GO Eco Week

Due to several staff being taken ill EcoACTIVE were unable to run the planned workshops with 5E and Year 4 today. However, that didn't stop Eco Week from continuing across the school. In Year 2 the classes got creative (with some help from Blaise) and made 'bee hotels'!   They reused plastic bottles and newspaper before painting it in bright colours to attract the bees. They cut bamboo to fill the shell so that lone bees have somewhere to lay their eggs. Give bees a chance!! How are your hands Dawn? Blaise to the rescue! Meanwhile in Year 6 they were also creating! Half of the children were at school where they are entering a craft competition in which they are making examples of sealife out of reused plastic. The competition is highlighting the issue of plastic pollution in our seas and the damage it is wreaking to the wildlife.    One child was clearly engrossed by the task The other half headed off to the He...

Day three saw EcoACTIVE do another workshop in Year 1. In 1CJ the children got the chance to learn about the compost cycle. They got to examine worms up close... And make little insect hotels... Here they are demonstrating the compost cycle: Later on Year 3 had their EcoACTIVE sessions where they learnt bout the recycling process. They then created little 'how recycling works' boards and made their own recycled paper! 3C producing some great work Making recycled paper is serious fun!  3T getting in on the action Nice work Arthur! Look at the concentration... Meanwhile in Year 4 over the last two days there have been some sweet smells wafting out of the food tech room which has become the fragrance room for Gospel Oak's very first environmentally-friendly soap production. Most commercial soaps contain a lot of man-made chemicals that are not great for the environment once the soapy water is washed away dow...

The second day of Eco Week began with an assembly for phases 2 and 3 in the big hall. Kate from EcoACTIVE had an enthralled and well informed audience as she talked through the issues of litter, recycling and energy.  One terrible fact: it was pointed out that plastic bags look very much like jellyfish in the ocean so turtles try to eat them which makes them very sick and can kill them 😢 Another fact: as landfill sites rot they release methane gas into the air 💨 In Year 2 they   met some worms and woodlice and learnt how composting benefits their diet and creates habitats.  They also made seed balls with clay and wildflower seeds to do some guerilla gardening on the heath or in their back gardens. They also  reused rubbish by turning litter into glitterbugs. In Year 1 they  redid the compost cycle using pictures and ordering. They planted wild seeds in paper pots that they had made made and  made insect hotels out of...