Starting the New Year at Placement

This week at placement I was focusing on helping my teacher as she is part of the ECO Team at our school. I was working with children from different grades to help with different projects that pertained to the ECO Team and it's impact in the school.

For example, on Wednesday the school had a day designated for "litter less lunch". This meant that the children were to bring their lunch in containers and thermoses, making their lunch waste-free. Students from the ECO team went around and calculated the percentage of how many children out of the class had no waste in their lunch. The recording is the job of the students and myself to see the classroom with the highest numbers. Next week, we will be recording the number of students that DO NOT have plastic water bottles, making the event called "Ban the Bottle".

This got me thinking of the positive impacts, a green team or an eco team can have on children and a school population. Personally, I remember learning about environmental units in school and not really understanding the difference between what needs to be recycled and what was considered waste. Therefore, I would find the eco team to be beneficial, even in the simple respect as to explaining to children the difference between recyclables. In addition, having days such as the ones that I described above, introduces new options to children to get into the habit of making "greener" choices with their everyday footprints. These topics also strike great conversation opportunity in the classroom to expand on the knowledge that children may have on eco strategies and what they can do to improve.

*Click on the picture below to access "Eco Schools" website. This resource provides ideas and examples for activities and topics to discuss in the classroom from schools all around the world to help make our schools "greener"!

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