Wishing to help the planet, the students of the 5 year old kindergarten at the Meander School are carrying out a nice project of recovering old crayons so that they can be recycled and transformed into objects of everyday life. The project is also educational and growing outside the walls of the institution. Although the project has already been advanced by the Fondation du Méandre, it is anchored this year in the class of teacher Cynthia Lachapelle.   "The project is to collect pencils that contain ink originally and that no longer work," says the teacher. The desired pencils are pens, mechanical pencils, markers, highlighters, permanent markers, dry erase markers and color, with cap or not. The pencils are mine and colored.   After the harvest, the pencils are sent to TerraCycle as part of its vast campaign "Eliminate the Notion of Waste" active in more than 20 countries. The great American firm recovers and transforms, among others, pencils into everyday objects.   "Our goal in class is more educational: we count the pencils, so that at the end of the school year, we will know how much the students have recovered," says Ms. Lachapelle.   Learn through the game   When the pencils end up on the students' table after Mrs. Lachapelle has separated the prizes, in teams of four, according to their learning, they make bales of ten pencils, while others prepare bales of five. The teacher then bundles the packages with a tie.   "We learn how to make groupings so that they can learn to count in a fun way. They do not notice it because it is done by the game. Recycling is also an activity in which they want to get involved. Despite their age, they find it important to help the planet. "   Project of magnitude   Currently, most pencils come from parents. As of October 30, 180 pencils were amassed, counted and sorted.   In addition to primary, is the secondary school directly involved in the project? The teacher replied that energy has so far been channeled to the primary level, which does not prevent interested teachers from joining the project. High school students can easily find a place to drop the pencils.   In the class of Cynthia Lachapelle, 16 students participate in the project as well as a TES (Special Education Technician).   How to participate?   If you have the pencils that no longer work (pens, pencils, markers, highlighters, permanent markers, dry erase markers and colored pencils (they can come with or without the cap that is also recycled) you can route them by your children who will put them in the boxes that we have beautifully decorated. If you do not have children, you can come and bring them to the secretariat of the Meander School where there will be a box too. The pencils can also be deposited in boxes installed at CPE station Les P'tits Budgeons and Caisse Desjardins de la Rouge.