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Let's go GREEN Allen Eagles and reduce our carbon footprint on planet Earth! We will be doing several of the activities (please look to the right for a list of the many activities we have come up with so far) required on the application and more (click Application for Green school initiative button). Our goal is to work hard educating our staff, students and families in ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle throughout the year both at school and at home. We will need parent volunteers throughout the year to help us coordinate and lead some of these activities. Please fill out the get involved volunteer form and someone will be in touch with you soon. Click on the Michigan Green Schools Website button above for more information about what other school have done in the past and get some ideas for what we can accomplish at Allen.
Click the TREX button above for more details!
Sign up today to help! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0D4EAFAC28A0FD0-2019 How does the Challenge work? 1. Schools compete against other schools in their category to collect the most plastic film. 2. A school volunteer weighs and keeps record of the amount of film collected each month. (On average, a 30-gallon trash bag will hold about 650 plastic bags and weigh 6 lbs.) 3. A school volunteer takes the collected plastic to a participating retailer (see list) 4. Report collection amounts monthly to: (my.trex.com) The protocol is simple: 1. Drive to school with a scale or use scale at your home. 2. Weigh the bags. (System first weigh yourself and then weighing yourself with as many bags as possible in my hands to calculate the weight of the bags since the bags won't stay on by themselves. If a large load, you will have to do this a couple times. Subtract your own weight and add your totals together.) 3. Record the weight of the bags and send total weight to (allenelementarypc@gmail.com). 4. Put the bags in your vehicle and drive to any of the participating locations. Put the bags in the designated plastic bag recycling area (if it is a large load, you may have to drive to multiple locations). The REUSE RECYCLE CENTER of Ann Arbor also takes plastic. https://recycleannarbor.org/divisions/reuse-center/about From Trex's website: MICHIGAN Kohl’s Kroger Meijer Target |
ALLEN earned EVERGREEN STATUS for the 2019-2020 School year!! We need: 10 points to become a Green School, 15 points to become an Emerald School, and 20 points to become an Evergreen School These are all brainstormed ideas. We will update this page with what we were able to accomplish at Allen during the 2019-2020 school year. Category 1: Recycle Point 1: Activity - Recycling old markers via Crayola Colorcycle 1) Engage & Educate: Inform your school administrators or PTO about participating in the ColorCycle program. 2) Collect & Count: Set up a collection station in your school for used markers. Count up all the markers. 3) Pack & Print: Pack markers in a cardboard box (with minimal outer markings). Print out a shipping label. 4) Ship & Smile: FedEx Ground will pick up the markers — Crayola pays all shipping charges! Finally, smile - you just saved the planet! Point 2: Activity - Recycling broken crayons Allen School will start a broken crayon recycling program with the help of CRAZYCRAYONS. The National Crayon Recycle Program takes unwanted, rejected, broken crayons to a better place, where they will be recycled into new crayons! The student lead Green Team will research and decide where they would like to donate the new recycled crayons. Some ideas from the CRAZYCRAYON website are: Inner City Art Programs, Hospitals, Orphanages, Homeless Shelters, or Day Cares. Point 3: Activity - Recycling office paper Allen uses recycling boxes in its main office, classrooms, and teacher workroom to recycle paper and reuse the backs of any printed paper. The office also reuses envelopes to collect lunch money. Allen also reuse the backs of printed paper by cutting it up and using it as message pads. Point 4: Activity - Aluminum cans Aluminum cans are recycled and any deposited money collected from the bottles is reused by the parent council for educational enrichment activities for the students. Point 5: Activity - Printer cartridges The teacher workroom has a collection site for all printer cartridges that the school uses and they are recycled appropriately. Point 6: Activity - Composting Food and Organic Waste Organic waste from native gardens and grounds will composted in outdoor classroom bin that will be built by parent council in 2018. The community compost bin will be maintained by the schools Green team. Classroom compost bins with fruit and veggie scraps will be emptied into the community compost bin by students. Point 7: Activity - Have a small compost jar in your classroom for fruit scraps and put them on the school shrubs. It makes a great fertilizer. Classrooms have small compost bins for fresh fruit scraps that are then deposited into our school compost bin or put on school shrubs. Point 8: Activity - Purchasing whole school compost bins Parent Council purchased 4 city compost bins that can be used by the whole school and picked up each week curbside when city is running compost pick up. Point 9: Activity - Trex Plastic Bag Recycle Challenge
Allen families will donate your unwanted plastic materials (grocery bags, bread bags, case overwrap, dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, ice bags, wood pellet bags, ziplock & other re-sealable bags, produce bags, bubble wrap, salt bags, and cereal bags. All materials must be clean, dry and free of food residue) and keep thousands of pounds of waste out of landfills, we are also helping Trex continue to create beautiful and environmentally responsible outdoor products. And, as an additional incentive schools that enroll in our recycling programs are eligible for high-performance, low-maintenance awards and prizes. Click on the Trex button to the left for more information. Category 2: Energy Point 10: Activity - Offering at least one teaching unit on alternative energy DTE Energy came into our 4th grade classrooms and taught a lesson as well as handed out their Take Action Kit which is designed to save energy and water at the home with items that are easy to install when student and their families work together. Point 11: Activity - Sponsoring an alternative energy presentation, project, or event The student Green Team will help decide what project or event we will do. More details to come. Category 3: Environmental Protection Point 12: Activity - Creating an idle free environment The student and parent lead Green Team will help spread education about the environmental effects of sitting in an idling car while in the school parking lot. Point 13: Activity - Establishing or maintaining a natural Michigan garden project with native plants. Allen has an outdoor classroom that is maintained by students, teachers and parents with native perennial plants. Students will be identifying and creating labels for native plants throughout the garden. Point 14: Activity - Establishing or maintaining an animal habitat project. Allen's outdoor classroom/native garden will become a native bee habitat by becoming certified pollinator garden! Category 4: Miscellaneous Point 15: Activity - Maintaining an updated bulletin board or kiosk with information on environmental concerns and the school’s actions in addressing those concerns Using recycled materials the Parent Council or Student Green Advocates will maintain an up to date school bulletin board. Point 16: Activity - Updating the school’s media center environmental materials Our media specialist has added ten new titles to our school library regarding recycling, renewable energy, composting, and conservation for the 2018-2019 school year. Point 17: Activity - Establishing a student organization that participates in environmental activities. Parent Council will be working with teachers to create a Green Advocates at Allen. These students (3rd-5th grade) will help with all of our green school initiatives and have lunch meetings throughout the year. Point 18: Activity - Observing earth day by participating in an earth day event in April We will be having our first Earth Day celebration event at Allen this year. We hope to plant an Evergreen tree when we earn the Evergreen status at Allen. More details to come. Point 19: Activity - Educational Stickers and Signs Composting and single stream recycling labels for classroom bins and signage will be purchased in 2018. These labels and signs will be incorporated into every classroom at Allen. The student lead green team will help monitor classrooms with education about these concepts throughout the year. Point 20: Activity - National Walk and Bike to School Day Allen will encourage students and staff to be active and green by walking or biking to school on October 10, 2018. |
