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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Paperless Earth Day in Mrs. Yollis' Class!


Mrs. Yollis' class was totally paperless today!

They were part of the Teach Paperless Earth Day project!



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In preparation for Earth Day, the class talked about all the trash they were producing at lunch. 

One goal Mrs. Yollis' class set for themselves was to try and use more reusable containers for their lunches. 

Lots of plastic bags and paper in last Monday's trash:



Less trash on Earth Day:


Only SIX  reusable containers used last Monday:


52 reusable containers used on Earth Day:


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Having a paperless classroom was a challenge, but Mrs. Yollis' class was triumphant!

Whiteboards, computers, manipulatives, and creativity were put to good use on our paperless day!

Enjoy!


Even tonight's homework is paperless!
Here is a link.

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What did you think of the day?

How did you like the paperless homework?

41 comments:

  1. Dear Mrs. Yollis & Your Incredibly Earth Aware 3rd Grade Class,

    Congratulations on going paperless! That is truly an achievement. Thanks also for incorporating my challenge to cut down on the trash from your lunches. You did a fantastic job and that is something you can continue to do every day. Less trash, fewer landfills.

    I loved your video - especially the interactive element of answering the questions right on the screen. That was fun.

    Keep up the 'Green' Work.

    Barbara
    (Jaxon's mom)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    My favorite part of paperless Earth Day was writing on the white boards instead of in our practice books.
    I bet we could save alot of paper if we did this for the whole school year!

    From,

    Kate

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Mrs. Yollis,
    Thank you for the wonderful blog on Earth Day. I loved that you went paperless. It really made an interesting topic for us to discuss at home. We are doing our best reuse, reduce and recycle in our home and will continue to do so. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Sincerely,
    Nancy Armstrong (Anais' Mum)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Thank you for teaching the class to go paperless on Earth Day. Thank you also for being an example and role model for the students. Not only are they learning academics, but they are also learning skills to live wisely and learning they have the "power" to make a change for the better for our environment.


    Sincerely,

    Ethan's mom

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Mrs. Yollis' Class,

    What a wonderful post about your paperless day! We also went paperless for Earth Day and it was great fun for the students and I. We are excited to talk to you all about it tomorrow when we skype.

    It was very impressive to see how many more reusable containers you had in just a few days. Those simple containers will save a lot of plastic. Keep up the fantastic work!

    -Mr. Salsich

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey Caleb! It's so cool that your class celebrated a totally paperless Earth Day. I remember the very first Earth Day forty years ago. We lived in Boulder, Colorado, and no one in Boulder drove a car that day. I just stayed home and played with Aunt Kristin who was a baby! Then in 1992 my students organized an Earth Day celebration for the entire middle school. We even made a Nature Walk through the woods and took classes on tours along it. Every student took home a seedling tree to plant. Today I worked in the garden. I guess that's a good way to celebrate, too!
    Love, G'Ma

    ReplyDelete
  7. @ Ms. Palmer,

    Thank you so much for all of your encouragement AND for your great idea of monitoring how much trash we are creating. Many people have changed the way they prepare their lunch!

    I'm glad you liked the interactive decimal portion of the video. Always teaching!

    @ Mrs. Armstrong,

    That's wonderful that the learning at school is being talked about at home. That is one of the fabulous aspects of having a classroom blog, everyone is in on the classroom lessons and that makes for a more success learning experience! :-)

    @ Mrs. Kim, (Ethan's mom)

    I appreciate your kind words. It was a very different day for me. Having the experience made me realize how much paper I use and how many alternatives there are.

    How did you like the online homework? I'm curious to hear a parent's perspective.

    @ Mr. Salsich,

    We are really looking forward to Skyping with all of you tomorrow. It will be fun to have a sing-a-long spanning the continent.

    Yes, many of us have changed our behavior and are not creating so much trash! We'll see if the good habits continue. I hope so!

    Sincerely,
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  8. @ Mrs. Yollis

    I am getting back to you on your question about the online homework. I know Ethan really enjoyed it because I couldn't get him off the computer to get ready for bedtime! He really enjoyed doing his homework tonight!!! The online homework was both very entertaining and educational. It was learning in a very interactive way. It was a nice change of pace for him to go from the pencil and paper route of doing homework to the computer route, in addition to, the goal of saving paper. The "change" was good. I think it's safe to say that Ethan wouldn't mind more of these paperless homework assignments in the future. :-)

    Sincerely,

    Ethan's mom

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Mrs, Yollis and students,

    This was a wonderful collaboration of efforts to help the Mother Earth. I'm sure that she is extremely grateful for your efforts in such an important matter, which affects each and every one of us. Imagine if we all become more conscious about recycling, reusing and reducing everyday, how much our earth will benefit and flourish.
    I am so proud of you and your wonderful group of environmentally conscious young boys and girls.
    Happy Earth Day, today and every other day!

    Sincerely,
    Soosan

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Mrs Yollis' class,

    Thank you for your excellent video about your Paperless Day. 2KM watched the video and really felt like they were there!

