Vision

To empower students to take action to learn and understand their roles and responsibilities about the environment.

Action

Our action project began with the start of the Climate Action Club. Students met one to two times a week during lunch recess. The club included students from grades 1 to 5. In addition, my own kindergarten students participated in a few activities during class time.

Our first goal was to create a pollinator garden in our school courtyard and at the back of our school. Students learned about the roles of pollinating insects and how they are important for food production. We also talked about many honey bees have been sick with Colony Collapse Disorder and we need to encourage other bee species and pollinating insects to pollinate food crops, fruit and nut trees. Students took action by cleaning up the flower beds, adding new soil and planting both spring flowers and some drought-tolerant perennial plants, such as heather and lavender. In addition, students cleared out a small area in the back of our school and created a wildflower garden. Students also learned that choosing the drought tolerating plants and wildflower seeds would make them more sustainable because they need less water and could better tolerate summer weather when our school is closed for summer break.

The second goal was to introduce mason bees in our school community and the surrounding neighbourhood. Students learned about the difference between honey bees and mason bees and their life cycles. Students also had the opportunity to see and touch some of the bee cocoons. Students helped to put the nesting blocks and tubes in the mason bee house. We installed the mason bee house near our school’s front office so anyone who walks by can see it. We were lucky to witness a bee emerging underneath a document camera. It was so cool! On a sunny warm day, my kindergarten students know that mason bees would be active and they would ask to go out to observe the mason bees. Raising mason bees at our school is another sustainable practice because it increases the bee diversity in our neighbourhood.

Aside from the two main goals, we introduced the Plastic Reduction Challenge, in which families tally the amount of single-use plastic from their kitchen waste for one week. Families would set their own goal to reduce the amount of single-use plastic then repeat the tallying to see if they achieved their goals. The Climate Action heroes also hosted an Eco-Fair to raise money for a local animal shelter and a salmon fish hatchery. Students learned the concept of up-cycle and used leftover yarns to weave bookmarks and made spool-knitted coasters. The climate action members and a few other classes also planted and grew lettuce, tomato, and marigold seedlings for sale during the Eco-Fair.

I believe my students were motivated to be climate action heroes because they learned that our Earth is sick after experiencing the heat dome a couple of summers ago in 2021 in British Columbia. I have also shown videos about ocean plastic pollution, polar ice melting, extreme weather conditions and animals suffering which further inspired them to do something to improve our environment. The students wanted to take action and make changes. I think by offering opportunities for them to learn and take action are ways to give them hope and optimism, and that they can make a difference. These action projects are important to our school community because we must educate young students. Knowledge is power and hopefully, they will make better choices that are good for the environment and take care of Earth as they grow up.

Reflection & Celebration

Over 40 students from grades one to five were directly involved with this project. Their eagerness to learn and to take action was very evident. In addition to the student learning, parents were also involved with the single-use plastic reduction challenge at home and commented that they didn’t realize there was so many plastic packaging materials. Since we put up the mason bee house, many students stood and observe the mason bees’ behaviour and were excited to see the nesting tubes getting filled. Our Eco-fair was well supported by students, families, and community members and we raised $1900 and donated the money to a local animal shelter and a salmon hatchery in Maple Ridge.

Overall, there is so much to celebrate! Students were so engaged with learning how to plant vegetables and flowers. They conducted school ground clean-up on their own during recess. Some students have already asked about next year’s climate action club and wanted to know what else we should do. To wrap up this year’s actions and successes, we are celebrating with a pizza party!