This week we discussed citizenship. We talked about ways to do our share to make our school, classroom, and community a better place. We shared ideas on how to protect the environment and recycle. These are some of the ideas:

• Put trash in the trash can and not on the floor or in the street
• Put paper in the big blue buckets in the hallway
• Recycle like my mom and dad. They put plastic, paper, and glass in seperate bags and then the city workers pick it up.
• Pick up trash in the hallways.
• Don't write on the walls or the floor only on paper.

After we talked about ways to do our part in and around the school community we discussed ways to improve our own classroom. I told the students how I noticed that they don't pick up behind themselves like they should after cutting paper, dropping crayons, or completing art projects. So we took one of our trash cans and drew a happy face on it and we call her "Mrs. Trashy." Each day the students must pick up paper or trash off of the floor and feed Mrs. Trashy or she will get a stomach ache from being hungry. I have never seen my floor so clean at any point of the day unless the custodian has cleaned. I even had one child to go home and draw a face on his trash can in his room and his mom asked him why and he told her about the class project. Naturally she let him keep it but told him he must keep his room clean of all trash since he drew on the trash can. So far its working. The other kindergarten teachers also liked the idea. www.hummingbirded.com and www.rudebusters.com