We need to work to make our children better than ourselves. Just this year, Bright Beginnings has been recognized as an Oregon Green School. A waste audit, conducted this year in the kindergarten classroom, helped the children to learn the basic principles of recycling and composting. Not only does Bright Beginnings make use of their own recyclable material, they purchase materials in bulk, and obtain recyclables from area businesses and the local hospital to use in class projects. The school kitchen has bins for the collection of recyclable materials including glass, aluminum and plastic.
Students pick up litter in the parking lot and on weekly nature walks.
They grow crystals in glass jars saved from recycling and make rockets from film canisters. Using toilet paper cores as molds, they make sidewalk chalk from plaster of paris and reconstituted paint. Copier mistakes become art supply material. In an effort to grow a flower garden from once unproductive soil, the students are composting their lunch scraps in a soil-enhancement project. Plans for the future include the purchase of a worm bin.