    The students in 2KM have not learnt about decimals before but through watching your video they gained an understanding of what decimals mean and loved voting on what they thought the answers would be!

    We also loved your lesson about writing the date however we noticed that Americans write the date month/day/year whereas we write day/month/year!

    2KM had a wonderful Paperless day yesterday and we thank you for sharing the idea with us! You can read about our Paperless Day here http://2kmblog.globalstudent.org.au/2010/04/22/paperless-day-for-world-earth-day/

    Your friends,
    Miss McGeady and 2KM

    ReplyDelete
  11. @ Mrs. Kim, (Ethan's mom)

    Thank you for getting back to me with feedback about the paperless homework. It sounds like it was a real success in your household. I think it is better than wasting lots of paper. The games on the math website are interactive and I think that is better for learning.

    I would love to hear any feedback from other parents. How did you and your child like the paperless homework? Would parents like to see more paperless homework?

    @ Soosan, (Ava's mother)

    We had a marvelous day and made a positive impact on Mother Earth! I think we learned some new ways to learn without wasting paper. I'm curious, what did you think of the paperless homework?

    You're right, every day is Earth Day!

    @ Miss McGeady and 2KM,

    I'm glad you all felt like you were with us...we wish we could make that happen! :-)

    Learning about decimals using place value blocks was fun for my students. It is a funny game because the object of the game is to be the first person to get to ONE! :-) ONE is not usually considered a winning score in a game! Decimals are part of one whole, so the games makes that point! Get it...makes that point. Ha! Ha!

    It is interesting the way we write dates.

    April 23, 2010
    4/23/10

    and you write the day first and then the month. We noticed that on some timestamps in blogs!

    Glad you had a great paperless day, and we'll check it out today!

    Sincerely,
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mrs. Yollis and Class,
    We loved your video about going paperless. We had fun taking the quiz on decimals! We wanted to share that we just started doing some research on animals too! We are each going to do a report on an animal that we don't know much about. We are hoping to create a video with drawings and facts about what we learned. Maybe we can share it with you when we finish. Your video encouraged us to try to use less paper in our classroom too!
    Mrs. Schmidt and class from PA

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dear Mrs Yollis and students,
    great team work on going paperless. Bianca did her paperless day just a few days ago with Miss McGeady and the rest of 2KM and from what I hear it was a HUGE success.Each and everyone put in a big effort and it worked.As they soon worked out that they could do school work even without paper.Also a big pat on the back to Miss McGeady and you too for your efforts on going paperless. So from the other side of the world congratulations are in order to you all well done. Keep it clean and green from down under AA.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I'm so glad we went paperless yesterday! In fact, my dad came home with a reusable bag last night instead of a paper bag, and I wondered why my dad brought it home. He always brings home a paper bag. I thought maybe since it was Earth Day, they gave reusable bags, and I was right! They did give it out because it was Earth Day! Now that he has the bag, his lunch is takin to work in that bag everyday! Like you, Mrs. Yollis. Before, my dad used to take paper bags everyday! Thanks to Earth Day, he's saving trees by NOT wasting paper with using paper bags everyday!

    On one side of the bag has the Earth with two hands on it, and the other side has a tree with the Earth in front of it, and the "3Rs" on the side.


    Sincerely,
    Kayla =)



    P.S. I published my post on the ducks in the street!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am icarus162x. I am form California.I like how you all went paperless. Do you think you will ever do that again??

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dear Mrs. Yollis' class,

    Sydney and I just re-watched the Earth Day video. Wow!! We are still so amazed by how much paper was saved just by using the wipe boards. Do you think the attendance can be taken that way every day? I am curious to know how the day after went. Did many people still bring reusable containers in their lunch?

    Keep up the good, green work:-).

    From,
    Susan(Sydney's mom)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,

    WOW! What an amazing post! You guys are good to the world. That is so great that from just five reusable containers to fifety two of them.There was a huge difference with how much trash you had last Monday, and Earthday. When I came home Gal told me about the paperless homework.

    From,
    Tal
    (Gal's big brother)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Dear Mrs Yollis and students,
    paperless day in 2KM was a great day. Everyone did a good job to not to use paper.I realised that we really did not need to use so much paper because their are other things you could use instead of paper.Whats even better earth will be a better place for it
    from down under Bianca.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I really liked the paperless homework for two reasons. First reason is that less paper is used and possibly wasted. The other reason would be that I know for a fact that Ava was very excited to do her homework on the computer, probably her classmates felt the same way.
    I am sure you know how much paper we have to go through as parents, gathering all the work which comes home from school. Some need to be kept, but most of them have to be thrown away. It would be unreasonable to think we can go paperless everyday, but it would be sensible to try to use less paper, and maybe sometimes find another way, as you did.
    It was great!

    Sincerely,

    Soosan (Ava's mom)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I think we did an amazing job going paperless! It's really hard to go paperless in my opinion, but we did it!

