Learning in J26

Junior School J26 Dowson is sharing the learning taking place in their class…

Our call to action in J26.

In our classroom this term we have made ocean pollution and recycling a focus in our room.  This all began after watching a short clip on how our rubbish ends up in our waterways, destroying the wildlife and their habitats.  We decided it was time to change our practices.

Firstly, we began researching how the ocean is being affected by humans and how we could make changes in our classroom to help reduce the waste that we create.  We completed a carbon footprint survey, discovering that if we keep living the way we are we will need over 7 additional Planet Earths to sustain our living.  This also gave us strategies and ideas on how we can reduce the waste we create.  We found that we can recycle soft plastics at Coles across the road and we have introduced nude food lunch boxes in which the students can receive 5 house points each day that they bring in a lunch box without soft plastics.  We have also discovered that our daily rubbish levels have dramatically dropped, proving we are doing our part to save our planet.  

Then we began to think about the school community and how we could reach out to others to start taking care of our planet.  We decided to make posters to display around the school reminding students to use the bins and why.  Our posters were bright and colourful, ensuring that we were grabbing the attention of our audience.  Then to reach more people we wrote persuasive letters to Mrs King asking her to support our call to action.  They gave many wonderful reasons including evidence they discovered in their research.  Through their call to action, a message was sent out through the Daily Bulletin to remind all students to use the bins.  This gave the students a real sense of accomplishment as their call to action was recognised.

This was such an exciting time for the students.  They have been so passionate about saving the planet and living more sustainably - it really has been a pleasure to support them in their call to action.    

Ms Dowson

Year 2 Teacher