A Li’l Boat Named Plastiki

For 4 months this summer, the Plastiki, led by David de

Rothschild and Jo Royle, traversed the Pacific Ocean from San

Francisco, CA to Sydney, Australia. Not your normal sailing

vessel, the Plastiki is a catamaran constructed from 12,500

plastic water bottles. Their mission: to show you can make

something out of reusable, usable materials while

also showcasing the Eastern

Garbage Patch of plastic trash

garbage, deteriorating out in

the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

To download a Kids’ “Fun Pack”

from the Plastiki to educate your

young ones, go to http://www.the

plastiki.com/ plasticsissues/. Of

particular interest is the map on page 3: “The Plastiki Plastic

Map.” This is a GREAT map to turn into an educational, math

game! Print, have kids grab game-markers and either

subtraction or division flash cards, then team up kids to be

game partners. Use the hash-marks on the Plastiki Plastic Map

as game spaces. As kids take turns drawing flash cards, have

them move the number of spaces of their math answer. When

you hit the proverbial “fork in the road,” have kids take the

curly-cue, longer route unless their math facts have them land

on the hash-mark closest to the initial “T” in the words

“Tentative Route of the Plastiki.” In that case, the straighter,

shorter route is his/her route to success. A player wins when

he/she is wiser, and reaches Australia!!

The Green Team Gazette Volume 3, Issue 2, page 1 October 2010

A River Runs Through It Looking for-

ward to a

little educa-

tional humor

about how

trash starts in your back yard and winds up in the ocean?

Check out “Sherman’s Lagoon” by Jim Toomey. Here, Jim

Toomey shows a comic strip path of how pollution gets

from point A to point B in a humorous (yet, eye-opening)

way: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/

cartonist-explains-the-pacific-garbage-patch-with-

talking-sealife-slideshow.php

If I Were A River

Share this poem

with your class,

for discussion,

dictation, or hand-

writin activity.

Or, as a class, add

a few stanzas of

your own to make

a bigger, better

poem.

Picture from my camera from the “Wonders of Water WOW!” exhibit at Baltimore’s Port Discovery Children’s Museum …great detailed image of

all the many components of the Water Cycle! (Showing the good, the bad, and the ugly…not just the limited “precipitation, evaporation,

condensation” cycle of days gone by!). http://www.portdiscovery.org/#home

The Green Team Gazette is a publication

co-sponsored by the founders of CynerGreen

CGKidz, and Eagle Cove School (formerly “Gibson Island Country School”), a Green

School in Pasadena, Maryland. Our mission is

to educate and share ways to “go green”—both big & small--

and be environ-mentally-proactive at home, in school, and

beyond. It is written by Vicki Dabrowka, 3rd grade teacher

& co-Green Team Leader at Eagle Cove School. To learn

more visit www.cynergreen.com, www.cgkidz.com, and

www.eaglecoveschool.org. You can also follow us at

http://greenteamgazette.blogspot.com/ or find us at “Green

Team Gazette” on Facebook.

Please print on recycled paper. Copyright © 2010 Vicki Dabrowka

If I were a river,

Rambling I would be,

Flowing down the mountains

To my mouth down by the sea.

If I were a river

Boats would travel me,

Taking people and some cargo

Everywhere they need to be.

If I were a river

I hope that I would see

An end to all our pollution

And people taking care of me.

Name ________________________ Date ______________________

Place Value Using Famous Rivers of the World

Rivers are remarkable! They are a vital for the water cycle. They form the habitat for many

fresh water creatures, which in turn benefits other creatures that live nearby. Rivers also provide

us with drinkable water. We all need healthy rivers, and we all need to be a part of that.

“Boundaries don't protect rivers, people do”. ~Brad Arrowsmith, Landowner along the Niobrara River, Nebraska

Use the Table of Rivers to complete the questions below. 1. Write the length of the Yukon

River in expanded form.

2. Which river is 1,100 miles

longer than the Indus River?

3. If you added the length of the

Murray and the Darling Rivers,

what would the total length

be? Show your work.

4. Pick any two rivers to add

together. What is their total?

Show your work.

River 1: _______________

River 2: _______________

5. How much longer is the

Mississippi River than the

Mackenzie River.

Show your work.

Use <, >, or = to compare the following: Show your equation.

6. Danube River versus Ob River

7. Amazon River versus Huang He

River

The Green Team Gazette Volume 3, Issue 2 , page 2 October 2010

Principle

Rivers of the

World

Approx

length

mi.

Nile 4,180

Amazon 3,912

Mississippi-

Missouri-

Red Rock

3,710

Chang Jiang

(Yangtze)

3,602

Ob 3,459

Huang He

(Yellow)

2,900

Paraná 2,795

Zaire (Congo) 2,716

Mackenzie 2,635

Niger 2,600

Volga 2,291

Yukon 1,979

Indus 1,800

Danube 1,766

Darling 1,702

Murray 1,609

Ganges 1,557

Orinoco 1,281

Rhine 820

Copyright ©

2010 Vicki

Dabrowka