Green Activities

Educators | Crafty Ideas | Green Resources

-  Waste  -   Trees  -  Electricity  - Transport - Waste...

1. Reduce
Encourage everyone to use the back side of paper before it is discarded (preferably recycled).

2. Implement a recycling programme at your school
Recycling can become a bit of an organisational nightmare, so try to spread the responsibility to reduce the individual workload.

If your town/city has a kerbside recycling programme take advantage of it by providing your students with recycling bins. You may need to nominate some students to take responsibility for making sure that only recyclable items are put into the recycling bin and that the bin is put out at the kerbside on the appropriate day.

You may find it easier to put the responsibility of recycling onto individual classrooms. Having a recycling bin in each room, which is the responsibility of the students. The recyclable items will need to be put out at the kerbside on the appropriate day or taken home by students to be put with their recyclable material at home - a roster system may be needed.

Recycling bins need to be visually different from normal waste bins - undoubtedly your students will be able to come up with some attractive designs for your school's recycling bins.

Contact your local paper collection company and inquire whether they will pick up paper from your school.

3. Waste audit
Students could do a waste audit to determine how much of your schools waste could be composted, recycled or reused, rather than sent to the landfill.

4. Compost bin
Composting is nature's own recycling system.
There are some great compost bins available from garden and building stores but perhaps students could test their technology skills by designing and building a school compost bin.

Recently 'worm bins' have been developed, where worms are used to enhance the composting process. Check your yellow pages for a worm farmer near you to learn more. Perhaps you could ask them to visit your school. Making a miniature worm composting system in an old ice cream container is an excellent activity for your students.

Information about composting bins and worm composting is available from your local council or Forest and Bird (please send a stamped, self addressed envelope to Forest and Bird). Marlborough District Council has developed a four step schools education programme to reuse schools organic material for composting and teach about the life cycle of the worm and ecosystems, please contact them for more information, PO Box 443, Blenheim.

5. School clean up
Choose an area near your school, possibly a beach, gully, park or stream to clean up for Earth Day. I'm sure many of you participated in Clean Up The World, perhaps your students could go back to the same area. Caring for the environment should not be limited to one day a year. We should give continual care to the natural environment.

6. Storm water drains
This is a great topic to explore with your students. Storm water drains are all around us and yet many people pay no attention to them and do not understand their significance.

Storm water drains are in all our urban areas, including your school, so our streets and school grounds do not flood every time it rains. They are outlets that take water straight to New Zealand's streams, rivers, harbours and beaches. There is no filter system catching rubbish, so all of the rubbish in our streets will eventually end up in the ocean if it finds it way into a storm water drain. People often misuse storm water drains when they are washing their car, cleaning painting gear or hosing down driveways. All the harmful substances from these activities end up in the ocean - not a pretty thought!

Go outside with your students and find the storm water drains in your school grounds. You may also want to take them to the roadside and find a storm water drain on the street. Ask your students what they are, and what they are for? Perhaps you could find out where the storm water from your school goes?

Please contact your local council for more information about storm water drains, many have produced educational information that can be used in school.

Trees...

1. Know your natives
How many native trees do your students know? Spend some time learning about New Zealand's native trees this Earth Day. Or perhaps your class could learn a new native tree each week. There are some excellent native tree identification books available, especially by the author Andrew Crowe. Look for them in your library.

2. Natives at school
Are there native tree species in your school grounds? There are probably some native trees right under your students' noses and they don't even know it. If you are unsure which trees are natives see if the tree identification books can help, or perhaps invite someone to your school who can help. One of your students' parents may know their trees or invite someone from a local garden shop, botanical garden or council.

3. Plant trees!
You may want to plant trees at school or join a community planting project.

4. Plant seeds
If you don't have any trees to plant out this year perhaps your students could plant some seeds - they will be big enough to plant next year, perhaps for Earth Day or Arbour Day. Get students to bring empty, and clean, milk cartons to school. Cut the milk cartons in half to make pots to plant your seeds in. These plant pots can be planted into the soil, and will be eaten away by worms and natural processes. Using old milk cartons is an excellent use for something that would have otherwise ended up in the landfill. Beware - the seeds/trees will need to be cared for and watered during the year, make sure students take responsibility for growing their trees.

