Sustainability Fair, Plant Sale, Composting Fundraiser
Vision
Our vision is to help students appreciate nature and want to take care of their environment by taking action.
Action
We carried out 2 main action projects: a Plant Sale and a Sustainability Fair.
1. All classes grew various garden plants and herbs from seeds. Some classrooms cared for house plants that were donated by families. As a school, we grew and cared for these plants so we could host a Plant Sale on May 14th and 15th. All proceeds will be used to help purchase Food Cyclers so we can implement a composting program in our school. In addition, we plan to build a raised garden which we will use our compost to fertalize our garden. We plan to share the food with students as part of our healthy snack program and with the day care in our school to ensure children get healthy snacks.
Side note. As a long term goal, we are fundraising to build an outdoor classroom. Any extra funds will go towards the hefty cost of doing so. We collaborated with songcollab.studios to create digital media releases to advertise our plant sale, to reach out to community organizations for assistance via crowd funding. https://linktr.ee/cambridgepscomposters
2. On Earth Day, our school held a Sustainability Fair to help raise awareness on how we can be sustainable or more environmentally friendly. Each class created an exhibit to put on display (e.g., recycled art, bird houses designed by grade 3 students and built by high school students in wood shop, student designed water filtration systems, a listening station featuring a song and book illustrated and recorded by students, information about plant cycles and plants grown in classrooms, projects on local birds and local invasive and endangered species right in the South Nation etc. We had a food cycler demonstration. We were also honoured to work with Glenn Smirle (a local beekeeper from Smirlholm farms in Morewood) who taught some primary classes on the importance of bees and pollination.
3. We also hosted a used book exchange where families could donate gently used books. We collected and re-homed over 1250 books! Each student got to take home 2 free books. The remaining books were donated to our local day care.
4. During Earth Day week, two keen and inspired students who attended the youth forum hosted a workshop for other classes. They created a step-by-step PowerPoint as a visual during their workshop. This helped give another purpose to an old t-shirt and save plastic bags from entering landfills.
Reflection & Celebration
The level of awareness has increased tremendously throughout our school. Students, staff, families and community members came together in an attempt to be more sustainable (e.g., grew a variety of plants and re-homed used books).
Links
Check out our media project with Song Collab Studio and news on our sustainability fair on our school board website!