I know it's a month after school ended, but since I use this blog as a way to journal for our family, I figure it's better late than never. Ethan has had a great year in Mrs. Dunning's first grade class. She is way into marine animals, as is Ethan, so he became very inquisitive about lots of different animals and has done lots of research about orcas and dolphins.
At his First Grade Awards Ceremony, he received several different awards for reading, good citizenship, etc., but his Environmentalist of the Year Award stands out to his proud mother. The story behind it: Throughout the school year, Ethan would take a few minutes at the beginning of recess and go around the playground picking up trash. He would often bring armfuls of trash to his teacher b/c there were no trash cans around. One day he brought up the idea of writing a letter to the principal to get trash cans on the playground. His friends signed a petition and his teacher tried to give them an experience similar to petitioning local government officials for change. Because of his efforts, they now have 5 trash cans on the playground and his friends help him pick up trash each day. To me, the coolest thing about this is that it was all his doing. I didn't even know about all of this until a few days before school ended. I'm proud of him for being conscientious of the environment and taking the initiative to make it better.