We are Mrs. Pineda's third grade class at Rucker Elementary School in Houston, Texas. We read a story about how Riff and Rosie helped their neighbor, Mr. Slaptail, clean up his house so that he could breathe better. We thought about how we could have less pollution in our houses or at school. We decided to have a Classroom Clean Air Day. here are some things we did.

• First, Mrs. Pineda opened the air conditioner so we could see the filter. It was packed with dust. All that dust came from the air that we breathe.
• We opened the windows to let stale air out and fresh air in.
• We put soapsuds on the leaves of our plants so we don't have to use poisonous insecticides.
• We washed our desks and windows with vinegar and water. It doesn't pollute the air like some cleaners from the store do.
• We cleaned our rugs with baking soda. It doesn't have any harmful chemicals.

Why don't you see what you can do to have cleaner air where you live or go to school?

Here's a picture of our school at work

Dresden, J., Thorp, B., and Moreno, N. 1995, "Mr. Slaptail's Secret", My Health My World Adventures Stories for Children, Unit One: My World Indoors. Houston: Baylor College of Medicine.