Climate Change Awareness Day!
On Monday, we had a Climate Change Awareness day. We read a book called ‘Somebody Swallowed Stanley’ where a plastic bag is dropped into the ocean and it’s a story about all the animals that try to eat him. They then wrote their own descriptions of creatures that might try and eat Stanley. After break, we made posters to help encourage others to reduce how much single use plastic they use and the impact it has on the oceans. After lunch, we did a science experiment to help the children to see what affect global warming is having on the ice caps. Ask them about what they discovered! Finally, we looked at all the plastic that was brought into school and imagined it all in the ocean and discuss the impact this could have on our oceans. We then cut it into pieces to fill our giant whale. I was so impressed how engaged and interested the children were throughout the day and how they were determined to try and help make small changes. In Forest School, the children planted bushes in the school grounds and discussed the importance of planting new bushes and trees for the environment.
We had a thought-provoking time one Monday as part of our Climate Awareness Day. We read ‘Greta and the Giants’ and from that created posters about why our rainforests are so important and what we can do to save them. We also discussed why global warming is so damaging for out planet and what we can do as individuals to help with this. In the afternoon, the children created their own placards about saving the planet and went on a protest around the school playground.
This week, we had a day of activities based on climate change and the environment. We completed an activity based on the book ‘What did the tree see’, a fantastic book based on the environment and the damage we cause. We compared what trees would have seen at the start of their lives compared to now- mainly focussing on pollution and climate change. After that, we focused on what we could do to have a positive change and researched ways to limit our resources. Finally, we completed an art-based activity creating flowers using recycled paper, bottle lids and other recyclable materials.
At the start of the week, we focused on climate change by reading The Lorax and had some great discussions about the pertinent issues that it raises, despite being written 50 years ago. We recorded our reactions to the story which may appear in the local library soon! The children then wrote some particularly compelling letters about the huge dilemma that we are facing, urging local MP Kemi Badenoch to lead us in the battle to combat climate change. The children impressed us so much with their maturity and insightfulness. We await Ms Badenoch’s response to our letters.
Dragonflies kicked off the week thinking all about Climate Change. We explored this topic through Dr Seuss’ ‘The Lorax’, which tells the story of a place where truffula trees grow, and how when they are found to be valuable, people cut them all down. This damages the wildlife and the rest of the environment too! Luckily, at the end of the story there is one truffula seed left! So Dragonflies class set out to create a self-sustainable truffula wood that would replenish the trees and help the wildlife! They then created their own nature art using plastics. I was really impressed by some of the children’s inventiveness!
Climate change activities on Monday included making a huge jellyfish out of plastic materials that sadly end up in the oceans...and reading the I Can Save the Earth story, encouraging us to switch lights and televisions off when we are not using them and different ways to reduce, reuse and recycle our rubbish.