Young Sayville Students Join Forces to Help the Earth

This story was written by Linda Mittiga. It was posted by Judy Mottl.

If one really thinks about it, every day should be Earth Day! In Lincoln Avenue, the Sayville kindergarten and PALS students were really thinking hard along these lines when they joined forces on an ambitious interdisciplinary project in preparation for Earth Day.

Beginning with inspiring poetry to introduce the idea of recycling, the students learned from literature about both Earth Day and recycling. Putting thoughts into practice, the kindergarten and PALS classes explored ways to apply helpful behaviors in all aspects of living and learning.

“We graphed how many people recycle at home” Kindergarten teacher Gina LoCurto explained, “and brainstormed ways we can help the earth by reducing, reusing, and recycling at home and at school. We even watched some great videos using our interactive whiteboards to learn some more information.  Finally, we all wrote about how we could reduce, reuse, and recycle to help the earth.”

To assist the students in visualizing these learned concepts, kindergarten classroom aide Jodi Micillo created and outlined an incredible earth that every child helped paint. 

Circling this artful Earth were paper cutouts of children, representing every student. From the illustration, the students could see “that we are all one big team helping to save and keep the earth clean and healthy!’

Making a home-school connection, the children were encouraged to create with their families at home a project from recycled or reused objects found around the house that normally would have been thrown away. 

Inventive bird feeders, musical instruments, piggy banks, vases and many other wonderful things were created from a variety of repurposed objects. As a culminating activity, the Kindergarten students displayed their projects at the Lincoln Avenue Recycle Fair and Musical Revue.

“We've combined two events,” kindergarten teacher Heather Gonzalez added.

“The Recycle Fair was first. The children all made recycled projects displayed them in their classrooms for the parents who were invited to see. Then the families moved on to the cafeteria where all the kindergarteners put on a musical revue called ‘Look What I Can Do!’ It was an exciting culmination of many units of study for everyone!."