Small Town News

Little environmentalists reduce their carbon footprints

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Pint-sized environmental stewards in training got their first taste of conservation March 26.

Students at the Goddard School of Issaquah helped reduce their carbon footprints by participating in a variety of conservation activities throughout the week.

"The goal is to allow all Goddard schools across the country to sponsor activities during a week of celebration that helps create awareness for children and families, and realize they are part of a larger global community," said the school's owner Catherine Callan.

The Goddard School is a private, six weeks to pre-kindergarten school for local children. It opened locally in November and has about 90 students enrolled. The school in Issaquah is one of roughly 350 locations in the U.S.

Part of the school's curriculum is designed to help students understand the world around them, including conservation, Callan said.

Specifically, school officials worked to increase awareness with the Step Up for the Environment program through the World Wildlife Foundation.

In addition, the 90 students and their teachers shut out the lights at 10 a.m. March 26 in honor of Earth Hour March 27, Callan said.

"It was so fun," she said. "For every chunk of time during that hour, we'd cover our paper poster with a lighted bulb on it with black construction paper to show the children how much energy we were conserving." The global Earth Hour event took place at 8:30 p.m. March 27. Millions of people around the world turned off their lights for one hour to help conserve energy and lessen the impact to our climate, according to a release from Goddard Systems Inc.

Students did their part March 26 because there wasn't school during Saturday's official global Earth Hour event.

Students also helped their parents recycle at home and brought in recyclable materials to help create fashions out of reusable products for a fashion show and parade.

The recyclable fashion parade "was an activity we loved, because it gave parents a chance to bring in recyclable items and gave them an opportunity to help their little ones learn to recycle instead of throwing things away," Callan said.

Among the many creative outfits, students designed backpacks, capes, shields of armor and even shoes they wore, she said.

Students also learned about how recycling and conserving energy, like power and water, can help save the habitats of animals around the world.

"We really tried to talk about the earth and how our conservation efforts help other people and animals around the world," she said.

Students also created a mobile of memories of their conservation efforts and invited Eastside Fire & Rescue firefighters to come collect it.



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© 2010 The Issaquah Press Issaquah, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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