Dear Teachers and Administrators, 

We would like to take time to recognize and celebrate all of your hard work! Thank you for stepping up to the plate during this time of distance learning. We know you are tirelessly working to continue educating our students. 

• Exciting curriculum updates for the rest of May.
• Exploration activities for students to do close to home.
• An opportunity for you to submit student highlights showing how your class has been celebrating Earth Day, Every Day at school, at home and beyond!

Have your students conduct an at home waste audit to track the amount and type of trash generated at home as well as their current trash sorting habits. Students then conduct a follow-up audit to assess whether they are successful in reducing the amount of trash they generate and send to the landfill. This assessment can show students how easy it can be to rid their kitchen of unnecessary single-use plastics. 

Click here to access the Waste Detective Challenge today!

If you know our programs, you know we love sharing the joys of up-cycling old clothes with kids. Follow along as one of our team members shows students with a video how to give new life to an old t-shirt as a tote bag and more. 

Please email sustainability@smcgov.org: subject line Schools Program to receive the above mentioned curriculum on the day of release. 

What better way to wrap up your 4R's unit and the school year than with a fun game of Jeopardy! This will challenge your students to put their knowledge of waste and sorting rules to the test with a little friendly competition. This activity will be available via Google Slides starting May 29. 

We are so thankful to have a community of partners working together to create high quality distance learning curriculum for students in San Mateo County. Check out our favorite environmental literacy videos, outdoor activities and trash talkin' curriculum here. 

Encourage your students to open their eyes, listen closely and sharpen their senses to increase their sightings of their furry, winged, scaled, plant and tree neighbors nearby. Increased sightings may also heighten their awareness of the different ways humans impact the health and well-being of those very creatures! Below are two apps that parents can download onto a mobile device to help the whole family safely engage with the outdoors close to home, around the neighborhood, or in a nearby city or San Mateo County Park.

1. Seek by iNaturalist ( Recommended ages 5-12)
Encourage your students to take their nature knowledge up a notch with the Seek app. The app uses image recognition technology to help identify plants and animals. Different features include earning badges for seeing different types of birds, amphibians, plants, and fungi and monthly observation challenges.

2. Litterati (Recommended ages 13+)
Litterati also uses image recognition technology to allow ordinary people to upload and geo-tag photos of litter. The collective information can be used by individuals, data scientists, corporations, and researchers to collect and analyze the litter data on a global scale. Students can use the app only after an adult has created an account. 

Watch how Schools Team member Kamille practices the 4R's at home in this home-made video clip! Do your students like making videos? We would love to see them! If your students have a cool green habit they want to share with the world, send us their submissions at sustainability@smcgov.org: subject line Schools Program. Students submitting work will need parent/guardian consent via this photo release waiver. 

The Office of Sustainability Schools Program provides a diverse array of Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core aligned curricula tailored to the teachers' , schools', and districts' goals, aimed at students taking action to reduce waste, conserve resources, and protect the environment.
 
To read more about what we do, visit the OOS Schools Program web page. 

To learn more about the San Mateo County Office of Sustainability, visit the Office of Sustainability website. 
 
For questions and comments,
Please contact: sustainability@smcgov.org
Subject line: Schools Program