Rain garden

A rain garden is very important because in many ways it can help the environment from pollution. One way it can help the environment is that when the rain falls it goes down a downspout and into the rain garden.  There it soaks in the ground plus it feeds the plants. At Glacier Park we are building a rain garden.

There are 250 plants in our rain garden. We have Strawberry’s; Blueberry’s, and Lupines too.  Lupines’ are one of my teacher’s favorite flowers. The rain garden prevents pollution. The storm water goes into the rain garden infiltrates and all that storm water goes down to the plants roots the soil and gets cleaned up.   You could help the earth and improve water quality by putting a rain garden in your yard.   

            Glacier Park Art!

                           By Zack and Alex

Hi we are Zack and Alex and we are from G.P.E.S. and we are going to tell you what art is like at Glacier Park. First we will  you about the art projects we did and how we did it. One of the art projects that we did was the Maasai art here is how we did it. First we drew the head. After that we drew the shape of the body. Then we drew the legs and arms. We also got to do designs on the Maasai. Then we got to mix colors together to make a back round. Then we let it dry for a couple hours. Then our art piece was finished. Another art piece that we did was the giraffe art piece. Then we drew the head of the giraffe. We also drew the ears by the horns. Next we drew the eyes. Then we drew the neck. We had a choice, we can draw a little giraffe or we could just have one big giraffe. Next we drew spots all over the giraffe. Then we colored in the giraffe. Next we had a choice to draw a tree. Then our art piece was done. Second, how did we come up with the two art pieces? Our teacher went to a web site called Deep space sparkle an artist website that sells art lessons to teachers and when she found the two art pieces she taught us them. Me and Zack hope that you can see what art is like at Glacier Park.

Glacier Parks Waste Free Lunch Program

                 By: Mikell Fuller & Marie Vandenbosch

Every year at Glacier Park Elementary School there is a waste-free lunch program in the cafeteria. During this program students in all grades try to pack a lunch without anything that would not have to go to the landfill. Glacier Park has a compost bin for leftover food or paper to go into. It is ok to have stuff that can go in the compost. If a student has a waste-free lunch then they write their name on a slip of paper and put the paper into a big box that is labeled “WASTE FREE LUNCH”. A few third grade classes sent out several students to watch the children during lunch to make sure that they brought a waste-free lunch. At the end of the month the cafeteria staff goes onto the stage and announces the names of the winners. The way they find out who the winners are is they pull names out of the waste-free box. The winners receive prizes made from recyclable materials from things like Capri Sun pouches or chip bags. A few of the prizes were backpacks, lunch boxes, messenger bags or pencil cases. Surely, this has been a fun experience and has helped the environment. 

Pollinators 

by Gino Mahaila and Grant Loyd

                             

My name is Gino and I will be talking about pollinators with my friend Grant. Pollinators are animals or insects that transfer pollen from plant to plant so that the flower or plant will make seeds. The common pollinators are bees, butterflies, and humming birds. Some other pollinators are beetles, bats, and more. Pollinators are also attracted to flowers or plants by sight and smell. Some pollinators can’t smell like the humming bird; it finds its flowers by sight. Bees and moths can smell but can’t tell colors from colors; like red looks dull to bees and moths but they can see blue and purple. If pollinators were not on the earth the fruits and vegetables would not grow. Did you know that bees, butterfly and bats and humming bird help grow fruits and vegetables. The pollen sends the message to the plant to make a flower. Pollen collects on the hairs of the pollinator it collects on its head, legs, and chest. The pollinators visit other flowers. The pollen falls of and fertilizes the plant. This causes the plant to grow fruit. Pollinators feed the word.     

Wall of Fame

By: Ajay & Cole

            Mrs. Haws and her class do a class project called The Wall of Fame.

            Mrs. Haws gives the class some construction paper.  The students bring the paper home and decorate the paper with pictures of themselves and their family. Then the next week, they bring it to school.

            Each month she gives us a subject such as All About Me, I`m Thankful For, My Dreams, My Traditions, My Special Talents, Who I Love, How I Make A Difference, and Why I Like 3^rd Grade.  Each has its own color of construction paper.  We also include artwork of the subject.

This is why Mrs. Haws makes us do wall of fame: she wants us to do it because she and the class wants to know about your family and what you do at home.

            Mrs. Haws came up with the idea of wall of fame about three years ago making this her 3^rd year of wall of fame.

            The point of wall of fame is to know about your students. If you are a teacher you should try wall of fame. It will be fun for you and your students.

   

Glacier Parks Secret Garden.

By: Halli and Brooklyn

Glacier Park’s Secret Garden is growing a lot of plants and they are growing very quickly!  Glacier parks secret garden was planted in 2005 so that would be 7 years ago!  Dallas a son of a 3^rd grade teacher in Glacier Park originally planted the secret garden.  The secret garden is helping the air and creating the food that goes to the food bank!  Dallas planted the secret garden for a Boy Scout eagle project, his mom said.  “There is an empty space at Glacier Park where you could add plants and grow a garden.”  Dallas used a back hoe to design the garden, and he also built benches. Each year the school added a new thing to the garden, like for example this year we added colored tires, colored gutters and more plant bins. We have many plants in the garden but I’m going to tell you only some, like we have garlic, squash, corn and onions. When he was all done it was the most beautiful garden.

Kids Create art from bottle caps

Glacier Park students create Art from Bottle Caps

BY MARIE VANDENBOSCH, MIKELL FULLER AND ELLA HENRY

In the spring of 2012 Glacier Park Elementary students created four murals made of recycled material.

It all started when Tahoma High School students collected bottle caps of all shapes and sizes to donate to Glacier Park Elementary School for the kids to all contribute on a recycled bottle cap art project. It is supposed to be a fun way to reuse bottle caps. It’s also fun just to use power drills.

Marie, one of our guest writers, shows off one of the completed bottle-cap art projects. Photos by Ella Henry.

Glacier Park was meaning to help the community by using recyclable things in their school garden.

About two weeks ago, Mrs. Haws’ students sorted all the bottle caps by color. Mrs. Haws painted four nature-based pictures on wooden boards for all the Glacier Park students to help drill on the right colored bottle caps onto the paintings.

Green Team and Garden Club have helped. Also all students can do it at recess.

On the murals there is a bee getting pollen from a flower, a landscape with flowers, a hummingbird flying near plants, and an orange and black butterfly. A lesson plan about pollinators will be included for a teacher to use when they take their class to the garden.

The students will help put the murals on Mrs. Davidson’s portable. It is supposed to be done by May 25, 2012.

Mrs. Haws thought the project has been a lot of fun and thinks the kids had fun working on it. We asked if we were going to make any more, and she said that if we were, it will probably be next year.

Mrs. Haws, who got the idea for the project from the Internet, has been wanting to do it for a couple years but did not have the bottle caps.

If you’re interested, there will be a special community night on the 30^th at Glacier Park Elementary School.

Editor’s note about this story: This story was reported, written and photographed entirely by students. The “community night” referenced above is the Stormwater Pollution Neighborhood Workshop, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30, at Glacier Park. The event is about more than keeping our rivers clean, however. The bottle-cap art will be on display, and music students will perform.  Mrs. Cathy Haws, the Green Team sponsor, and Mrs. Susie Davidson, the Garden Club sponsor, are coordinating the art project. They share a double portable that is adjacent to the school garden.

About the authors: Marie, Mikell and Ella are students in Mrs. Haws’ third-grade class at Glacier Park.