Cyrus Eaton Elementary School is doing it all!

Green Schools Engagement Officer Tabitha Coleman had 5 visits with the school, let’s see what they got up to!

Tabitha’s first visit was to Mrs. Benjamin’s Grade 3-4 class where she introduced vermicomposting to the students and helped them set up their own indoor classroom compost. She touched on the topic of energy and explained that the students would be saving energy by composting at the school. Tabitha then read the story Wiggling Worms at Work by Wendy Pfeffer. Afterward she asked the children some questions about the book to see what they remembered. The students took out their journals and documented facts and drew pictures about what they learned about worms. Check out the students vermicomposting here: https://youtu.be/p84fn_Q3x14.

Tabitha’s second visit was with Mrs. Melanie MacKay’s Grade 2-3 class for a fun WasteLess Micro Garden activity. They started by following along with YouTube videos, “From a Seed to a Flower” and “How a Plant a Seed”. See videos here: 

https://youtu.be/dJjNh2pMSB8?list=PLgZQR1VW3fpMwYov70lTRF_XwHLpyyHoq

https://youtu.be/EsODAlsY4NM?list=PLgZQR1VW3fpMwYov70lTRF_XwHLpyyHoq.  

After the two videos, Tabitha spoke with the children about the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling. She also explained that another way to recycle is to upcycle. By doing all of these great things for our earth we are wasting less energy. The students then got started with the activity and were very excited for their basil micro gardens to grow. The children will be saving pudding cups to transplant the basil to the school community garden in June. Watch the Grade 2-3 class tell you about micro gardens here: https://youtu.be/jyert0tQvoc.

For Tabitha’s last three visits, she played Energy Bingo with Mrs. Nancy Reid’s Grade 2 class, Mrs. Carol-Ann Matthew’s Grade 4/5 class, and Ms. Carolyn Elliott’s Grade 5/6 class. Tabitha used a jar of recycled buttons and upcycled calendar pieces as bingo chips. She had saved little containers and dispersed the buttons in them. The children loved exploring the buttons and reading the blurbs on the calendar bingo chips.

One of the first things the students asked was “What do we win?” Tabitha told them that we try to be green with everything we do, and that includes saving energy by not printing giveaways, and instead the prize was going to be a surprise! After the first 10 questions a few children got a full row, and shouted “Bingo”. Tabitha surprised them with a green tree stamp. The game was on now! The students wanted to keep going to see if they could be the next winner of a green tree stamp. After the round was over, Tabitha had them clear their cards and proceeded with the next 10 questions. A few more students won, and the rest of the students wanted to continue with the last five questions to see who would win next. At the end of the game, Tabitha surprised all the students and told them everyone would get two stamps. The stamps could be on their hands, arms, or in/on a special notebook. Everyone loved the game!

For more composting facts visit: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/queen-of-green/faqs/compostin…

To download the Micro Garden activity: http://greenschoolsns.ca/sites/default/files/activity_-_micro_greens_p-1…

To download Energy Bingo: http://greenschoolsns.ca/sites/default/files/activity-_energy_bingo_3-12…