Carmen Clay

Week 1, 2022, Weather, Climate, Climate Change, Causes

Grandma's Family Homeschool has two different levels this year, one 4-year-old and one 6-year old. Our journey can be viewed at our Action Project 2022. We are at the stage of planting the seeds of what will be our year-long project, not just the six weeks of Climate Action Project because we aim to become a Climate Action School.

Our pre-schooler is into making hearts, decorating them with messages of peace and love, playing sports, and making letters and words. She started the year planting some ornamental peppers and is observing how they are growing with interest. Her contribution to our Climate Action School's logo was "Love nature". She traced the words Weather and Climate in our Climate Action Box. Then, she decorated the areas below the box with her understanding of weather, which shows improvement over last year. I added a video on how to measure weather and what professionals should be trusted on getting the weather to us. My 4-year-old stated, " the video is for Thomas". As for climate, she said she did not know what it was. She was going to ask Alexa. She viewed the video of the picture book, "Our Home" and realized, the earth is her home. She is making hearts with W for weather. She is decorating them with rainbows, clouds, animals, oceans, people, sun, rain, storms, and winds. She wants to cover her home, her class, her school, and the earth with hearts with kindness.

Our first grader defined weather and climate in the context of feelings as he was having a not so peaceful second week at his regular school. He has created a lost and found corner in his class but he is not as focused in the 4 R's as he was last year. He is interested in climbing, playing soccer, and creating a business. His science interest this year is Water. His contribution to our school logo was "Respect Nature." He has also embraced the idea of maybe planting American Elms for Global Tree Planting on Earth Day. The American Elm is the state tree of their home state and a tree that has deep roots in the history of my adoptive state of Oklahoma. It is a symbol of resilience at our Oklahoma National Memorial and Museum. The Survivor Tree at the Memorial Park is an American Elm. I wrote to the Museum educator coordinator and the park ranger responsible for the seedlings of the survivor tree. I await their reply to see if we can plant three seedlings of the Survivor Tree in Mass. I also contacted the librarian at his school, who also was his kindergarten teacher. The school librarian connected me to local library resources on environmental sustainability.

For the communal project, my grandson has traced the letters for climate change/global warming and viewed part of a video on climate change. He made a flower arrangement for his dinning room table with the colors of the season.

We will do weather tools and then we will focus on climate, global warming, climate change and causes in depth, but the preliminary answers from the 4-year-old to these words are I do not know. The 6-year-old has a good understanding of climate and global warming, but when it comes to causes of climate change, he is going to seasonal changes.

Through "What's Up", I connected to a teacher in Croatia who is teaching 4-7-year-olds. She shared her lesson plan and suggestions to keep my four-year old engaged. I was happy to hear that she also follows her students' interests. She also almost eliminated my fear to start a YouTube channel. As of October 11th, her class had not started Week 1.

Week 2: Local Effects of Climate Change with local solutions

WEEK II AND III PP HERE. Last year, it took us several weeks to finish week 1, and this year we are having the same challenge. Time with the grandchildren to focus on Climate Action Project is difficult to find. We carve it when we can between family, school, and friends time. As per last year, the local connection with climate change for my grandchildren is with the changes in maple syrup production due to erratic seasonal weather. It makes maple syrup less available and more expensive. We are planning to visit a maple syrup farm to expand the knowledge we received from the videos.

Our butterflies and bees continue to struggle to find food due to changes in their ecosystem caused by the pollution of the air from fossil fuels. Our local and very personal solution is to plant flowers in our small garden plot, which we will continue to cultivate next spring and summer.

Our city continues to build and rebuild with woods coming from trees. We are promoting deforestation to create new homes, furniture, and toys. Our solution and possible Action Project for 2022 is to plant trees in November and on April, 20, for Global Tree Planting Day. Stop using paper towels. Use cloth napkins

Our state and the whole United States are seeing stronger storms and strong weather patterns due to the burning of fossil fuels and pollution. A solution, my grandson wants to investigate is to participate in and/or organize street clean-ups. . Promote buying electric cars and stop using plastics for convenience.

We see when we go to the grocery store that drought, raising sea levels, and the high cost of gasoline is affecting the production of food. Our solution is to sponsor local growers. Participate in apple and blueberry pickings because they are fun and they sponsor our local farmers. Plant vegetables, spices, and fruits in our garden plot to have organically grown produce.

