2006-2007 EarthCARE Initiatives at Adrienne Clarkson Elementary School (ACES):

April 8, 2007

1. Transforming and Greening the School - Our EarthCARE leaders are attending a series of meetings with Evergreen regarding the planning process involved in greening the school. Workshops on this topic are in the process of being organized for each class. Over the course of the next few years we plan to work with the staff, students, School Council and community members to enhance our schoolyard through greening initiatives. ACES students, staff and School Council have been invited to take part in a Spring Clean-up Day. EarthCARE students will also plant seeds to be transplanted into our front gardens.

2. Animal Research Projects - EarthCARE students have researched endangered Canadian Animals. Completed work will be "published" in an ACES EarthCARE newspaper. Mme France's Grade 2 class is curently raising funds school-wide to adopt a polar bear.

3. Recycling - We are encouraging parents to donate gently-used books to be reycled and sold at our EarthCARE Book Fair on April 20th. The staffroom and classrooms have recycling bins for paper, cans and plastic. The EarthCARE Team encourages staff and students to use the blue boxes appropriately. Students have used recycled construction paper to make art boxes, using cardboard boxes, for each classroom so that larger scraps of paper can be re-used rather than immediately be put into the recycle bin.

4. Reduce Waste Energy - The EarthCARE Team is organizing a "WALK TO SCHOOL DAY". To encourage parents to participate, we are writing an article on "Do you know the facts about gas emissions?" in the school newsletter. Every month, our school newsletter features articles about EarthcARE initiatives being organized at the school.

5. LOCO - We are encouraging teachers and students to turn lights off and computers off to promote energy conservation

6. Litterless Lunches - Every Tuesday in March at ACES will be a Litterless Lunch Day.

7. LED Festive Light Exchange: ACES students and staff took part in the Hydro Ottawa LED light exchange in November/December 2006. They collected 120 strings of incandescent lights to exchange for LED lights, removing significant energy from the grid. As well, they collected over $600 for the Snowsuit Fund form donations.

Well done ACES! You are making a difference!