It was Spirit Week recently in Roosevelt Elementary School and outfits ran the gamut of wild and colorful with themes like Wacky Hat Day and Decade Day. But in the lunchroom, shades of green are apparent year round. An arsenal of recycling receptacles handle the disposable lunch waste but more innovative are the teacher initiatives to encourage reusables.
For parties, students in various grades are asked to bring in a cloth napkin, plastic plate and fork for the fun food portion of the celebration. A full garbage receptacle is saved when a whole grade participates in this simple action of bringing your own. Throwing it away begs the question of, “Where exactly is AWAY?!”
For the Roosevelt talent show, “Starcase”, participants’ ticket allotments arrived home in recycled billing return envelopes. Bravo to Starcase ticket handlers for using the likes of Kohl’s and Macy’s envelopes instead of buying a new pack!
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The Roosevelt PTO has made a large, commendable effort to be paperless and as a result, barely a sapling has been felled in this 2010/2011 school year. All forms and notices are online and a reminder email is sent out every Sunday evening with information for the week ahead.
The expert grounds care crew utilizes eco-friendly products including cleaners, floor strippers and waxes, improving indoor air quality. Greener floors combined with the earth friendly salt being used on walkways mean less chemicals are hitching a ride back to Roosevelt homes on shoe soles.
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Going beyond hawk sightings, third graders are part of an environmental education program in conjunction with the local chapter of the Bergen County Audubon Society. Plans include on site plantings to attract even more feathered friends.
Tuna salad may still be happening in the lunch room, but raising actual fish in school is what Roosevelt fourth graders have the privilege of doing! The life cycle of Brook Trout and the analysis of their habitat has jumped off the textbook diagram page and become a nose print on the aquarium kind of experience! The NJ Fish and Game department and Trout Unlimited co-sponsor this hands-on experience starting with delivery of the fertilized eggs to the school from the Pequest Fish Hatchery right up to the release into the “A” quality spring water of Saddle River. Roosevelt’s PTO purchased the tank and water chiller to help make this program possible.
After the productive precipitation of this winter, spring will be more than a welcome sight. Roosevelt’s Journey North project continues and will reward us with spirit raising tulips and daffodils. Thanks to the Beautification Foundation’s donation of additional bulbs last fall, prepare for beauty!
Advancing programs as large as the fish experience and being proactive in something as small as reusing envelopes for ticket distribution, Roosevelt is one green thinking school.
