Mt. Carmel’s constructive lesson on the environment

It all starts with a lesson on the environment.

Nichole Moorer’s classes at Mt. Carmel Elementary learned about it, global warming, recycling and much more about the earth early in the year with a music program. Her students took to the lessons and the music so quickly that she thought she’d expand it.

“We were singing a lot of songs about the earth for our ‘Sac-a-Papier’ concert, and we thought we’d all do a big project that involved the whole school,” she said. “What we did was collect 779 gallon milk jugs and hot glue them together into an igloo.”

The massive project is still standing in Moorer’s music classroom. About half of a class can fit in it at a time, she said.

“Even in February, the kids are really excited about it.”

In its prime, it stood about seven feet tall, according to Moorer.

There were a lot of lessons to be learned, including hard work and patience.

“They also had a few different activities involving the igloo,” Moorer said. “They learned to count by two using the jug caps, planning and construction, that sort of thing.”

The school, pre-K through eighth grade collected the jugs. The majority of the construction was done by first through eighth graders.

The igloo is still on display at Mt. Carmel in Moorer’s room, though it’s a little deflated. The heat from the glue guns slightly affected the shape of the igloo, but it’s still standing.

Why build the igloo?

“So the kids would have something solid, a memory they can hold on to of something they did while they were here,” Moorer said. “Something they built here, something huge they can be proud of.”

As some of the second graders walked into the classroom the igloo is located in, their eyes grew bright. Despite having seen it almost all year, they were excited to pose for a picture underneath something they helped build.

The children of Mt. Carmel worked for months to complete the project, with the effort paying off. Now, they have a symbol of their education to keep in their memories.