Hamden Hall Takes Care of Planet Earth

As Earth Day commenced on April 22, the Hamden Hall community embarked on its long-standing tradition of observing the occasion with art projects, community service initiatives, and assemblies as the Upper School will be hosting guest speaker Chris Sullivan on April 25.

The Lower School community was busy at work with different art projects and activities. First-grade students took on the Junkbox Challenge, in which they were tasked with creating their own robots using an array of recycled materials. The students quickly got to work using items they brought from home including cereal boxes, tissue boxes, milk cartons, toilet paper rolls, and more. All the robots were displayed at the end of class before the students took them home.

Other activities included PreSchool and PreKindergarten students learning all about Earth Day and sharing how they would make the planet more beautiful. Kindergarten hosted an Earth Day party in their classroom. Second-grade students commenced their annual tradition of the Paper Bag Project. Using markers and crayons, students decorated an assortment of large brown paper bags with designs and expressions such as “Happy Earth Day,” and “Recycle and Reuse” along with images of planet Earth, flowers, trees, hearts, and more. The bags will be sent to Whitney Market for customers to use for their grocery items. Third grade has been focusing on their Savannah unit and writing essays on why the rainforests should be saved.

Middle School students and faculty chaperones spent the day off-campus working to maintain Connecticut’s nature landscapes by lending their time and hands to two organizations, Gather New Haven and The Quinnipiac River Watershed Association (QRWA). Seventh-grade students traveled to the Pond Lily Nature Reserve in New Haven where they cleaned up debris around the trail, mulched and added wood chips to the walking paths, and removed the invasive species. Eighth-grade students traveled to the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association in Meriden where they worked in groups cleaning up debris along the river, cleaned up the garden area, trimmed bushes and shrubs, and brought loose sticks and leaves to the woods. 

The Upper School community will have an assembly on April 25, with Grade 9 in the Dining Hall for Earth Day poetry and Grades 10-12 in Taylor Gymnasium with guest speaker Chris Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan is the executive director at Southwest Conservation District, a non-profit that works on natural resource issues for all of New Haven and Fairfield Counties. He will speak to students about bacteria in local waterways.