Preschoolers dress up for Earth Day celebration


One by one, the preschoolers, donning paper-bag shirts and capes made from plastic HEB bags, walked along the runway as other children cheered from the sidelines. 

For a week of learning about environmental awareness, dozens of local preschoolers paraded across a small outdoor runway in costumes made from recyclables Monday at The Goddard School in Cedar Park. The event, called the 9th Annual Root for Earth campaign, aims to teach students at the school about their effect on the environment. 

“We’re pulling in lots of elements on how we have an impact on the earth,” said Celeste Tamayo, a teacher at the school, on the curriculum for the week. 

The runway event, which started at 2:15 p.m., lasted around 10 minutes and the children’s costumes used recycled material such as cardboard, empty water bottles, and paper scrounged up in the classroom over the week.  

Yet the show was just one in a slew of other activities planned for the weeklong environmental campaign.  

One of those other events involves a visit to the classroom by representatives from Pedernales Electric to speak about conserving energy. Another has a local branch of Waste Connections, a waste services company, explain the process of recycling. 

But teaching children about a complex topic like environmental science requires a special kind of teaching. “You really have to teach the basis. Things like why water is important, why the trees are important, and why the bees are important. You can’t get too big,” said Stacey Martin, a teacher at the school. 

Yet for Heather Juelfs, the executive director of the Cedar Park school, the event is more than teaching the children about recycling and environmental awareness.  “Our world is so full of technology, iPads, gaming systems and TVs that it’s fun for me to see them get creative and really excited using glue and tape and old boxes,” Juelfs said.