Students across Warren Township Schools heralded Mother Earth with various activities and celebrations for Earth Day, which falls on Saturday, April 22 this year.
From decorating grocery bags to garner community attention, wearing clothing in earth tones, and planting herbs in reusable cups, students and staff across the district embraced the environmental message and mission of Earth Day.
Mt. Horeb School first graders planted chives and parsley in recycled containers , while 5th graders at Angelo L. Tomaso School spearheaded a schoolwide effort to decorate Kings shopping bags to raise awareness of Earth Day in the community. Grade 7 science classes at Warren Middle School received a hands-on lesson from the Wetlands Institute earlier in the week about the ecosystems and adaptations of various sea critters. They later held an Earth Day party, complete with a special cake.
At Woodland, Reach TOO students took a virtual field trip to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, while Central 3rd graders enjoyed PTO-organized Earth Day activities with their younger schoolmates. These were just a handful of the wide variety of educational and fun events taking place across the district for Earth Day.
Additionally, the Warren Township School District received hundreds of free tree seedlings — including flowering dogwood, Red maple and Norway Spruce — as part of an outreach program by the New Jersey Tree Foundation and Treecycler, an innovative environmental organization that partners with companies around the world.
“It is exciting to be able to provide the students with a wonderful activity — a project that benefits the environment, at no cost to the district,” says Business Administrator Patricia Leonhardt, who submitted the application for the trees.
At least two of the district’s elementary schools plan to involve students and staff in basic research on the trees, before selecting and planting the saplings in optimal locations throughout school grounds.
“Here at Mt. Horeb, we are eager to beautify our campus with 250 donated saplings from the New Jersey Tree Foundation and Treecycler,” says Mt. Horeb principal Scott Cook. “We offer our sincere thanks to these two groups as they are helping us create a fabulous learning opportunity and experience for our students and staff. These trees will not only help us build a stronger connection to our surrounding environment but also will allow our students an opportunity to take part in the process.”
(above) Mt. Horeb first graders planted herbs in recycled containers to celebrate Earth Day. (L-R) Kallan Palmieri, Kylie Fell, Dia Prabhakar, Lucas Finkelstein, Mason Oliveira
(above) Warren Middle School 7th graders Nicole Miller (L) and Kayla Palaia baked a cake for Earth Day.
(above) ALT 5th graders spearheaded a schoolwide effort to decorate Kings shopping bags to increase awareness in the community.
