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Schools Dig Earth Day

Posted: 7:04 pm EDT April 22, 2009Updated: 1:08 pm EDT April 23, 2009

Well, it's Earth Day and all over people are picking up trash, recycling, doing some planting. The schools of Central Florida are no exception. We'll take a look at a couple of them like the Parke House Academy in Winter Park, where it seems that every day is Earth Day.

The kids here were really getting into the earth on earth day. They were busy planting a garden. Using native, drought tolerant plants will make this a garden that will last a long time and require very little water when established and no fertilizers. There is a lesson in this.


VIDEO: Schools Participate In Earth Day
SLIDESHOW: Images Of Earth Day

So the kids are learning about how we can still plant and garden and make beautiful things but be responsible about the environment in which we live. The theme of Earth Week this week is 'Water wise in the sunshine state,'" said Kelly Williams, an assistant in the kindergarten class at Parke House Academy.

Meanwhile the students here collected a week's worth of cans and bottle from the upper grades to get a look at just what they were using.

"I think everybody's concerned because we're trying to save our earth and if we don't save it, and we just treat it like we used to it's not going to be as clean as we hoped," said 4th grader Kiara Dunn.

And then there is this:

"This is the world's largest, or it might be the world's largest, recycled crayon. It is about two feet tall and it's made from tiny stubs of crayon, like you get from restaurants to color with. We melted all of those and made it into a giant crayon," said Aaron Patel, a 4th grader at Parke House Academy.

While it's a few feet short of the world record for a crayon they hope the Guiness world record folks will recognize this fifteen-and-a-half pounder as the world champ recycled crayon.

Osceola schools are doing their part for Earth Day. At Mill Creek Elementary they not only planted trees, but they're doing their part to save trees.

Amy Rohrbach's fourth grade class is spending time this week learning about living green.

"We're talking about Earth Day and what we can do to help our environment and save earth," 4th grader Julianna Quinones said.

Today the students are taking part in the "paperless challenge." It's an attempt to get through the school day without using any paper in this school. Erasable white boards and overhead projectors take the part of written assignments and handouts. The children, many wearing their Mill Creek Earth Day shirts, see value in this exercise.

"I think it will be easier for us now that we've tried it for a day and tomorrow we'll come back and we don’t have to use as much paper as we have been using." Said Faith Lynn Sparrowk, a Mill Creek 4th grader.

Now, clever kids that these are, this group suggested to the teacher that no paper means no homework. How did that work out?

"She said, 'No.'"

Well it's back to the paper tonight. But that homework, along with this paperless challenge are all part of a bigger picture.

"My hope is that all of our Mill Creek students will grow up to be responsible citizens and stand up to create positive change, That's what we focus on, that they're going to be positive leaders in the community," 4th grade teacher Amy Rohrbach said.

And so that's a quick look at what some of the schools in Central Florida were doing this Earth Day 2009. If you had an event at your school and would like to share some pictures or videos you can upload them on the Central Florida Homeroom page.

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