Goal Summary Looking into the future Hammond Elementary has many wonderful goals to look forward to. During the next 4 years, our students will continue with all of our existing environmental programs as well as establishing many new programs. Starting in kindergarten students will learn the importance of recycling, reducing, and reusing things rather than throwing them away. Our young friends will also learn the importance of maintaining the different school habitats such as bird feeders, the butterfly garden, and raising trout. First and second graders will learn about the lifecycles of frogs, mealworms, praying mantises, and different species of butterflies. Our third graders will continue to work with the Bonnie Cabbage Program. Students grow cabbages from seeds and have fun waiting to see whose cabbage becomes the largest. While the cabbages are growing students measure their growth and maintain growth charts. On measuring day, the “Largest Cabbage” wins.
Our fourth graders will continue to raise trout and release them in the spring. This program involves raising trout from the egg stage through the adult size. During the growing process, students measure all key nutrients in the water in order to maintain a nurturing environment for the fish. The school garden will continue to be maintained and produce fresh vegetables under the leadership of our fourth grade Green Team. Also the garden will provide milkweed for our monarch butterflies which third grade students grow from the larva stage. Fifth graders will continue to learn and monitor the health of their local rivers and waterways by taking samples and testing the water. Tables and graphs will be monitored in order to track any changes. Data will be added regularly so students can analyze it and decide which streams and rivers have remained healthy and which streams have encountered problems because of pollution. Fifth grade students also learn about the Chesapeake Bay watershed and have the opportunity to observe and interact with a model watershed that teaches students about the different types of land features as well as the effects of pollution. By the time our kindergarten students are in 5th grade we will be unfolding our next four years of our environmental goals. During this time we will continue with existing environmental programs such as recycling, reducing, and reusing as many items as possible. Each grade will continue with their on-going projects with the different animal habitats as well as adding more monitoring options to their programs by using programs that can be analyzed in order to make sustainable decisions. Students will also continue to learn about the lifecycle of many different species of animals such as frogs, butterflies, trout, mealworms as well as learning how to monitor and add data into computer programs in order to track the health and abundance of the different species. Students can also monitor the health of local rivers and creeks on the computer by analyzing data provided by the 5th grade “River Watchers” group with regard to any changes in the presence of pollution. The school will also enjoy the beauty of well established flower gardens that have been planted and maintained as well as observing the different species of butterflies that visit the gardens. Many of the fifth grade students have now become Environmental Stewards that can pass on their knowledge to the younger students. Twelve years into the future our school may have many new staff members. We expect the teachers that have been here to pass on their knowledge and dedication that they have experienced as part of the Green School initiative to the newer teachers. Students will have very active roles in maintaining and enhancing the different programs established through the years such as recycling, restoring animal habitats such as bird boxes water conservation, life cycles of different species of animals, monitoring local streams and rivers for pollution, Hammond will always be a dedicated community of students and families that will always look for ways to preserve our natural resources, protect our Chesapeake Bay, and monitor our local waterways.