Vision

To collaborate more with students and teachers in our library and learn hands-on ways to combat climate change and pollution.

Action

We used the $500 to continue the compost program that was started prior to COVID. Since this program was already rolling, we used the money to upcycle used fabric into gym bags, create posters to promote composting, weed our garden beds, teach other classes how to grow seeds and plant flowers, grow caterpillars into butterflies, and more. We still want to build birdhouses, and we are looking forward to having a wind-up party with freezies, along with our school’s grade 2 “earth club” outside enjoying a park in nature. We had a parent from the school community come in to teach us more about composting, and the parent council will be watering our garden and harvesting our crops over the summer. We may even make pizza with the basil we are growing, but all the plants are still germinating right now. Our project shows how small projects like this can involve all grades and many parts of our community. The sustainability club that put in all this work, mainly grade 6 students, loved having a reason to meet in the library after school. It was very exciting when the snow finally melted and the parent volunteer came to school and showed us how to turn the compost. When we were weeding, we even uncovered onions from last year! One of the last things we do this year will be to release the butterflies into our garden, where all the flowers are. This week the grade 8s will be educating the early year students on the different stages of a caterpillar. It was really nice to have the money for these extra learning experiences, and the teachers at the school have thanked me for it.

Reflection & Celebration

I think we did well in showing our school that composting can be done, and we didn’t even deal with a single fruit fly! We hope even more teachers in our building will want to put a compost in our classroom. The garden for the butterflies and for food, is also a really nice teaching opportunity and has let me collaborate with parents in the community more.