Sunday, April 22, 2018
Earth Day Groceries Project on Facebook! 4/22/18
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Send in Your Report 4/19/18
It's almost Earth Day, and I hope you've had a great time with the project! Please take a minute to share your experiences with everybody else. You can do that via:
- The Project website, at Send in Your Report (certificate you can print out, at the end)
- Post a comment (and pictures!) on the Facebook page. They'll be shared up front for everyone to see!
- If you are a Flickr user, you can share pictures on our Flickr Page.
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| Scoala cu clasele I-VIII, Cioranii de Sus, Prahova, Romania, 2009 |
Many thanks to you all, and Happy Earth Day!
Sunday, April 15, 2018
New Press Release 4/15/18
Friday, April 13, 2018
Backgrounds for phones/desktops 4/13/18
On my Chromebook laptop, I look at a stunning Red-breasted Sapsucker:
http://www.earthdaybags.org/
https://www.facebook.com/earthdaybags/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/earthdaybags25/
Sunday, April 08, 2018
How to Participate 4/8/18
Here's a brief rundown on what's involved in participating in the Earth Day Groceries Project.
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| Ormondale School in Portola Valley, CA - 2006 |
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| Bags given to Curt, the Safeway manager by Arbor Heights Elementary, in Seattle, 2010 |
Sunday, April 01, 2018
Earth Day's in 3 Weeks - No Foolin'! 4/1/18
When my third graders visited all the classrooms in the school to explain the project and hand out classroom bags, they always talked about this. But after just a few years, they didn't need to even mention it anymore - everybody in our school knew Earth Day was April 22nd.
Except the Kindergartners. So, the lucky kids who got to speak with those little ones knew they had a little extra to talk about, along with the added responsibility of explaining the Project for the first time, to kids who knew nothing about it.
| Explaining the Project to a Kindergarten class, 2007 |
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| Classroom speaking schedule. Yes, we had a chalkboard. |
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| Navarre, Florida, 2011 |
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| Meeting the manager, Smith Renaissance School of the Arts at King Soopers grocery store, Denver, CO, 2010 |
Mark Ahlness, founder - The Earth Day Groceries Project
http://www.earthdaybags.org/
https://www.facebook.com/earthdaybags/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/earthdaybags25/
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Looking for a Lesson Plan? 3/28/18
Protecting Our Precious Planet: Sharing the Message of Earth Day
| http://www.readwritethink.org/ |
- Brainstorming Ideas for Earth Day Messages
- My Earth Day Grocery Bag Plan
- Earth Day Grocery Bags Project: Student Assessment Rubric
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
A. The Earth Day Groceries Project is an easy, cost-free environmental awareness project that teams up youth and grocers to spread the message of Earth Day. To participate, teachers simply borrow paper grocery bags from a local grocery store. Students decorate the bags with environmental messages about reuse, recycling, wildlife, etc. The bags are then returned to the grocery store, and on Earth Day, April 22 of each year, customers receive their groceries— along with the message that kids care about our environment— in the decorated bags.
Q. How do I participate?
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| Discovery School in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico |
Q. Who can participate?
A. Any group of students that wants to promote environmental awareness. Classes, schools, Day Care centers, Scout troops, 4-H Clubs, church groups and art clubs have all participated. The project has also been implemented at community events for Earth Day (April 22), Arbor Day, America Recycles Day (Nov. 15), and Martin Luther King Day.
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| Hermitage Presbyterian Church in Hermitage, TN |
Earth’s 911— www.1800cleanup.org
IEARN — www.iearn.org
Kids For A Clean Environment — www.kidsface.org
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| Jefferson School in North Arlington, NJ |
Q. What if I can't find a local store that uses paper bags?A. If you can't use paper bags, you can have your students decorate individual fliers, or even bookmarks, which can be handed out to shoppers or inserted in their shopping bags. These will be counted in the project tally, so do send in your report!
Friday, March 16, 2018
How to Participate 3/16/18
- Locate a local grocery store that uses paper bags. Explain the project to the manager, and ask if you can "borrow" enough bags so each student in your school or classroom can decorate one.
- Distribute the bags throughout your school, and explain the project to classrooms who would like to participate.
- Give students enough time - and guidance - so they can create beautiful artwork and environmental messages on their bags.
- Return the decorated bags to the store before Earth Day (April 22), and ask that the store distribute the bags to shoppers on Earth Day.
- Send in a brief report - on the website, Facebook, or even this blog, via a comment - to share how your project went.
Mark Ahlness, founder - The Earth Day Groceries Project
http://www.earthdaybags.org/
https://www.facebook.com/earthdaybags/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/earthdaybags25/
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
A Brief History of the Project
Location
The Earth Day Groceries Project began during the infancy of the world wide web. It started out as an email activity in the spring of 1994, but by August, 1994, it had a web site. Well, sort of.When I decided to try and develop a website for my elementary school in the summer of 1994, there was literally just a handful of schools worldwide with websites. As a matter of fact, it felt to me as though you really wouldn't put a school on the web without being able to say what was outstanding, or unique, about it.
This graphic was on the very first website for my old school. The Project was the school's byline, its reason for being on the web. That was August 14, 1994. The Project's name still needed some work. The main content of the website was a compilation of the Project's emails, and that version of the website is preserved, and still working, here.
By October of 1994, the school website had evolved,and the project had its new name - still featured on the school website graphic That site is archived here.
The Project remained on the school website through the 1999 school year, even running an ad, proceeds going to the cost of upgrading the Project, and to school tech needs.
Format
1999 Reports
1998 Reports
1997 Reports
1996 Reports
1995 Reports
1994, the first year:
Reports, initial announcement, more...
