts, making them lifelong agents of change in their communities.

New Rochelle Jefferson students have fun hunting for environmental clues

March 12, 2019 wefuturecycle Leave a comment

We Future Cycle had the pleasure of taking the 4th and 5th grade students of Jefferson Elementary School in New Rochelle on an environmental Scavenger Hunt.

The students were eager participants and it was a huge success!

12 colorful boards were highlighting a series of environmental problems with some shocking data and pictures. Students read through the “Did you know?” posters and and while searching for clues, learned many details about their impact on the environment.

They learned just how Westchester County disposes of all of our waste by burning it into our air. They learned the effect of plastics on our environment and how bits of plastics end up in our marine animals and ultimately killing them. And they learned about the shocking environmental destruction that is caused by aluminum mining, all so we can wrap our sandwich ?! -shudder-

The students would scavenge through all of the information and find the answers to the questions on the questionnaire. We Future Cycle representatives guided students through the activity, helping them with difficult words and inviting them to think deeper into the topic. Students were very proud to finish the questionnaire and had a lot of fun while learning a great deal. Even though the activity was geared toward 4th and 5th grade, some 3rd graders were very excited to participate ….

Bringing environmental education through play to the students will ensure the longevity of the recycling program that is run in the lunchroom. Every day, students carefully sort their lunchwaste into compostable, recyclable and non recyclable materials, thus diverting a whopping 97% of their waste from the trash. Because if the heart knows why something is done, it is easy for the hands to do it.