The Reciprocity Project
OystersOysters are experts at giving back. A special guest and grandparent brought oysters to our classroom to stay with us for this project so that we could see how they change their environment. We conducted an experiment with two tanks filled with algae. One had oysters, and the other did not. By the end of the day, the oysters had cleaned their tank! We read How The Oysters Saved the Bay and learned from the State Coastal Conservancy about the plan to restore native oysters to the San Diego Bay.
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Secret SupportersEach week, students drew a secret name of a classmate who they would support that week. In addition to cheering their secret buddy on during hikes, and supporting their friend in class, each student also made a gift or wrote a kind note that was distributed at the end of the week at the Secret Supporter Reveal. At the end of the project, students reflected that they enjoyed making something that they knew their buddy would like just as much as they enjoyed the excitement of receiving a gift from their supporter.
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Stuffed AnimalsEach student made a stuffed animal for a child at Rady's Children's Hostpital. They learned how to sew and made the designs themselves, then delivered them to a SWAT team who took the stuffed animals to the hospital. "I will never forget making stuffed animals because it was really fun making them for kids." - Ian
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More Ways that We Gave Back
Planting a Pollinator GardenWe had visited Otay Lakes Regional Park several times in our last project. Ranger Lauren invited us to help the Monarch Butterflies at the part by planting new milkweed plants. We learned about how pollinators and plants help each other from our resident experts in Mr. Paul and Ms. Lisa's class, then hiked out to the park to plant.
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Cleaning our CanyonOn our hikes, we noticed that a lot of trash blows off our campus and into the natural area behind our school. Ms. Lacy's class challenged us to see how much trash we could collect in ten minutes. As a class, we picked up almost 1000 pieces of trash!
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Making LunchesAnnie from People Assisting the Homeless shared with us about the work that PATH does to help people find homes. At exhibition, students and families worked together to make 50 lunches for residents at PATH so they can save money to get into permanent housing.
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