Throughout the week children across the Junior and Senior School have been learning about and celebrating Earth Day 2021. Earthday.org’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide.
Earth Day was first launched in 1970 and encourages the World to raise awareness, hold companies and governments more accountable and to work together to discuss and improve the issues that currently impact on our planet. It is important that the children can learn about the small changes we can make as an individual, a family, class and a school community to make the World a better place and try to make a difference for the benefit of everyone around the World.
Throughout the week the children have been finding out about Earth Day and learning in more detail about the four main environmental issues that we are facing as a planet; these are Deforestation, Pollution, Global Warming and Plastic Pollution. Each class has learned a little more about each of these and how everyday activities can have an impact worldwide. We have had some wonderful conversations about recycling, the damage that litter can have to how our environment looks but also the damage that litter can do to the habitats of animals living in the wild.
We discussed some of our favourite places to visit outside with the children recalling trips to the park, lakes, woodland areas and the beach as some of their favourite destinations and we talked about what these would look like with less trees in the parks and forests and what these would look like if no one respected the places they visited and left their litter behind. Year 1, 2 and 4 all enjoyed going out and litter picking in the community. We walked along some of the pathways close to school and across into Linford Wood. The children could not believe how much rubbish they collected! They loved using the ‘litter picker grabber’ and worked as a pair to find, collect and carry the bag of rubbish together.
In Reception the children enjoyed drawing a picture of the Earth on the playground and collected natural resources to colour the World in and talk about Earth as a planet and what it is like to live here. They have also learned about recycling paper and how they can help with this at home and School.
Year 1 and 2 looked in detail at the four environmental issues and worked as a group to discuss and sort a variety of climate action cards and place them into the environmental issue that they were linked to. This was an extremely interactive task that encouraged the children to work collaboratively together taking time to talk through what they already knew and to develop their thinking skills with their friends. When we gathered together we were able to talk through how each action card contributed to the environmental issue and what things we could do to help improve the situation.
We have all learned so much and thought carefully about how we can make small changes that will make a difference and working together to make our community and the world a better place to live.
Miss K Duff
Head of Junior School
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