being good shepherds

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Ijams Outreach recently visited the VBS at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Fountain City with a menagerie of animals both real and pretend. (The live millipedes and rat snake were a big hit and the snail puppet is adorable.)

It must have been my many years of study under the esteemed grandfatherly educator Captain Kangaroo. He taught me how to relate to children through the use of animals and puppets.  

Our topic at Good Shepherd was recycling. All life on Earth is carbon-based and carbon is cycled around over and over from plant to animal and back to plant. We exhale carbon and trees inhale it.

Millipedes and snails eat dead leaves freeing the stored carbon and turning it into the dark organic humus that young growing plants need.

The VBS kids also learned about everyday items like soft drink cans, plastic bottles and even paper that can be recycled over and over and reused ad infinitum.

Thank you, Mary and Ruth Anne for inviting us.

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