Say Goodbye to Trash for Green Week

Earth Day is just around the corner, and the Green Education Foundation is looking for a few good schools, teachers and kids to help observe it.

How? By taking part in the third annual National Green Week.

“National Green Week incorporates all aspects of sustainability,” said GEF Spokesman Dan Kobialka. “It’s a way to help teachers and students become aware of the environment around them.”

National Green Week 2011 runs from now until Earth Day, April 22. Morton Grove schools and teachers are encouraged to choose any week during this time to be their Green Week.

 The GEF makes it easy. The organization’s web site lays out a comprehensive sustainability education curriculum, all available at no charge. Worth noting are three hands-on components:

• Green Energy Challenge: Students learn how to audit their schools and homes for energy waste. Participating schools research utility bills and make simple changes in order to reduce energy costs between now and Earth Day. Audit checklists and energy experiments accompany the program.

• Waste-Free Snacks: Students participate in this nationwide school-based waste-reduction program by pledging to carry their drinks and snacks in reusable containers for the week. The goal is to eliminate 200,000 pounds of trash from schools and landfills.

• Green Thumb Challenge: In this youth gardening initiative, schools will use gardens as a teaching tool. The goal is for 10,000 schools to plant sustainability education gardens. 

For home or school, GEF’s website also offers plenty of creative, sustainable Green Week activities. Each activity includes materials lists and step-by-step directions. Here are the titles of some activities:

• Make Energy Board Games
• Write Renewable Energy Riddles
• Create Haiku Nature Poetry
• Make Your Own Paper
• Fly Recycled Grocery Bag Kites
• Feed birds from Milk-Carton Bird-Feeders

Last year, more than two million students across the country joined in National Green Week. In five days they saved more than 100,000 lbs. of trash and tens of thousands of dollars in utility bills. This year, organizers expect some three million students, along with teachers and schools, to take part.

The GEF is a nonprofit organization committed to building a sustainable future by providing curriculum and resources to K12 students and teachers worldwide.