Stories

Mr. Cusick's fourth-grade class came up with the idea
of a compost project in the lunchroom. They wrote an
opinion paper about the project, created a plan, and
presented the proposal to the principal, lunch, and
maintenance staff.
We now have containers for leftover food scraps and
compostable paper products. This is a great real-life
experience with taking an idea from creation to
completion! Here are some of the steps involved:
- Mr. Cusick's class created posters to help students identify trash and what was compost.
- They made up a schedule for students to stand at the containers and act as
mentors.
- These mentors directed each student to dump a tray into the right container so that the right things were going into the
right place. (By the second week of having the
mentors, the program was running so smoothly!)
- Once the food scraps are collected, they are put
in the back of Mr. Cusick's truck and taken to
Whispering Cottonwood Farm and placed in a
large compost bin to decompose into nutritious
compost.
This compost then helps make up our school garden?s
rich soil, which makes the beautiful flowers, the ripe
red tomatoes, the big deliciously sweet watermelons,
and some very happy and healthy young students.