Education

Beach Clean Up

Friday, February 18th, 2011

My class participated on Feb. 1, 2011 in a worldwide beach clean-up. There were schools from Molokai, Big Island, Oahu, California, Oregon, the east coast, and even from distant places such as Japan, Spain, Italy and Kosovo.

What Would You Do?
By Makani Davis

What would you do if you saw marine life being killed by nets, cans, six packs, or more? Would you sit there and watch it break down? I hope not, because you’ll be watching nearly until you die! Stand up and fight for our wildlife! You don’t need to be an adult to do it, because fourth and fifth graders can clean up too if they want to.

Make a change in sea life. I want to see it happen. Make the beaches clean. You don’t need to be any certain age; you just need too believe that you can. I believe and I will help. The next step for me is to get others to help. Will you help me? Will you help the environment? Make a difference!

Step up and grab a hand to fix our world and keep the atmosphere clean. Go to the beach and look around; see what you can pick up. You won’t believe what you can do. You can change things!

I’m Just a Butt
By Acey Reyes

One day, a class of school kids came to the beach. They found a lot of rubbish. They also found me! I’m a cigarette butt. I am really grateful that they picked me and a bunch of my friends (over 110 of us in all!) up. If they didn’t, I would be there a very long time.

I’ve just been waiting for someone to pick me up. After they carried me away, the next day I got to come out and become part of a beautiful ‘garbage’ sculpture with my friends.

If the kids had left me there, I would be littering the area. I am also toxic and if a fish or other marine animal mistakes me for food, they could get very sick and die. Now I’ve been rescued and don’t have to worry about being eaten! Thank you, kids!

Two more reflections will be shared in next week’s Dispatch.

 

Tutu’s Corner

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

By the time young children become two to three years old, they begin to see that they can group things according to a characteristic, such as color or size. This gives children a new sense of control over their environment.

It is interesting to observe young children’s satisfaction in sorting and classifying all kinds of objects such as rocks or buttons. Sorting and classification are important mathematical skills that require children to recognize similarities among objects.

At Tutu and Me Traveling Preschool, there are many opportunities for children to observe and group objects. When they come in to school, the block area provides ample opportunities for sorting and classification; the manipulative area with its beads, pattern blocks, buttons, or other material is another opportunity for sorting and grouping.

Try This at Home:
•    Let your keiki practice sorting by putting the eating utensils into their proper tray sections.
•    Let your child put back the clothes on the hooks or hangers, the food back on the shelves, etc.
•    Start a collection with your keiki (e.g., buttons, rocks, shells, bottle caps). Keep the collection in boxes or baskets and available for your child to sort or organize according to size, color or texture. These are excellent substitutes for television viewing.
•    While riding in your car, play a game of finding all the vehicles of the same make, or color. Say to your keiki, “Say ‘red’ when you see a red car”, or, “Let’s call out all of the Toyotas that we see.”
•    Let your keiki help sort the clothes for washing by putting all the whites in one basket and the colors in another.
•    Let your child help put the food away after a grocery shopping trip.
•    Make sure that there are shelves and storage containers in your child’s room, so that there is a place for your child to organize clothes and toys.

Remember, giving young children opportunities to sort and group objects gives them lifelong skills in mathematical thinking and organization. An organized person uses time and energy to his or her advantage.
Contributions from Tutu and Me Traveling Preschool, a program of Partners in Development Foundation.  Tutu and Me is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.