The Green School offers one Fall/Winter six-month and one Spring three-month learning cycle per school year. Each cycle has a unique set of learning themes and activities. We are locally place-based in our emphasis, with global community connections, and the curricula reflects national Green School standards. Each pod of Green School students is provided with a resource library and projects to best meet their learning level needs while participating in the same subject matter as their fellow Green Schoolers.
Local Learning Subjects:
Every session we develop Science and Eco-Literacy, Arts and Culture, Social Studies and History, Language Arts skills and knowledge.
Following the national Green School guidelines, each year we include:
- Environmental Education/Environmental Literacy
- Environmental Protection: Land, Air, Water
- eSTEM [Environment + Science, Technology,Engineering and Math]
- Climate Change
- Environmental Justice
- Agricultural Literacy
- Healthy Schools & Communities
- Clean Energy
- Outdoor Learning
- Sustainability
- Waste Reduction
2014-2015 Subjects
Fall 2014 – Winter 2015
The Food Chain Game
Science: The Food Chain is our theme and we’ll explore the food system cycle, soil science, beneficial insects, botany, and seed saving. We will share our outcomes through our own blog and through the Roots and Shoots Community Mapping Project with the Jane Goodall Institute.
Language Arts: North and South American poets, creative writing and journal keeping, young reader books on gardens and garden critters
Art: Papermaking, watercolors and garden sculpture
Social Studies and History: World civilization and the birth of agriculture, changes in the US and Hawaii food systems
Technology: Soil science with microscopes, Google Mapping, online distance learning, GPS instruments
Sustainability: Composting and recycling, food system dynamics
Family Activities: Papermaking Workshop, Organic Tamale Making on National Food Day, Oct 24th, Field Trips to local farms and to the Mala’ai and Amy B Greenwell Ethnobotanic gardens (optional camp over at One Island in Honaunau).
The Food Chain Game is a trademark Licensed to One island and Heritage Ranch inc.
Spring 2015
Weather and Wildlife
Science: Weather and Wildlife is our theme and we’ll connect with the National Humpback Marine Sanctuary, Hawaii Wildlife Center, Mauna Lani Turtle Release project, meteorologists, and climatologists. Completing a final project for sharing with the Jane Goodall network.
Language Arts: Robert Louis Stevenson, Isabella Bird, Mark Twain and Jack London in Hawaii with the Full Circle Learning Network, young reader books on Hawaiian wildlife
Art: Printmaking and Collage, Procession of the Species for Earth Day
Social Studies: Native Hawaiian relations to wildlife and weather
Technology: 3-D community planning data visualization tools
Sustainability: Understanding endangered species, human impacts, and weather patterns
Green is a Verb – more fun when we do it together!
Examples of the resources we will be working with over the next two years are featured below:
