{"id":11004,"date":"2023-04-21T16:04:49","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T20:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=11004"},"modified":"2023-04-21T16:25:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T20:25:43","slug":"elementary-students-pick-up-litter-and-pledge-to-be-good-citizens-for-earth-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/elementary-students-pick-up-litter-and-pledge-to-be-good-citizens-for-earth-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Elementary students pick up litter and pledge to be good citizens for Earth Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Students and staff pose with “Otis the Trash Talking Octopus” at Seatack Elementary School An Achievable Dream Academy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

-David Schleck<\/em><\/p>\n

Otis the Trash Talking Octopus was the mascot for the Party for the Planet, an Earth Day celebration recently held at Seatack Elementary School – An Achievable Dream Academy.<\/p>\n

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Second grader Skylar Jamison reads a poem she wrote about Earth Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 300 students and 30 staff members filed by the eight-legged sculpture on their way to the event\u2019s opening ceremony, where second grader Skylar Jamison read a poem she wrote about Earth Day.<\/p>\n

Students were then dispatched to specific parts of the school grounds to pick up litter, using biodegradable gloves and trash bags. Gifted resource teacher Marie Culver led the effort, and coached members of the school\u2019s garden club on how to encourage participants to be positive about the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may hear some kids complain about picking up trash, but we\u2019re going to be positive,\u201d she told the club members. \u201cWe\u2019re going to say, \u2018Yes! We\u2019re taking care of the Earth! And it\u2019s fun!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

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Izayiah Clark and Kaleb Thomas pick up litter on school grounds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the second planet party for the school, but environmental lessons have been ongoing for years.<\/p>\n

Otis the Trash Talking Octopus was created from litter students collected from local beaches. Past sculptures have had names like Jingles the Jellyfish, Skittles the Kemps Ridley, Licorice the Leatherback, Tacky the Loggerhead and Green Bean the Green Sea Turtle \u2014 all made and named by the students.<\/p>\n

Christina Trapani, owner of Eco Maniac Sustainability Company, helped add up the litter collected using \u00a0the Ocean Conservancy\u2019s \u201cClean Swell\u201d app, which tracks cleanups worldwide.<\/p>\n

Within an hour, students collected 15 bags of trash, or about 260 items, including plastic bottles, wrappers and cans. They ended the day by promising to be good citizens and treat every day like Earth Day.<\/p>\n

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Christina Trapani, owner of Eco Maniac Sustainability Company, helps add up the litter collected.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fifth grader Skyler Mowery, a member of the school\u2019s Garden Breakfast Club, said the hard work was worth it, especially if it encourages others to clean up their act. He also had some passing words for the event\u2019s mascot.<\/p>\n

\u201cOK, Otis,\u201d he said, \u201cno more talking trash.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Otis.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n
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Gifted resource teacher Marie Culver coaches students before the event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Students Queen-Isis Frost and Nathaniel Viel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-David Schleck Otis the Trash Talking Octopus was the mascot for the Party for the Planet, an Earth Day celebration recently held at Seatack Elementary School – An Achievable Dream […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11004"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11020,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11004\/revisions\/11020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}