The students need YOUR help!
3/4 Student Action
In specialist Inquiry this year, we have been exploring some of the main issues and opportunities in the school to support students to be able to feel in the green zone more often. The main areas of focus are: addressing the problem of litter and negative behaviour in the toilets; and the opportunity to increase nature and our connection to nature to support wellbeing.
Now it's crunch time - students are carrying out their initiatives for the rest of term 4 and the impacts of these initiatives should be long lasting, we hope!
We're being rather ambitious so need all of the help we can get! Below is a list of items that we are seeking as donations, or people trying to find these things being given away for free online.
*I know that this was in the newsletter a few weeks ago, but we have some new items, marked with an asterix, and perhaps you missed it.
- an old tricycle or balance bike* (to transform into a litter collection vehicle!)
- paint that's suitable for outdoors* (to paint signs and terracotta pots)
- soy sauce or tamari bottles (so that we can stop getting those mini plastic fish soy sauce in lunch orders)
- bench seat (to put outside the main toilets as part of a waiting area)
- outdoor seating (for calm gardens and bird watching)
- big logs and rocks (to form as seats and garden edging in wellbeing gardens)
- chicken wire
- arch way
- raised garden beds
- bamboo (to make teepees)
- large plastic pots
- medium to large terracotta pots and the bottom saucer thing*
- hanging baskets
- bird bath
- old rugs and mats
- old cushions (as above)
- storage tubs (ideally weather proof)
- stepping stones/tiles that (ideally) don't need to be cemented down...
- planks of wood for making signs
- water feature (ideally solar powered pump)
- tongs
If you have anything else that you think might be of interest, please reach out! Please also spread the word, as people sometimes miss things in the newsletter and we'd love your help to get this message out there. Thanks so much!
Here are some photos of students in action in Community Inquiry, carrying out their plans.
Creating cardboard cutouts of Australian animals for a scavenger hunt
Preparing to green up the quadrangle!
Starting a 'wellbeing' garden
Collecting items for a 'birds nest shop'
Rehearsing a presentation about the toilets for other year levels
Creating a map and activities for a Nature Connection mini-orienteering activity
Creating cardboard cutouts of Australian animals for a scavenger hunt
Preparing to green up the quadrangle!
Starting a 'wellbeing' garden
Collecting items for a 'birds nest shop'
Rehearsing a presentation about the toilets for other year levels
Creating a map and activities for a Nature Connection mini-orienteering activity
1/2 action - Making our school a better home for more creatures
We are continuing to work on the habitat garden that we created near the veggie patch and rainbow benches, creating habitat primarily for small birds and native bees. For this reason, we are seeking:
- bird baths
- rocks (medium to large)
- bamboo
- chicken wire
- wooden boxes or other structures that can be used to make native bee or insect hotels, or else planks/off cuts of wood that we can use to build a structure ourselves
- small logs or untreated wood with holes drilled into them for native bees (see this video from the 2min38sec mark till the 3min50sec mark for specifications)
- more watering cans
- weeding tools
If you have anything else that you think might help us keep improving our habitat garden (next to the veggie garden, near the rainbow seats) for small birds, native bees, and butterflies, please reach out!
Thanks community!
Nerida & Kehani - Community Inquiry teachers