BUDDYING UP
Photo by Zach Jones
Preschool and Middle School Launch Eco Buddies Program on Earth Day On Earth Day, April 22, the entire Harker community celebrated by wearing green and engaging in environmental activities across all four campuses. At Harker Preschool, students used the occasion to launch a fun and educational new preschool/middle school program called Eco Buddies. The largest buddies event yet, Eco Buddies was open to the entire preschool and united more than 50 eighth graders with 120 preschoolers. The event also marked the first time the preschool’s 3-year-olds had the opportunity to meet with students from another Harker campus. “Eco Buddies is unique because it is a program for all of our preschoolers, even the youngest ones,” said Robyn Stone. During the event, a collaborative effort between Stone and grade 8 biology teacher Kristen Morgensen ’93, the eighth graders presented hands-on ecology activities to their younger preschool pals. “This whole experience meant so much on all levels – as a teacher getting to share the magic of our preschool with her own students, as a parent getting to watch her own child learn from the big kids, and
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sharing the magic of our middle school students with the preschool community as a whole,” said Morgensen, who, in addition to being an alumna, is also a current preschool parent (3-year-old Teagan). Both Morgensen and Stone thought Earth Day was a perfect day to launch the new Eco Buddies program, since events are held around the world to demonstrate support for environmental protection. “As a Green Committee member, I knew Harker was aiming for a schoolwide Earth Day celebration. Since Kristen and I are both science teachers, it seemed natural for us to collaborate on an Earth Day program,” said Stone. “I wasn’t sure how many grade 8 students would make the commitment. They amazed me with how many volunteered and how excited they have been to participate!” recalled Morgensen. The big buddies worked hard to create posters and activities for the different hands-on stations, which were grouped by ecological themes such as animal care, solar energy use, composting, wind energy, plant germination and water conservation.
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“It was really fun!” said Henry Wiese, grade 8. “It was really cool to see the preschoolers make connections between how real cars and solar toy cars move.” Classmate Vedanth Sundaram agreed, noting, “It was really fun to watch the kids learn from the worm sock puppet about what goes in the green (wet) and blue (dry) [recycling] bins.” Reflecting back on the day, transitional kindergartner Danya Arun said, “I liked making the bird house.” “I liked filtering the dirty water and making it clean,” added classmate Hannah Micchelli. Meanwhile, 4-year-old Aria Mehra reported enjoying “sprouting radish seeds.”
“I liked filtering the dirty water and making it clean.”
– Hannah Micchelli, transitional kindergarten