Earth Day!

Our Earth Day celebration will be this Friday, April 23rd. Activities include a parade, a musical performance, a potluck, activity booths, Native American dancing, and fun in the sun! We encourage all families to take part (or all) of the day off work and join us for this celebration of the Earth and our community! Please see below for important details.

Parade

Drummers will lead us in a walking parade around our neighborhood. Feel free to dress up in celebration of the Earth and spring. You are welcome to bring wagons for your children or maybe your child can create a special Earth Day banner or sign. The parade will leave promptly at 9:00 a.m. from the south parking lot. Please assemble your family by 8:45. All children should walk with their families.

Earth Day Music Performance

Following the parade, around 10:00, our music performance will begin. Directed by Escuela Music Director, Ms. Cathy Suding, the performance will take place in the front of the Harwood Art Center.

Earth Day Activities

The fun continues with games and other activities after the music performance. Each class is sponsoring an activity. Your child's teachers can provide more details.

BYOP & U (Bring Your Own Plates & Utensils)

For the past three years, we have had a large number of families bring their own plates and utensils for the potluck. We hope to maintain this tradition, especially considering that it is Earth Day. Let's give the landfill a break for a day!

Potluck

The potluck will begin at 11:00 a.m. We'd like to let our youngest students go through the serving line-so Toddlers will eat first, then Primary, Junior Elementary, and finally Senior Elementary. We'll be dining al fresco on the Elementary playground, so you might want to bring a blanket to sit on. Since lunch is potluck, we are asking each family to bring something to contribute to the feast.

Toddler & Primary Families - Main dish for 8

Junior Elementary - Side dish or salad for 8

Senior Elementary Families - Dessert for 8

Faculty & Staff - Chips (or bread) for 8

Native American Dancing

We welcome the children of the Laguna Pueblo Elementary School for a special Earth Day performance.

Escuela T-Shirt Sales

Escuela T-Shirts will be available for purchase. Prices vary by style and size.

Earth Day Ends and School Closes at 1:00 p.m. There will be no childcare available.

Questions? Please contact Elizabeth Marcilla at 242-3033 or elizabethm (at) edelsol.org.

For almost one-quarter of a Century, Escuela del Sol has made Earth Day one of the highlight events of every year. Earth Day symbolizes so much of what is at the core of Escuela's educational philosophy: the view of life as an inter-connected web encompassing all creatures, all forms of life in our big amazing wonderful universe.

Every year students choose a variety of activities and goals, from raising funds for rain forest preservation to working on local watershed reclamation projects. Learning about sustainability, water conservation and various alternative energy sources is at the heart of our annual event. Lessons and activities culminate in an annual celebration that includes a neighborhood parade, musical performances by Escuela students, a family potluck and games on the school lawn.

This year our Earth Day celebration will take place on April 23, 2010 and will feature a performance by the Laguna Elementary School Cultural Dance Group. This is a group of 30 young dancers who learn their pueblo's social dances in an effort to preserve this part of their culture. They will be dancing The Buffalo, Butterfly, Deer, and Eagle which is also their tribal symbol. In the works is the possibility of a cultural exchange in the form of a song from their pueblo that we can include in future Earth Day celebrations. We look forward to seeing all of the Escuela community and hosting our young visitors on April 23rd!

Earth Day is one of Escuela's unique traditions - an event that current families look forward to and that former students remember with great affection.