May
2007
Eco Day0
Friday 11th May was the school’s very first Eco Day. This was the first of what we are calling ‘Days for Action’ that will become a regular part of school life in the future. The idea behind Eco Day isthat for one day normal lessons will be suspended so that the children canfocus on one big issue in depth giving their learning on that issue a bigger impact.
Several of our Eco Day activities built upon the ideas ans skills that Rosemary has been learning in her ‘Forset Schools’ training that she has been involved with over the past year. Other activities linked with ongoing School Board projects to improve the school grounds.
The children were organised into family groups that also involved the nursery children during the morning sessions. This way of grouping children allows children of all ages to work together, younger children to learn from older children and older children to take responsibility for helping younger children.
The children rotated throughout the day around 6 different areas. Some of the activities changed at these groups throughout the day while others stayed the same.
Area 1: planting sunflower seeds, recycling plastic bottles and drawing chalk pictures on the paving slabs.
Area 2: recycling plastic bottles to make mobiles, making wind chimes from spoons.
Area 3: planting the tubs and hanging baskets at the front entrance to the school, creating a herb garden, planting sweet peas in the tyres in the garden and garden tidy.
Area 4: Planning the new area of the playground. There is a piece of waste ground at the far side of the garden and the school board have been discussing and planning how to incorporate this into the playground/garden.
Area 5: making a wooden hanging xylophone, making charcoal, building a shelter.
Area 6: Learning about marine litter with the help of GRAB.
The children have all reported that they thought Eco Day was fantastic and really enjoyable. They have all been discussing what their favourite activity was and what our next day of action might be about.
