April Pulley Sayre, who has written more than 50 books for children, visited Mohawk Trails Elementary School on April 23, and in honor of Earth Day, she donated $600 to the Rain Forest Conservation Fund, one of five nonprofit conservation organizations that fifth-grade students researched and presented to their classmates to select, by vote, which they wanted Sayre to support.
“It was so generous of her to make a $600 donation on behalf of our students and to give our fifth-graders the opportunity to do an authentic research project with real-world impact,” said Hella Rumschlag, library media specialist and technology coordinator at MTE.
Starting in January, fifth-grade students explored the websites for these five organizations and selected their favorites. They did research projects to learn more about the organizations and then wrote persuasive presentations. Several fifth-graders even appeared on the school’s live broadcast to persuade other students to vote for their organizations.
The other organizations in the running were: American Bird Conservancy, Elephant Listening Project, Nature Conservancy and the Pollinator Partnership.
Sayre visited several Carmel Clay Schools, but only made one “Authors for Earth Day” donation – on behalf of MTE.
