Thanksgiving Recycled Craft

Now that Halloween is passed and you have a bunch of errant wrappers, put them to good use with this festive Wrapper Turkey from Housing a Forest! You can also make this with scraps of used paper, or strips of paper from a magazine or newspaper if you want to forego the candy wrappers altogether. Enjoy! Paula

http://www.housingaforest.com/candy-wrapper-turkeys/

Fall Upcycled Craft

Green Teamer Hana made this easy-to-make hurricane lamp using a large glass jar, pressed leaves, découpage medium (Mod Podge here), and a candle!

Press leaves, spread découpage medium on underside.

Stick leaves to jar and then découpage  front of leaves.

Insert a candle and light with a long match (adults, only).

Enjoy the beautiful light passing through the fall colors!

Waste-Free Lunch Challenge!

 Join the Cottage Street School Challenge by packing a waste-free lunch 

What is a Waste-Free Lunch? 
A waste-free lunch includes foods in reusable containers such as stainless steel containers or BPA-free plastic containers, cloth wraps or pockets for sandwiches and other dry snacks, aluminum or stainless steel water bottle, reusable silverware and a cloth napkin all packed in a reusable, insulated lunch bag. They discourage the use of disposable packaging, prepackaged foods, plastic bags, juice boxes and pouches, paper napkins, and disposable utensils. When we make these simple changes, we, as individuals, can reduce the amount of trash we generate. 

Why Pack a Waste-Free Lunch? Did you know that a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year? That equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-sized elementary school! (source: WasteFreeLunches.org) Packing a waste-free lunch is one easy way to reduce this waste. It will also help your family budget and help children eat a healthier lunch. READ MORE

Salsa from the Kindergarten Garden!

The Kindergarten Garden yielded some juicy tomatoes and herbs. The goal was to make a pizza garden. Thanks to Hana and all the volunteers who helped make it happen. We hope to work with a local farm to bring some fresh produce directly into our cafeteria this fall!

Try this recipe for a fresh snack idea...

Salsa Fresca

4-5 Garden tomatoes, diced
Fresh basil, torn up
Corn kernals (roasted are especially delicious)
Red kidney or black beans, about a cup
Fresh parsley or cilantro, cut
Healthy splash of lime juice or balsamic vinegar
2 T of olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

Mix together and let sit for an hour or so to let the flavors meld. This makes a wonderful snack with some non-GMO corn chips. Another option is to melt cheese on chips and drizzle with salsa. Top with fresh guacamole. Enjoy! Paula

Green Team Action Items, 2014-2015

Here are a few things we hope to accomplish this year!
Check out our Volunteer section to get involved. It's Easy Being Green! - Paula

Sign Our Pledge!

Mr. Madden will be sending a copy of this home. Post this on your refrigerator and review it from time-to-time. We hope you join in and try your best!

10 Eco-Friendly School Supplies

Top picks adapted from the Honestly blog. Visit their blog for more ideas.

1. Bamboo Dry Erase Board: Work out math problems without wasting paper.

2. New Leaf 100% Recycled Paper and Notebooks: 100% post-consumer recycled paper

3. Rock Paper Notebook: Cool paper made from limestone saves water, trees, energy, and has no post-production waste.

4. Eco Staple Free Stapler: Safe for little fingers and no metal waste.

5. Corn Calculator:  Fun-colored solar calculator made from corn plastic. 

6. The Seven Year Pen: Reduce waste (an estimated 100 million pens are discarded every day) by not buying another pen for seven years!

7. Bamboo Ruler: Made from sustainable, recycled, and biodegradeable resources

8. GLOB: Responsibly-packaged art products sourced from natural, recyclable, and biodegradable materials, such as paints made from fruits, vegetables, flowers and spices.

9. Clementine Art: From crayons to paints, this natural and non-toxic brand has all the art supplies your child needs for school.

10. eco-kids USA: Get naturally creative with these non-toxic and natural art supplies.

Greening Back-to-School

Your back-to-school purchases have an impact on the environment. Here's why: 

14 billion pencils are produced every year, many made with wood from ancient forests. Americans use about 31.5 million tons of printing and writing paper each year, requiring 535 million trees (most from virgin tree fiber) and 12 billion gallons of oil to make. The average American consumes about 660 pounds of paper per year, compared to 550 pounds in Japan and only about 8.8 pounds in India.

