WORDEN - For the past several years, veteran Edwardsville School District educator Shannon Weber has been bringing the important message of Earth Day to her students.
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On April 22 every year, Weber tries to instruct her students on the importance of environmentalism by creating fun projects for Worden Elementary School's third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students. This past Earth Day's projects included pet rocks, bird feeders, homemade lava lamps, t-shirt bags, beads made from magazines, a cup and bead game and wind chimes. Third grade students were also shown the Dr. Suess environmental classic, "The Lorax," and fourth grade students were shown the penguin film, "Happy Feet."
"When planning the stations, my goal is to keep the stations the same from year to year, with minor tweaking, so that when the students graduate from Worden Elementary School, they have participated in every one of our Earth Day stations," she said.
Weber has been a teacher in the Edwardsville School District for 23 years. She previously taught at Hamel Elementary School for 14 years before coming to Worden. She helped organize parental volunteers to lead and help each activity stations as well as procuring resources and supplies to ensure the projects work.
This past Earth Day celebration was "the best one yet," Weber exclaimed. She said she had more than 50 volunteers.
"We couldn't do this day without all of them," she said. "Having all of these wonderful volunteers allows teachers to rotate with their classrooms, helping out as needed. We are lucky to have five student teachers in our building this year."
The culmination of the Earth Day was a guest speaker, Catherine Keck from Project Restore. Project Restore partners with communities globally in order to make changes in the areas of education, clean water, medical care and hunger.
Weber's Worden students also had a chance to make a difference by helping Project Restore bring donations to Uganda. Students were able to donate items to Keck to take to Uganda through a drive ending on May 6.
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