Mercer Island’s Green Teams will be celebrating Earth Week April 17-21. Shoppers at New Seasons Market on Mercer Island will see the artwork of Northwood fourth graders on grocery bags in celebration of Earth Day on April 22.

“The bags were given to us by New Seasons, and we decorated them with pictures, words, anything related to Earth Day and had a conversation appreciating what our wonderful earth gives us,” said teacher Lindsay Oliveira. “The bags will then be used during Earth Week at the store, when shoppers will have their items bagged in them if they use a paper bag. It’s a neat partnership between our school district and our newest market to the Island.”

Oliveira recently returned to Northwood from maternity leave, and struck up a friendship with the New Seasons staff as she would take her baby to the store for lunch and stroll the aisles.

“Because of seeing our worker friends there so often, they inquired if my class would be interested in the Earth Day project of paper bag decorating for store use,” she said.

As the students decorated their bags, they discussed the meaning of Earth Day, which began in 1970.

“Earth Day is when we take care and appreciate our home,” said one student.

Students recognize the aspects of Northwood’s environmentally-conscious building, including the green roof visible from Oliveira’s classroom, the solar panels and rain gardens.

Students also talked about ways they can individually make a difference, including as members of the school’s Green Team, recycling food waste at lunch and biking or walking to school.

Mercer Island schools have made sustainability a year-round learning experience as King County Green Schools. In the King County Green Schools program there are four levels of focus: waste reduction and recycling; energy conservation: water conservation and pollution prevention; and sustaining green school activities.

Lakeridge was honored last year with its selection as a Level Four Sustaining Green School for maintaining strong conservation practice and has been nominated to receive the national Green Ribbon Schools Award.

See a Mercer Island Green Teams student video emphasizing the importance of keeping plastics out the water and things we can do every day to help the environment at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZG9Ndr8Mxo.

Lakeridge students created art out of bottle caps to show the effects of plastics in the world’s oceans. Photo courtesy of Craig Degginger/Mercer Island School District

Island Park students created Earth Day artworks about the problems of pollution and plastics in the world’s oceans. Photo courtesy of Craig Degginger/Mercer Island School District

Shoppers at New Seasons Market on Mercer Islandwill see the artwork of Northwood fourth graders on grocery bags in celebration of Earth Day on April 22. Katie Metzger/staff photo