MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Students at Chesterbrook Academy Preschool in Mooresville celebrated Earth Day by releasing thousands of ladybugs into the environment, spreading the beneficial bugs on plants, flowers and trees in their schoolyard.
Students released approximately 8,000 ladybugs into the environment during Monday's celebration. The preschoolers recently learned that ladybugs serve as a natural pesticide by feeding on insects that could harm gardens and shrubs.
"We released the ladybugs into our ecosystem to prevent any nasty bugs that are going to eat our plants or our vegetables, they help with that," principal Kerry Possinger-Keiper said. "It's like a non-poisonous extermination."
The school also planted flowers and other plants in the schoolyard during Monday's event. School staff members say the goal is to teach the next generation the importance of taking care of the planet.
"Just learning to give back to our environment, to our Earth, especially with planting," Possinger-Keiper said.
While Earth Day isn't a federal holiday, many groups use the day to put together volunteer events with the environment in mind, such as cleanups of natural areas.
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