Buy Environmentally-Friendly Supplies:

• Green Schools Buying Guide
• Center for Health, Environment and Justice – Check out their Guide to PVC-Free Back-to-School Supplies and their Back-to-School Checklist.
• New American Dream has an excellent Back-to-School Guide.
• New Leaf Paper - New Leaf offers a 100% Recycled Back to School Value Bundle (online). Save 10% off all other products with promo code "RECYCLED" at checkout.
• The Green Office - (online) Sells supplies with recycled content, fewer hazardous chemicals, PVC-free, and reusability (like refillable pens). New "PVC-free Catalog." Enter coupon code TGOWELCOME at checkout to receive 10% off first purchase.
• Office Depot, Office Max, Staples - (in-store or online) Look for recycled content paper and notebook products, green printing supplies; pencils made from certified sustainable-harvest wood; and EnviroTech products, which have a higher recycled content.
• Green Earth Office Supplies - (online only) Sells notebooks, recycled paper, recycled binders (some are made of old circuit boards!), and many other great products such as reusable, biodegradable, non-PVC plastic containers for lunch boxes under the Kitchen Supplies tab (containers must be hand-washed).

Adapted from Green Schools Initiative

Pack a waste-free lunch. Learn how here. 

Plastic-Free July!

Welcome summer with some smart, green habits! Say no to single-use plastic during July. That means no plastic water bottles, plastic containers for your strawberries, plastic juice bottles, etc.

Sign up for the challenge here…

http://www.plasticfreejuly.org

Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22

What are you doing to live more sustainably? Tell us and we will post it in our blog.

Check out Earth Day Network to see what's happening around the world and to get involved!

Earth Day Lesson ideas.

Sustainable Sharon Coalition's Green Day

Come check out this free, fun-filled, family-oriented green event!

When: May 3, 2014

Where: High Street, Sharon Center (Between Sharon Public Library & Congregational Church)

Time: Noon-4pm

Fun Fair Games

Ring toss made from recycled materials.

Fun was had by all at the Cottage Fun Fair today. Students enjoyed playing the games to learn about recycling, composting, and waste-free lunch. They also made some fun recycled and upcycled crafts to take home!

 
Green Team parent volunteer Crystal holds a pinwheel she made.

Challenge: What can you recycle or compost and what goes in the trash?

A new life for popsicle sticks.

Kids loved knocking down the Minions made from toilet paper rolls.

Ball Toss Game with Cans

Three Stages of Compost

Trash to Treasure

At Fun Fair you may have noticed our display of really cool things you can make with items you might be tempted to toss out at first glance. Kudos to Hana and Crystal! :)

Make some toys for Faithful Fido out of old t-shirts...

A great way to hang your suet for your feathered friends...

An old fleece jacket can make a great stuffed toy. Fill a cloth pocket with rice or flaxseeds for a wonderful eye pillow.

Visit Us at the Fun Fair!

Stop by The Green Room at the Cottage Street School Fun Fair on Sunday, March 23 from 10-4. 

We will have:

• six interactive game stations where you can explore, challenge yourself, and learn about ways to green our school!  
• a really cool upcycled crafting table! 
• your own green card to take home (collect stamps as you play each interactive game).
• several homemade crafts to take home! 

Collect all six stamps and leave with a prize! Come see how you can be a part of the Cottage Street School's Green Team! GET YOUR GREEN ON!

See a timeline of the history of the Green Team. 

Our QR Code: Recycling Cougars!

We created our own QR code! If you see this on posters around school, or on any PDFs attached to Mr. Madden's weekly newsletters, scan it to head directly to our blog for the latest updates.

Upcycled & Recycled Crafts for Kids

This robot is made from an old CD case.

Upcycled & Recycled Crafts for Kids

From robots made with used CD cases, draft snakes from mis-matched socks, flowers made from plastic bottles, or marble runs made from pool noodles, you can use your noodle creatively to make these cool crafts with your kids! :)

Click on each image to learn how.

Stuff mismatched socks or old tights for a great draft snake!

Use a gallon milk jug in this easy-to-make toss game.

A pool noodle cut in half makes a great marble run!

Plastic bottles become pretty flowers (adult assistance needed).

Scrap fabric makes a sweet headband.