Thursday, April 22, 2010

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, I told my second graders that the paper towel dispenser was closed.  Then we did a multiplication problem to figure out how many paper towels our school throws away every year, assuming that every student uses one a day for 178 school days.  The grand total: 98,078.  You know how the audience on Rachael Ray 30-minute meals applaud when RR adds cheese?  That's how seven year olds react to large numbers.  It's awesome.
My reward for my contribution to teaching the younger generation about conservation?  Hugs.  From kids with damp shirts.  Cause that's how they dry their hands now.

3 comments:

  1. I had a love/hate relationship with our handwashing station at our school. It was outside of the bathrooms, so all kids washed their hands in front of you. Heavenly!!!! We had hand dryers so we didn't have to use paper towels, which was great to not waste them (or soap because you could monitor the kids). However, I used to hear the sound of hand dryers in my head ALL the time!! Ugh

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hear ya April! Sometimes I fantasize about teaching high school just so monitoring bathroom/handwashing shennanigans wouldn't be part of my job!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha! Joy, I'm just getting around to reading the posts I missed while coughing up a lung. So funny! I love this one!!

    ReplyDelete