On Saturday 22nd April, it is the celebration of Earth Day and pupils have been using their creative thinking skills to explore ideas and question how we can protect the environment. This year marks 52 years since Earth Day first began. It is an opportunity for people across the globe to come together, not only to celebrate the world, but also to raise awareness about how crucial it is that we take steps now to protect our precious planet.
Every year, Earth Day is commemorated with a different theme that highlights the various challenges facing our planet. According to earthday.org, the official global organiser of the event, the theme for Earth Day 2023 is "Invest in Our Planet". The aim is to encourage institutions, governments, businesses, and more than one billion participants to focus on improving the health of our planet. The organisation believes that safeguarding the planet's health is the responsibility of every individual.
Pupils were able to contribute to the discussion and responded positively to the challenge by looking at saving energy by turning off lights, switching off appliances when not in use, by being responsible for recycling, by using less water, by planting trees and flowers and finally picking up plastic and litter. In celebration of Earth Day some pupils made an earth themed dream catcher to hang in their windows.
In other classes pupils have continued to think about how we can support our environment and so have been planting a range of herbs so that they can take them home when grown, to add to their home cooking as part of Fountain’s Primary healthy eating campaign. The children have planted oregano, basil, chives, mint, parsley, and coriander and will be eagerly observing the changes as they grow!
Early years classes have been learning all about dandelions and although they may be classed as weeds as some they have been around for years and are easily recognisable through their yellow flower. The most common variety of dandelion is known as the taraxacum officinale, while the word dandelion is from the French dent-de-lion which means lion’s tooth. Pupils have put the versatile flower to use and have been dissecting, pressing, cooking in the mud kitchen, in activities and used the seeds from the dandelion clocks to make a dandelion painting.
Children have used their creativity to learn new skills by using dandelions and other flowers in the Japanese technique of ‘Hapa-zome’ which means ‘leaf dye.’ The flowers and leaves are ‘hit’ with a stone to release its pigment and natural dye.
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