Green Team Gazette Season 3, Issue 1 Back to School 2010

1. Lots of Lit (Literature, That Is!)
What better way to start the school year than by diving
into a good book (or 2 or 3)! Here are some great eco-
friendly books if you are looking for a way to start the year
off right….whether it’s a read-aloud, a classroom pick, or a
way of getting your nature-centric kids even greener!
Just Grace Goes Green
by Charise Mericle Harper
Just Grace is excited by Miss Lois’ new-found
sense of fun…and her passion for the environment. This is a
great book for grades 1-3 (both as a read-aloud for
youngers or a chapter book for olders) to get your green
classroom initiative going. Written in a reader-friendly way,
with illustration galore, it’ll draw your kids in. Offering up a
great chance to study idioms, endangered animals, comic
strips, or even just the environmental facts that are housed
within, it’s a great springboard for your students to share
what’s on their mind!
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Older kids will enjoy this funny, mysterious,
sometimes irreverent book that is ultimately about teen-
agers who see something that need to be done, and do it.
Plus, did I mention the cute burrowing owls that need a little
habitat protection? Read this one, enjoy, and follow up with
the movie! Scat and Flush are equal Hiassen good reads.
Operation Redwood
by S. Terrell French
Again, a great read-aloud for youngers, or a
super read for intermediate olders! The
story turns readers into young activists who find the need
to do something about the deforestation of the Californian
redwoods! How can you NOT take part in this?!
Everyone Needs a Super Hero!
Whether you read Just Grace or not, everyone needs a
superhero. Being both a mom & a teacher who has seen the
magic of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, kids LOVE
comics. Invite your kids to create their own comic and
design your own super hero to swoop in and make a
difference here on this planet we call Earth!! Use GTG’s
page 2 to design your Man or Woman of Eco-Steel!
The Green Team Gazette
Volume 3, Issue 1, page 1 Back to School 2010
Back in Business
Here we are….back to the business
of fall and school starting up.
Exciting times to here this fall
after watching the Plastiki—our favorite plastic water
bottle boat made of 12,500 water bottles. It has
trekked mucho miles across the Pacific Ocean. At the
end of July it accomplished its goal of making it from
San Francisco to Sydney, Australia. We learned a little
more about the Eastern Garbage Patch, and we learned a
little bit about perseverance and how impacts can be
made if people put it in their mindset. Exciting things to
see here in the fall of 2010 with environmental strides
on our horizons. One person can set an example, one
team can make a difference, and changes can be made!!
Thank you Plastiki for showing us that. To learn more,
go to http://www.theplastiki.com/.
Green Team Gazette: The Blog
This summer was a busy one for Green
Team Gazette on both the blog site
(http://greenteamgazette.blogspot.com/)
as well as the Facebook site
(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Green-Team-
Gazette/106416856056829?ref=ts) . Check in on the
archives of both for classroom activities, news of the
summer, philosophical findings and more. Be sure to
take a peek at both sites for anything you might have
missed while sunning and funning this summer!
The Green Team Gazette is a publication
co-sponsored by the founders of CynerGreen
CGKidz, and Eagle Cove School (formerly
“Gibson Island Country School”), a Green
School in Pasadena, Maryland. Our mission is
to educate and share ways to “go green”—both big & small--
and be environ-mentally-proactive at home, in school, and
beyond. It is written by Vicki Dabrowka, 3rd grade teacher
& co-Green Team Leader at Eagle Cove School. To learn
more visit www.cynergreen.com, www.cgkidz.com, and
www.eaglecoveschool.org. You can also follow us at
http://greenteamgazette.blogspot.com/ or find us at “Green
Team Gazette” on Facebook.
Please print on recycled paper. Copyright © 2010 Vicki Dabrowka

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The Green Team Gazette
Volume 3, Issue 1 , page 2 Back to School 2010
Copyright ©
2010 Vicki
Dabrowka