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Following are templates that you can use to inform your teachers of all available Green Education Foundation programs and the National Green Week Waste-Free Snacks Challenge. Choose any week until April 18, 2011.

A. Simple Announcement (email or letter) about all GEF programs

Date

To Staff:

(Your school’s name) is pleased to participate in exciting environmental education opportunities sponsored by the Green Education Foundation (GEF)! These lessons, activities and eco-challenges will educate our children on how simple changes in habit can impact the future of our planet. The objective is to spotlight environmental learning - whether you take advantage of one or several of GEF's educational resources, there are many ways to optimize the participation of our school in GEF programs. Below are options to help you easily plan and implement environmental education in your classroom.

1. Visit the NGW curriculum section for National Green Week posters, activities, themes and daily lessons for each grade.
2. Investigate a new or improved GEF recycling program for your school!
3. Check out Green Energy Challenge lessons and how to prepare for a school energy audit.
4. Adopt-a-Plant for your classroom (complete with adoption papers!). All NGW participants will be emailed a 50% off coupon good towards an indoor plant at Lowe's.

Sincerely,

(Principal Name)

B. Detailed Letter about all GEF programs

Date

To Staff:

(Your school’s name) is pleased to participate in exciting environmental education opportunities sponsored by the Green Education Foundation (GEF)! These lessons, activities and eco-challenges will educate our children on how simple changes in habit can impact the future of our planet. The objective is to spotlight environmental learning - whether you take advantage of one or several of GEF's educational resources, there are many ways to optimize the participation of our school in GEF programs. Below are options to help you easily plan and implement environmental education in your classroom.

1. Visit the National Green Week curriculum section for National Green Week posters, activities, themes and daily lessons for each grade. There are 42 new lessons in this section of the GEF site!  Lessons are complete with beautiful artwork, specifc procedures, and helpful worksheets. Do one or all! If you cannot implement these lessons during National Green Week 2011, make any week a "green week", and use them at your convenience.

- For each grade there is a week-long series of Reduce Your Trash lessons. Charts for data recording, worksheets for graphs, suggested teacher read aloud books, and a parent letter explaining the Waste-Free Snack Challenge are provided.

- Five theme-based lessons for each grade are provided. The themes are as follows: 

• Pre K-K: Recycling
• Grade 1: Trees and Land Conservation
• Grade 2: Litter
• Grade 3: The 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
• Grade 4: Energy Reduction
• Grade 5: Shopping Green
• Middle School: Landfills

2. Investigate a new or improved recycling program for your classroom or school.
- Evaluate the recycling program and procedures in your school or district.
- Read NGW Activity:Recycling Roundup for tips on starting, improving, or sustaining a recycling program in your school.

3. Check out Green Energy Challenge lessons and how to prepare for a school energy audit.
- The Green Energy Challenge lessons section provides teacher friendly, standards-based lessons about renewable and nonrenewable energy.
- Lessons relating to solar, wind, biofuel, and electricity are available.
- Teachers can find directions to conduct audits of fuel, water, and trash and recycle for their schools.
- Reminder cards for light switches and thermomstats are available.

4. The Green Thumb Challenge is the largest youth gardening initiative in history, calling on schools and youth groups to plant 10,000 gardens in the spring and summer of 2011! Sponsored by Lowe's and six of the world's leading garden suppliers, the Green Thumb Challenge aims to connect kids nationwide with the joys and healthy benefits of gardening.
- Standards-based lessons linking your classroom to gardening and composting are provided in the GEF Green Thumb Challenge Curriculum section.
- Visit www.greenthumbchallenge.org for step-by-step gardening instructions, fundraising resources, and much more.
- Adopt-a-Plant for your classroom (complete with adoption papers!). All NGW participants will be emailed a 50% off coupon good towards an indoor plant at Lowe's. NASA recommends one indoor plant for every 100 square feet of living space to improve indoor air quality. Adopt a plant for your class and bring some nature indoors this winter.

5. Visit the Curriculum section of GEF's website to view over 60 standards-based lessons.
- Lessons can be sorted by grade, subject and GEF eco-challenge: Green Thumb Challenge, Green Energy Challenge, or National Green Week.
- Each lesson provides suggested grade levels, subjects addressed, learning standards, lesson objectives, estimated lesson times and necessary materials.
- GEF lesson procedures have step-by-step instructions and assessment strategies. In the "Adaptations" and "Extensions" sections teachers can find suggestions for differentiating instruction and enriching student experiences beyond the lessons.

I would like to personally thank each of you for participating in this environmental educational program.

Sincerely,

(Principal Name)

C. Letter for National Green Week and Waste-Free Snacks

Date

To Staff:

The (your school’s name) is pleased to participate in a very exciting green educational opportunity that will educate our children on how simple eco-decisions, like selection of waste-free snacks and drinks, can impact the future health of our planet. Our school's National Green Week 2011 is scheduled to take place during the week of __________.  (input the Green Week dates that your school's waste-free snack program is scheduled).

National Green Week Overview
The week prior to National Green Week 2011 or your Green Week (date) please follow this step-by-step process:

• Assign a student Green Keepers to bring their classroom trash to a central weigh-in location where we will calculate our school-wide snack trash. We will then extrapolate that calculation to determine our average weekly snack-waste.
• Inform your students that we want to eliminate this trash by bringing in waste-free snacks and drinks in reusable containers and water bottles throughout National Green Week.
  
• For more details visit the Waste-Free Snacks Procedures in the National Green Week Start-Up Kit.
  
• Request that parents bring in waste-free lunches to work during National Green Week to support their children’s efforts.
• In the curriculum section of the Green Education Foundation site click on National Green Week to review the environmental curricula available. Consider integrating available lessons, books, videos, community service projects, and hands-on activities into next week’s curricula.
• Participate in interactive forums available on the Community section National Green Week site.

Your Green Week prior to April 18

• During National Green Week or your own Green Week students are requested to bring in waste-free snacks and drinks in reusable snack and drink containers. Uneaten food should be sent back home in the reusable containers so parents and students can learn to pack accordingly.
• Students will weigh their classroom waste on (add date that you plan to weigh trash) using the same procedure we used for the pre-program weigh-in.
• Optional: Our mayor/government official will be instructing town employees to bring in waste-free lunches during National Green Week in support of our students.

• After National Green Week (or your own Green Week until April 18), we will tally the results of the experiment, announce them to students and their families, and report back to the Green Education Foundation for a countrywide tally.
• Document the lessons and activities you are conducting in conjunction with the waste-reduction program and submit any photos or videos to the National Green Week site. They will be considered for Green In-Action Awards.

Please take a few minutes to watch the Fisher video on the National Green Week homepage (www.nationalgreenweek.com). You will quickly see what we are trying to accomplish with the children.

I would like to personally thank each of you for participating in this environmental educational program.

Sincerely,

Principal

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