Green Resources - The da Vinci School

Books

“Healthy Child, Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home” by Christopher Gavigan. A must read for parents or parents to be to understand what is at stake for their child. Read this before you get pregnant. www.healthychild.org

“Home Safe Home” by Debra Lynn Dadd. Debra also has a very informative website that includes her list of “greenest of the green products” and a “green living Q & A” section. You can click on a topic and you are guaranteed to learn a lot of extremely helpful information. http://www.debralynndadd.com/

“Prescriptions for a Healthy House: A Practical Guide for Architects, Builders and Homeowners” by Paula Baker Laporte, Erica Elliott, M.D., and John Banta. Are you remodeling or building a new house? This book is an invaluable resource on safer home practices and building materials. Gives web sites and contact information of manufacturers.

“Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Care” by Alan Greene, M.D. The best time to read this useful publication is before you ever get pregnant! There is a lot of helpful information plus additional references that will help you make healthier decisions for you and your baby. http://www.drgreene.com/books/

“The Toxic Sandbox” by Libby McDonald
Discusses the sources of and how to limit your child’s exposure to mercury, lead, plastics, air pollution, PCBs and flame retardants, pesticides.

Websites

The Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ): has an informative website that will help you be a more informed consumer, parent and advocate for your child in school. They will soon release their Back-to-School Guide to PVC-Free School Supplies — so you can make smarter and healthier shopping choices for your kids, family and environment. http://www.chej.org

Environmental Defense: provides a wide range of information and in depth studies on their website including a list of safe and unsafe seafood, and air pollution concerns with special initiatives regarding school buses. Their website states “We start with rigorous science. Then we work directly with businesses, government and communities. Together, we can create lasting solutions to the most serious environmental problems.” www.edf.org

Do you enjoy eating seafood, but wonder about the contaminants in them? www.oceansalive.org reports the least and most contaminated and endangered fish, which can be downloaded into a handy pocket-sized list. Take this with you to the store.

Environmental Working Group: Has on their website a report on the toxicity of cosmetics and personal care products. You can enter in your favorite products and learn if they contain any health hazards. Their 2005 Report studied the chemicals found in newborn umbilical cord blood. This is an eye-opening report that certainly points to chemical contaminants – many known to be carcinogens and toxic to the brain and nervous system. www.ewg.org/

This same organization also provides a list of 43 common fruits and vegetables ranked in order of pesticide residues from worst to least. www.foodnews.org

What Foods Should You Only Buy ORGANICALLY grown? The website below also has a downloadable, pocket sized list of the fruits and vegetables which tend to have the most to least pesticide residues. Read through this website for links about integrated pest management techniques, also.
www.grinningplanet.com/2006/update-2005-05-24/pesticides-in-food.htm

The Environmental Health Perspective Online has a thorough and easy to read collection of articles related to all aspects of health and the environment including information on playgrounds, and pesticides. Open the website listed and open the box on the lower left hand side of the home page labeled “The Children’s Environmental Health Institute.” http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/

The Healthy Schools Network: They send out regular e-mails updating parents and school officials on many issues surrounding healthy and safe school operations. www.healthyschools.org.

Educational Curriculum Resources

How to make a worm compost: Please look to the right. There are also great resources online such as www.wormwoman.com and http://extension.illinois.edu/worms/

The Texas State Energy Conservation Office has an energy education curriculum for schools. www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us/schools/

For more curriculum ideas on reduce, reuse and recycle, check out the following:www.education-world.com

Where to Find Products

Green Guard Indoor Air Guardians: The Greenguard website lists products that they have tested and are safe to use with a special listing - Green Guard Certification for Children and Schools. Look under “Products” on their website. http://www.greenguard.org

The Green Seal certification program also evaluates products against a standard that is considered healthier within the parameters they define. You can review their standards and the products they have certified. www.greenseal.org

TheGreenOffice.com is an online office products retailer providing one-stop shopping focused on green, sustainable products. Their mission is to make workplace greening easy and cost-effective.

ReusableBags.com: Reusable bags of all kinds for kids and adults alike. http://www.reusablebags.com/store/lunch-bags-c-4.html

Laptop Lunches: A whole "Bento Box" system of reusable containers and utensils to pack a healthy and waste-free lunch! http://www.laptoplunches.com/

Want to make your own environmentally cleaning solutions? http://eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm

Or Google: “Homemade cleaning products” for several websites offering formulas that will allow you to save money while protecting your environment.

The da Vinci 2007-08 Kindergarten tells the “How and Why” you should compost with worms!

How

1. Container – You’ll need a container to house your worms. We keep ours in the classroom, there is no smell. A variety of containers can be found on-line. Search “google” for “worm composting”.

2. Bedding – A variety of bedding materials will work. We used pine bark mulch and newspaper.

3. Worms – You can order red wigglers online. You only need to order worms to get started. They will multiply in your bin!

4. Feeding the worms – Any fruit or veggie scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags and even egg shells can be buried in your bin. No meat or dairy, they will smell.

5. Every six months or so you “harvest” the rich compost soil from your bin and give the worms new bedding to start over. You need to mix one part compost to one part soil. It is great for house plants and outdoor plants.

6. Resources - We used the book Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof.

The “why” is easy!

Gillian says, “A worm bin helps the plants.”

Morgan says, “You can study the worms.”

Harrison says, “If you don’t want the peels from your fruit they can turn it into compost.”

Shae says, “You can feed them.”

Brendan says, “There are worms in the planet. We don’t want the birds to eat them.

Mason says, “Worms make more dirt and that is good for helping the planet.”

Ryan says, “They make more dirt for our gardens.”

Emily says, “We eat a banana, where does the peel go? It always goes in the trash can. If you have a worm bin you can give it to the worms and that makes less litter.”

Jacob says, “The worms will make more dirt for your garden and make your flowers live for a long time.”

Brandes says, “If you can get a worm, you can make a worm bin. You get lots of dirt and feed it a banana peel. In two weeks it is gone.”

John-Rosser says, “So the worms can eat the food that people don’t eat.”

Logan says, “You can do experiments to see if the food disappears or not.”