Free Just Grace Goes Green by Charise Mericle Harper Page B

being clean was important too. I think she was probably being like me and imagining what
Sammy's shirt would look like without being cleaned for an entire week.
    SAMMY'S SHIRT

    Miss Lois said conservation is important because it helps save the animals of the world and their natural habitats. Which means the places where they live in the wild ... not so much the zoo, because zoo animals pretty much don't have to worry about their homes being taken away to build a road or a grocery store.
    ZOO ANIMAL TALKING

    3. REUSE

    This means that instead of throwing something away you find someone who wants it and can use it, and then you sell it or give it to them. Miss Lois said lots of people donate clothes, computers, books, and even cars to people who need them.
    WHAT I WAS THINKING NEXT
    Sometimes if someone is giving me too much information, even if it is interesting and really important information like how to save the world, all I can think about is...
When is the talking going to stop so we can go do something else?
    Miss Lois didn't hear my secret thoughts because she just kept talking, and talking,
and talking, right up until the bell rang for our break. "I'm passionate about being green," said Miss Lois, and then she finally let us go.

    WHAT IS PASSIONATE
    Passionate
means that Miss Lois probably wishes she could spend her entire life working on saving the planet. And maybe I was right about that, because right after our break she said we were going to skip math and talk some more about being green.
    LESS TALK, PLEASE
    Miss Lois said it was time to stop talking and time to start doing. She said nobody could save the earth all alone. We all had to work
together. She said it was time to team up. Miss Lois was acting like Mr. Frank again, because she even let us pick our own partners. Of course Mimi and I picked each other. I didn't get to work with her on the last school project because I was away in Chicago. After everyone picked a partner, Miss Lois gave us our green jobs.

    JOB NUMBER ONE
    Keep a chart about the way we are conserving energy and being green at home. Write down at least one conservation thing that we are doing every day. Keep the chart for two weeks.
    JOB NUMBER TWO

    Come up with a green project that we are passionate about and then put that plan into action. Miss Lois said it was important to not think too big. She said, "The best green plans are right in your very own backyard."
    This was a little confusing, because Sandra Orr thought Miss Lois said that the best green
plants
were right in our very own backyard. So she put her hand up and said, "You're right! And I probably have the biggest green plant ever, because I am growing my very own pumpkin for Halloween, and those kind of plants take up the entire backyard. My dad is not happy about it, so Mom says this is the only year we are going to get to do it. Maybe the class can come over and see it, because it's really awesome!"
    Max and Sammy both said they totally wanted to see it, and pretty soon everyone was excited about pumpkins and Halloween.
    Miss Lois seemed a little confused and a little annoyed both at the same time. She wanted us all to be excited about saving water, saving paper, and saving metal cans, and not be talking about giant pumpkins instead.
    THE NEW AND IMPROVED MISS LOIS

    The old Miss Lois would have definitely been mad at us for not paying attention to her ideas, but the new Miss Lois said, "Okay, class, it's time for everyone to pick an animal mascot."
    PUMPKIN VERSUS ANIMAL

    WHO IS THE WINNER?

    ANIMAL MASCOTS
    Miss Lois said each group had to pick an animal from the endangered animals list as
its mascot. Endangered animals are creatures that will go extinct if people do not stop destroying the natural places where they live. Stuff like cutting down trees or building houses and factories near their homes means that the animals have nowhere to go and no proper food to eat so they die. It's very sad.
    Miss Lois said that it was