5. Natives in the classroom
Does your class have any pot plants? Now's a good time to get one. It's a good way to educate students about caring for nature and the ecology of plants. Below is a list of some native plants that are suitable for growing inside. You may wish to consult your local garden centre for more advice on caring for your new pot plant.
New Zealand natives: maidenhair fern (Adiantum sp), hen & chicken fern (Asplenium bulbiferum) pate (Schefflera digitata) baby's tears, rengarenga lily (Arthropodium cirrhatum) blueberry (Dianella nigra), bamboo orchid (Winika cunninghamii, was called Dendrobium cunninghamii), cabbage tree (Cordyline species) nertera (small creeping plant with bright red berries, grown as ground cover around pot plants in conservatories)

6. Hen and chicken fern
This plant is especially good for the classroom because the children can detach the 'chickens' and grow new plants.
The hen & chicken fern (Asplenium bulbiferum) is named because it has baby ferns (chicks) growing on the adult fronds. They can be detached easily from the mother (hen) frond, and planted into damp potting mix or a moss/ peat mix. As long as they are kept damp (use a clean spray mist bottle, filled with water) and in reasonably bright light ( not sun) they will grow. They do grow slowly, so are ideal to use in bottle or glass gardens. If the container you use has no drainage then use a piece of charcoal in the base of the mix, and be careful not to over water.

  7. Trees at school
Take a walk with your class around the school grounds and identify how trees are contributing, or have contributed to your school environment. Trees may be places for shade during outdoor activities or lunchtime. They have provided the timber for classrooms and seats. There may be  a slope or bank in your school where trees have been planted to reduce the chance of erosion. Do trees make your school environment more pleasant/inviting?

Electricity...

1. Electricity at school
What is electricity being used for at your school? To make your students more aware of our use of electricity get them to write a list of all the ways electricity is used at your school - in the classroom, office, art room, caretakers shed, staff room, wood work room, etc.

2. Electricity reduction at school
Perhaps your school would like to commit themselves to an 'Electricity Pledge'. Now that your students know what electricity is used for at school they could think of ways to reduce consumption. These electricity saving ideas would be written into the pledge so present and future, students and teachers could help to reduce the impact of electricity generation on the natural environment.

3. Things to make
Door snake - (as pictured) to stop draughts under doorways. An excellent, and simple way of retaining heat. Turn it off signs - (like example pictured) to remind people to turn lights off when they are not being used. Some could be used at school and students could take their creations home or give them to a local business(perhaps where their parents work). Please note that some lights, like sodium lights are better left on, rather than being turned on and off.

Transport...

1. 'Walk to school day' or 'carless day'
Promote the day before Earth Day as a ‘walk to school day’ or 'carless day'. Your school may have participated in an event like this already with the Canterbury City Council, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority or during Kids Safe Week. Of course this event does not need to be restricted to one day/promotion. It's a great idea anytime - good for both the health of your students and the environment.

2. Transport survey
Students could do a survey on how people get to school and determine from this how environmentally friendly their modes of transport are.
Survey a class or the entire school. Ask the following questions:
1. How did you travel to school?
2. How far did you travel? (some approximate figures will do)
3. If students travelled by car, ask how many passengers they travelled with?
Draw a graph from this information, illustrating the findings of the survey.

Students can also determine how much fuel was used by cars and buses:
1. Work out the total kilometres buses travelled to get to school. Buses use approximately 47 litres of fuel per 100km.
2. Work out the total kilometres travelled by cars to school. Small cars use about 7 litres of fuel per 100km, and large cars (four-wheel drives) use about 11 litres of fuel per 100km.
3. Calculate how much carbon dioxide was produced by cars and buses driving to school. Every litre of petrol produces 2.35kg of CO2 when burnt. A litre of diesel produces about 2.66kg of CO2.
4. How much carbon dioxide does transport to school produce each year? (Don't forget that your daily figure needs to be multiplied by two first.)

3. Alternative transport
Students could research alternative modes of transport, for example the electric and hydrogen powered cars. Perhaps they could exercise their imagination and design a new mode of transport or develop a 'green' car for the 21st Century that has a low impact on the natural environment and people's health.

4. Oil
Cars use one third of the oil consumed globally every year!  Oil is a non-renewable resource and half of the world's oil reserves have been used up already, the rest is predicted to be exhausted in just 40 years! Oil prices are already rising and will continue to do so because for every four barrels of oil used, the oil exploration industry finds just one new barrel of oil. New Zealand does not have an effective system of collecting used oil from vehicle motors and re-using it.
Students can make a difference! Write to the Minister for the Environment, calling on the government to require oil companies to collect and reuse used oil.

If you have implemented successful 'green' initiatives in your classrooms and schools which others may benefit from knowing about, send the information to office@forestandbird.org.nz