Before the end of the school year, 475 students in kindergarten through fifth grade at Weisenberg Elementary participated in activities designed to teach them about Earth Day.

Weisenberg teachers Johanna Reisteter, Jennifer McDonald, Jamie Hafner, Jillian Gasper, Susan Fetterman and Karly Saaco worked with representatives of Waste Management, across from the school, to create the event.

They began by learning how a Waste Management truck collects garbage.

The students heard a story about The Lorax, participated in a recycle relay, watched a movie titled "The Magic Schoolbus Meets the Rot Squad."

After lunch, students gathered in the gymnasium for a presentation on birds of prey by Miranda from the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

She brought along a black vulture, a kestrel, a red-tailed hawk, a screech owl and a great horned owl.

Students learned all of the birds from the zoo's educational program were provided by the Wildlife Rehab Center.

The birds, which had been injured, were unable to live in the wild, so they were brought to the zoo.

The kestrel and the great horned owl were given to the zoo because they were removed from their nest when they were young and were never taught by other birds how to live in the wild.

They are unable to capture their own food and how to relate to other birds,

Miranda explained that screech owl have lopsided ears

One is high and the other is lower allowing them to triangulate where their prey is located.

The great horned owl hunts one animal no other bird will: the skunk.

If a great horned owl is sprayed by a skunk, it does not mater as they cannot smell.

At the conclusion of the assembly, students learned who won the poster contest.

Each student was invited to create a poster showing what Earth Day means to them.

The posters were then given to Patty Barthel, of Waste Management, for judging.

The winners in each grade received a metal model of a Waste Management rear loader truck from representatives Shane Caswell, Gary Nasca and Patty Barthel.

The kindergarten winner was John Meltsch.

First-grade winner was Sarah Renner; second-grade winner was Katie Edgar; third-grade winner was Sara Jenkins and fourth-grade winner was Anika Moralis.

The grand-prize winner was fifth-grade student Maddie Consuelos, who received a truck and whose poster was framed.

The final activity of the day was a trip outside to dedicate the future site of an outdoor classroom.

Art teacher Karly Saaco worked with students to outline the future gardens with rocks.

Each rock was to represent something about Earth Day that was personal to the students.

There were many Tiger Paws and butterflies placed on these stones.

Throughout the day, students would take their rocks and place them on the outlines outdoors.

Principal Marc Dobbs spoke to the students about the project and thanked them for their hard work.

He told them this was step two of the project, as they had placed three bluebird houses and two robin houses around the perimeter of the site in March.

The site will be developed and completed by Ryan Searcy of Boy Scout Troop 72, Fogelsville, as his Eagle Scout project.

Searcy, a graduate of Weisenberg Elementary, met with Dobbs to determine the scope of the work and to share his plans for the "classroom."

Susan Tansits, from Edge of the Woods nursery, Orefield, assisted with the choice of plants that are indigenous to the area and providedthem for the gardens.

The goal is to have the project completed by the time the students return to school in the fall.

Dobbs, told the fifth-grade students they should feel free to visit the school and view the completed project even though they will be middle school students.

"Everyone put part of themselves into the rock they painted, Dobb stated.

He said he felt blessed to be at Weisenberg Elementary and feels very lucky to have students who care about beautifying their space.

Dobbs also explained the placement of the bird houses.

They were placed in a manner to allow students to see them from inside the school using the large window that overlooks them.

Susan Fetterman and Jamie Hafner are planning to contact the Game Commission to obtain charts of birds that congregate in the area for placement at the (window site, allowing students the opportunity to learn what birds are using their gardens.

Dobbs, who describes himself as a 'big kid at heart' is as excited as his students are regarding the upcoming project and its outcome.