Milk builds strong bones and igloos

After three weeks of collecting 530 milk jugs, Bigfork Elementary's kindergarten class completed their milk jug igloo this week for their winter themed lessons. Kindergarten is taught by themes, and winter typically has an arctic theme, so the class had to get creative due to this year's lack of snow.

“It's generated a lot of excitement in the school, we've had about 40 students come in and rinse jugs and help out,” kindergarten teacher Mrs. Epperly said.

Bigfork Elementary and high school students helped gather jugs as well as Flathead Valley Community College students that were involved in cheerleading with Epperly.

Epperly's students worked on their counting and graphing skills while keeping track of their progress and will use the igloo for reading time now that it's complete.

“It's cool because it's big and looks really awesome and it's pretty,” kindergartener Aisilinn Roland said. “You can make smart thinking choices in it.”

Epperly encourages her students to use the igloo as a place to decide what they want to learn about during their independent learning time.

The class plans on recycling the milk jug igloo during Earth Week in April by using the jugs for various art projects.