Week 3: Global connections to Climate Change Effects

WEEK II- III PP HERE. Deforestation is a huge problem in the Amazon jungle. If the trees keep disappearing to build homes, etc., we are going to destroy our planet

Pollution needs to be stopped. Alternative sources of energy need to be at the forefront like buying electric cars.

Recycle all types of cans and plastic globally. My grandson calls the grocery store his bank because he has found some coins on the floor, but also because he brings cans and plastic containers to the grocery store where he receives $.10 per item.

Week 4: Solutions

Deforestation: Plant trees

Pollution: Have street clean-ups

Week 5: Build the Change

We have connected with two different schools, We sought communication with a school in Croatia, but they have not sent a video yet. Maybe they are where we are too, going through lesson one slowly but at a steady pace—the school in India connected with us. We looked at the Indian School's first-week video introducing their understanding of climate change. We will watch the video of the children interviewing their grandparents and the pictures on their website soon.

I attended a few minutes of the webinar on Build the Change by Legos, but I could stay connected because I was working with a preschool at both times the live sessions took place. My husband was also unable to see it live. We look forward to the recording. As of November 4th, I have watched the Legos webinars at least once, both of them. My grandchildren have seen the introduction and taken the first survey. Today, we will continue watching and doing the activities. I do not know how long it will take us to finish it, but we will finish it. Thank you Legos for such amazing free resource for educators and students.

While at the preschool I connected to the Pre-K and first-grade science teachers and told them about this program as well as asked them for help with my grandson's action projects: Planting trees on Earth Day, April 20th and for Nov. 3rd, having a street clean-up as his Action Project for 2022. He might have several clean-ups.

My grandson's science teacher said that he had been talking to her about his action plan and she was going to see how he could coach him and connect his action to the focus of the class this year. The first-grade focus in science class is Water.

Week 6: Actions

We watched the Climate Action Day Webinar

We planted an ornamental pepper plant and some soculents and are seeing them grow in our homes.

We cleaned-up our garden and asked to have the same plot for us to cultive organic vegetables and spices as well as creating a Hotel for Bees and Butterflies

My granddaughter connected so much to a Global Warming cartoon I found on the web, that she cried for a few minutes because she was afraid that the earth was going to burst. She is hearting the earth and every living and non-ling thing in it. She is the one leading our action, but it will not take place until earth day because we are planting a Japanese Cherry Tree (a Cherry Blosson) at her school on Earth Day as our six-weeks interaction with the Climate Action Project and as a final action for Climate Action Schools. On Nov. 3rd, we visited the nursery the school recommended and found our that we cannot order the tree until March to be planted in April. The cost of the tree will be from $200-400, so we will start collecting come money to purchase the tree and the things needed to planted.

My grandson is very connected to planting trees, but since the cost of the tree for his former pre-school is high, we will only plant one this year. He will continue his research on how to have street clean-up after the virus is over. His mom got Covid last week and that really stopped our efferts about connecting to city hall and firefighters as well as connected to the friends who will help with the clean-up. We are committed to picking up trash in a safe and caring way for everyone involved.

I placed the Climate Action Day on my Facebook. My grandson, who had a fever on Nov. 3th watched the Webinar as he made some weavings, and colored on November 4th. He also started the world in 2030 if we did everything possible drawing to send to Khoen. We might not be among the first five hundred to get the online book, but the process was cathartic as it helped him and I design our solutions with hope and optimism.

My grandson also made a list of what goals we had had with our involvement with Climate Action Project since 2020 and what goals he had for the world until 2029. We will continue with the Lego Challenge today. Even if it takes us several months to do, we will complete it.

In the curriculum, we are still analyzing and trying to understand Global Warming this week. We will continue to see causes and effects and how our climate is changing. I believe that the more we understand why our earth needs us to heal the sickness we have given to her, the more their little minds will strenghten their understanding of why they are planting trees and why they want a zero waste world, a circular economy, and sustainable living.

I deeply thank Jennifer and Khoen for the quality speakers they find and how they connect us to the avant-guard experts in a variety of fields. There is so much to learn, I am overhelmed, but excited about the solutions we are already creating to balance humanity and earth sustainability. I am for repurposing airplanes as solar and wind powered machines until we can find a way like the transporters on Start Treak.

I will continue to create the ABC's of our learning picture book.

I connected to the local newspapers but recieved no replies.