Earth Day with our Dixon Buddies

A few weeks ago, our buddy teacher and I got together to plan some activities around Earth Day. During one of his teaching practicums, Kevin was introduced to the Popcorn Project. It is an interesting exercise that sheds light on the idea of ecology,sustainability and reducing our ecological footprint. The group is divided into four generations; the first generation has only 2 people and then each subsequent generation has more and more people. There is a large mound of popcorn on a communal table. Each person is given a bag and instructed to take as much popcorn as they wish, providing it fits into their bag. The first generation begins helping themselves to popcorn and then the second and so on. Of course, the fourth generation was left with nothing. Some interesting moments occurred during this exercise:

The first and second generations mostly filled their bags to the brim.
Some people really stuffed their bags while others took barely any.
The fourth generation had concerned looks on their faces as they watched the third generation finish of the pile. Chloe said " The number 3's are taking all the popcorn, there won't be anything left for us!".
Nico, in the fourth generation, said "Oh no! None left for me."
The older buddies could see what was happening and some of them started to take less as the pile diminished.
Realizations occurred... Loreli said "We should have taken less so Nico and Chloe could have some." and Kayla said "Take less next time."
Luca, trying to navigate through his complex thoughts, said " If everybody took this much or less then somebody will have enough popcorn."

Questions that arose for me...

Do the preschoolers understand the concept of using resources?
If I ask them tomorrow about the Popcorn Project, will they be able to recount their experience?
Will the big buddies take what they learnt and begin to apply it to their daily lives?
Why are some people so innately generous and others more concerned with their own well-being? Does this change over time?

All this hard thinking required....RECESS!!

We ran to the playground and ......hung...slid...jumped...leaped....ran....tripped....climbed....twirled. And then we went to see the Dixon Dragonfly garden plot and their mason bees! The big buddies did not realize their little buddies had made their mason bee houses so this became very exciting news indeed! It was lovely to listen to the children share information about mason bees.

Kevin and I also wanted the teams to create a 'gift' to the Earth. After discussing many ideas we decided to explore the concept of environmental art through the artist Andy Goldsworthy. The students watched a video on his art during lunch time and then we all went outside to collect items to create their own piece of non-permanent art. We talked about how the art can change either from natural elements like weather or from other children walking by and adding or taking away from it. Buddies, big and small, adored this activity and could have continued for much longer than our time allowed.