Upgrade
In 2000, I moved the Earth Day Groceries Project to its current location, where it runs multiple databases to automate the adding, retrieving, and sorting of information. No more email, thank goodness. Now, if the pictures had been automated, that would have been something! More on that in another post.Vision
The early 1990s was an exciting time to be online with other educators, exchanging ideas on educational listservs, like Ednet, and Kidsphere.In 1993 I tried decorating grocery bags with my school, and it was a huge success. It was such a perfect, easy way to empower kids in their communities, such a great way to make a difference in environmental awareness.
I wanted other schools to join in, to make it bigger, even make it something that belonged to my school, but I could not figure out how to do that, and somehow - control it. My wife set me straight right away when she said I simply had to share the idea. That was all. Give it away.
She was right of course, so I did just that - shared the idea. I simply acted as a facilitator for those who participated, and I provided a central location for anyone who wanted to share their stories.
Now
Every year, I hear from several people saying their school/organization has been decorating grocery bags for Earth Day for many years, and they just learned there was a website!This Project has legs, and it will continue to grow and spread - because it is easy, free, meaningful, and it carries a powerful message.
I hope your school or organization can join in this year. Happy Earth Day!
Mark Ahlness, founder - The Earth Day Groceries Project
http://www.earthdaybags.org/
https://www.facebook.com/earthdaybags/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/earthdaybags25/
Monday, March 12, 2018
The Blog is Back! 3/12/2018
We've always had a website, and a Facebook Page starting in the early 2000s. - but the blog hasn't been used much.
But times have changed, and this medium increases the potential reach, to many more people, so here we go.
This blog will be consistently active through the end of April, 2018, with a new post coming pretty much every day, so sign up in the "Follow by Email" spot on the side or bottom. (Mobile users, go to "View web version" or "Desktop"). No more than one post per day - and you can always cancel your subscription.
The goal is simply to spread the word, to encourage as many schools and organizations as possible to join in. More on that in another post.
Meanwhile, share this post as widely as you can. Many thanks!
Mark Ahlness, founder - The Earth Day Groceries Project
http://www.earthdaybags.org/
https://www.facebook.com/earthdaybags/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/earthdaybags25/
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Back for 2010!
New stuff for 2010:
- We are now on Twitter, at http://twitter.com/earthdaybags Follow along there and get the latest project updates!
- We recently started an official Facebook Page for the project. If you're on Facebook, you can become a Fan, write/contribute to the Wall and Discussions - and upload pictures! Last year we started a "group" on Facebook, but we've since figured out the best way to have the project on Facebook is with this new official page. Please consider becoming a fan and contributing there!
- Last but not least, the project blog location has changed. The old blog still contains all the old material, but please update your rss feed or link, to http://earthdaybags.blogspot.com
Mark Ahlness
project founder
Saturday, April 03, 2010
This blog has moved
This blog is now located at http://earthdaybags.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.
For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://earthdaybags.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Flickr slideshow!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Award Certificate Ready
Friday, April 03, 2009
Facebook Group, Wiki launched!
There is also a brand new wiki, at earthdaybags.wikispaces.com, where you can do much the same thing, and add contact info - you don't have to be a member there.
If you have more ideas on how to expand/update the project, please leave a comment here. Thanks! - Mark
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Earth Day 2009 - changes ahead...
- Reports submitted for the 2009 effort will be combined with 2008 reports. I'll have all the report pages renamed to read "2008-09" by the end of the week, hopefully.
- Pictures will not be put up on the project web site any more. Participants are encouraged to upload their pictures to their school/organization web site - or a photo sharing site like Flickr, and then email in a link to those pictures. Those links will then be added to the pictures page.
I know this may be a disappointment to some, but these decisions were based on time and money - the lack of both. My apologies - Mark
Monday, May 26, 2008
Pictures - it's over
Anyway, all pictures sent in have been placed on new web pages. We'll probably top 200 school submissions by the end of May, a record by a long shot.
Unfortunately, The Earth Day Groceries Project will not be able to host pictures for schools from now on. We will certainly add links to other web pages and collections with pictures, but...
The issue is time. It takes an average of 10 minutes to convert and archive an email with picture attachments into a web page for a school. For 200 web pages, that's a lot of minutes - and way too many hours to add to my teaching life, even if I got paid for it :) Many thanks to all the teachers and group leaders who have sent in their pictures over the years - they are incredible! They will always remain on the website as testimony to the comittment of millions of schoolchildren to saving our Earth.
tags: earthday earthdaybags
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
What it means
The day after Earth Day, we got a letter from a member of the community who had received one of our bags."My husband came home from Stater Brothers that day with his groceries in some of the most beautiful bags I've ever seen. Each grocery bag was a one of a kind masterpiece, evidently created with incredible love for our planet and others. I only know the names of a few of the artists but I wanted them to know how their gifts to our family (and the Earth!) impacted us. I was overwhelmed with such happiness when I first saw them that I nearly cried in joy!"
Thanks for such a great project!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Reports and PIctures - update 4/23/08
Here's when to expect pictures and reports to appear on the web site:
- Reports will appear on the site withing 24 hours.
- Pictures currently have a 4 or 5 day delay. I'm sorry for this, but right now there are pictures from 75 schools waiting to be put up on the site. Given that it takes about 10 minutes to create each page for a school, well, the math says it'll happen on the weekend.
So, project participants, my apologies for the delay - but thanks for taking the time to fill out a report and send in those pictures! Keep them coming! - Mark



















