Learning to care for our earth takes more than just a day out of the year to cement in the minds of our youth and remind adults of this age - old necessity, but it offers an important opportunity to make a start! Elementary teachers in the Belleville School District took this year's theme, Invest in Our Planet, to heart. Thanks to the special efforts spearheaded by educators Marsha Rear and Trevor Troxel in organizing for the day, they planned activities, lessons, and modeled ways to improve our environment for generations to come and their students eagerly participated - doing it on a large-scale and modeling Steve Jobs' famous words, "We're here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?"

Months before Earth Day arrived on April 22, 2022, teachers began gathering supplies and preparing for outdoor activities while carefully watching the weather forecasts for Wisconsin. Being flexible at this time of year in order to teach concepts effectively is paramount. Last Thursday provided the needed sunshine and clear skies for their young students to get out and set an example of being "doers" and catalysts for environmental change in the Belleville community.

District Administrator Nate Perry was happy to see the efforts of the Belleville Elementary students as they made a dent in their community. He notes, "In a spring where the weather has been less than spectacular, it was great to see the elementary school students out and about on district grounds enjoying a beautiful day and celebrating their surroundings!"

With their teachers working alongside them, 4K- 6th grade students modeled how we care for our earth and "invest" in its future from decorating school and community outdoor spaces with inspirational earth-friendly messages in sidewalk chalk, to assisting with raking, picking up sticks and brush to clean debris from a long cold winter, to collecting trash and recyclables to make our Belleville community clean and enjoyable ahead of summer. It was a full scale clean-up and the pride students felt for a job well-done could be seen in each smile. It just feels good to do good work, and perhaps this is the best lesson one can teach a child!

Kimberly Hedeman's kindergarteners were responsible for cleaning the field behind the high school and soccer field last Thursday morning. She was proud of the work her students did and of all the Belleville Elementary students accomplished in honor of Earth Day.

Hedeman reflects, "Celebrating Earth Day was a wonderful opportunity to help our young students understand the importance of respecting and caring for our planet. Being able to take what we talked about in class and then engage them through an actual clean up around our schools was a fun way to learn and support our community."

Educating our students about the ways in which we can help our earth by making small changes in our daily habits also enables young students to realize each of us can impact the world through our actions. Belleville Elementary Principal Schmit reacted to the work of her elementary student council members with their peer-to-peer demonstrations for environmental improvement. "Seeing the hard work student council members (supervisors Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Houser) put into the displays was amazing. They learned a lot through the process of designing displays and making them interesting and accessible to a wide range of learners. We are all very proud of their contribution."

Photo courtesy of Marie Perry

Student Council member Earth Day presentations in gym.

As we think about the work our youth accomplished through their teachers' guidance, perhaps the most important take-away is this - on Earth Day, being an active participant in one's community and environment leads first to making a positive change in one's own environment, which leads us all to collectively make a difference. In Belleville, our teachers are paving the way to help young minds learn to care about making that first dent in their universe and that is a lesson well learned! And in doing so, each student learns the importance of BEING HERE – we need all hands on deck to keep our earth beautiful!