    I agree with Kate because there's a lot of people that use paper, but if we subtract 25 from how much paper we use everyday, we can save a lot of paper!

    Sincerely,
    Kayla =)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Wow, what a great idea. Even though we missed Earth Day I think I will give paperless day a try with my 5th grade class.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hello Mrs. Yollis and class!

    I'm terribly sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you; I've been incredibly busy with drama club and jazz band.

    My video probably took about 20 minutes to make. It's really easy to just type out what you want each character to say.

    Congrats on your Earth Day Extravaganza! My school uses laptops and so our homework is often on the computer. I personally think that it is a lot easier because it is awfully difficult to forget your homework then!

    ~Abbey

    ReplyDelete
  23. Dear Mrs. Yollis and Class,

    Wow! You guys are so great to the earth. It looks really fun to work on the white boards. If I worked in the office I would life about the way you took roll. It Mrs. Ching was very nice to write something back.

    From,
    Ron
    (Gal's big brother)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I think that the paperless idea was a great way to celebrate Earth day!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I love Earth Day because you get to think about how many things you wasted, and change your behavior. I like to think about trees, and how they give us oxygen because without trees, you can't breathe. If you don't breathe, you won't be alive.

    Sincerely,
    Kayla ;)

    P.S. I dragged the picture on my desktop, and I think it worked. I saw it on my computer. I think you're going to like it!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Dear Mrs. Yollis,
    I think it was fun doing attendance on white boards and nice of Mrs.Chang to say Happy Earth Day on it. Also I think it's a great idea to write on the desk!

    From,
    Moraiya =)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I had a lot of fun on the paperless day! :-) My favorite part was playing games for homework. (I never knew that computer games could ever be used as homework).

    After school I continued Earth Day on my own. I played a tiny bit of computer after homework, and then I played roller hockey in my driveway.

    Sincerley,
    Ben

    ReplyDelete
  28. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I like your post about paperless day. In the decimal game do you have to restart if you pass one whole? There was way more reusable containers.


    From,
    Paul

    ReplyDelete
  29. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    It was really impressive that the class brought a lot of reusable containers. I thought there was going to be about four or five, but it turned out to be more than four or five!


    Sincerely,
    Aaliyah :-)

    ReplyDelete
  30. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I am really surprised that we had 52 containers! =D Earth Day was totally a success.

    From,
    Trent

    ReplyDelete
  31. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I really improved since Earth Day. Once I heard that Earth Day, was coming I told my mom to pack every thing in a reusable container

    From
    Kate
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  32. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I like how you thought of the idea to use whiteboards instead of paper. Paper is very harmful to the earth. But I left a comment about that last time.

    Now I am going to talk about how you spent time with your husband instead of going on the computer. It's good to get off the computer once in awhile because it is bad for your eyes. Spending time with people is better because it doesn't harm you, and it is sometimes very active. Good work!

    From,
    Richie

    ReplyDelete
  33. Dear Mrs. Yollis

    I really liked earth day because we did not halve to sharpen our pencils at all; I really liked that we used markers.

    From,
    Corey

    ReplyDelete
  34. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Congratulations on going paperless on Earth Day! Jared was very excited about paperless homework and couldn't wait to get home and do his homework. The class video was very impressive.

    Thank you,
    Dora (Jared's mom)

    ReplyDelete
  35. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Thank you for the outstanding effort you and the class put into paperless Earth Day. Your video really showed how much can be done without wasting precious resources.

    I think the paperless homework idea was terrific and I know Kendall enjoyed it as well.

    Regards,
    Shannon
    (Kendall's mom)

    ReplyDelete
  36. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Thank you for linking us to the Quizlet site. I was impressed at how thorough and interactive the site was in quizzing Ethan for the test tomorrow. This was an educationally stimulating and fun way for Ethan to study tonight. It was quite different from me quizzing Ethan one on one in the past. What another terrific way to go paperless in the future! As a parent, I'm 100% in favor for Quizlet.

    How do other parents in the class feel about Quizlet?

    Sincerely,

    Young (Ethan's mom)

    ReplyDelete
  37. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I was so happy and excited that we did paperless on the Earth Day. I'm learning to save resources for the poor kids in the world. We all need to learn save and recycle.

    From,
    Paul

    ReplyDelete
  38. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Trent told me that if you get enough parental support that you would consider one paperless homework night a week.

    I vote yes please!

    Sincerely,

    Mrs. Adler

    ReplyDelete
  39. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Thanks so much for making the paperless day possible on Earth Day. Paul came home and proudly told us what the class did that day. We are happay to see that he has been cultivating the good habit of saving rescources and recycling used stuff. He even suggested to us to have one paperless day once a week. I think that this is a good idea. Our country is wasting too much stuff each day. We need to learn from other countries as how to recycle and reduce our waste.

    Sincerely,
    Matthew (Paul's dad)

    ReplyDelete
  40. In my class we also did a paperless day. It was really fun! Instead of using paper we used are desks like white boards. Our homework was really just working on our blogs.

    ReplyDelete

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