Growing a Home at Medina

Turning a waste land to bush land is no easy task!  At Medina they have rolled up their sleeves and cleaned up the area.  Kids have also been involved in creating a big picture 'vision'. Yesterday when I visited the school we talked about the next stage being to learn a lot about the area, and to start small with action.  We looked at the Doing More with Less blog and at Harvey Primary School's Animoto.  Thanks Harvey!  I also showed the students a book that I bought from the Bundiyarra Aboriginal Community in Geraldton last week.  It's a Wajarri Dictionary - the language of the Murchison region of Western Australia.  We wondered  if there is a Noongar dictionary as well.  A good question to ask Mrs Little.

Kids decided that they should learn more about the plants and animals of the area.  I told them about the Greening Australia website, Grow Us a Home and the students began to investigate.

We then wrote a list of things to do next, as part of learning about the area.  Here's what we came up with.

1. Clean up the area.
2. Organise for rubbish to be removed.
3. Find out information about Kwinana.
4. Take photos of the plants.
5. Do soil testing and write up a description of the soil. (Can use the activities from the thumb drive)
6. Speak with Mrs Little about the Aboriginal history of Kwinana and connection to country.
7. Research the type of plants and animals in the area.
8. Check out the activities in the biodiversity section of the thumb drive that Ingrid gave us.
9. Listen to / record the sounds of birds in the area.
10. Make an Animoto describing what you can see / hear / feel.
11. Investigate Noongar words for the plants and animals.
12. Research bush tucker and medicine for Noongar country.

Medina are keen to get on to the next stage and are planning to send me a progress report by Week 7.  Go Medina!

Copy of Sustainability at Harvey Primary School

Copy of Sustainability at Harvey Primary School


So we gave Harvey PS a Flip camera and showed Sam Jacobs, the teacher www.animoto.com and then WOW - a few days later - their own film showing you their great project. Marvellous work Harvey MK Eco Warriors. You are stars! Just click the blue line.

Portarlington Get Composting

I had a great visit at Portarlington today.  The students were very keen to get started with composting but they weren't sure how to go about it.  So I told them to ask me any questions they needed answered.  One of the kids, Charlotte, asked me how other schools get started. Great question! I showed them the blog and shared the information from some of the other schools that are Doing More with Less.  Great to share across Australia!  We then decided that it would be helpful if everyone had a particular role to play.  Here's what the kids wrote about their roles, and their plans for composting at Portarlington.

Hi my name is Jack.  My job s to survey kids about nude food and try and get kids to bring nude food more often.

Hi my name is Jackson and I'm working with Tom and we are emptying the compost into the compost bin after school and before school we clean them and put them back.

Hi I'm Charlotte and my job is to learn how to build compost bins from recycled resources from the community for our school to use.

Hi our names are Gabby and Montanna.  Our job is to go around to all the classes and speak about our project.  We also speak to teachers and parents.

And it is EVERYONE'S job to model to others about nude food and composting, and to report your stories to Millennium Kids!  Well done Portarlington.  Ingrid

Drysdale and Harvey have a chat

Today Drysdale Primary in Victoria and Harvey Primary in WA got to chat on Skype and share some ideas.  Following the conversation, we gave the Drysdale kids a really short time to come up with some notes on the ideas that were shared.

·         Drysdale Primary School has started the RED Project which is a great way to reduce soft plastics in Drysdale by taking all their soft plastics to school from home etc. and putting them in a big red bin.

      We have Nude Food Day every Tuesday.  Last year Drysdale Primary School won The Primary School award for rubbish free lunch.  Here's us winning the award.  We're very proud!  This photo was even in the local paper.

The RED (Recycle, Educate, Change) project is where you recycle soft plastics.  You cannot recycle soft plastic that has silver in the middle and it would take 660 years if it went to landfill until it breaks down.  We worked out that it takes about 8 generations to break down. Every kg of plastic we get $5.  (Mr Kennedy, the teacher, said that one student had no plastic to contribute because for her family, EVERY day is Nude Food day.  Fantastic!)

At Drysdale Primary School we use a Bokashi system which involves putting our food scrap in a bucket which we then put into a special bokashi bin and we put a special powder which breaks down the scraps into a liquid which we then put into our vegie garden to help the vegies.  Also we have a bucket in every classroom.

Drysdale Primary School is pretty good at remembering to turn our lights of, but some of us don't need to because in the year 5/6 area we have auto lights that has motion detector which saves lots of energy.

Written by the Millennium Kids at Drysdale Primary School.

We are the Leopold and we speak for the trees!

Leopold Primary School plan to have a greener future, and a greener present!  Yesterday, I arrived a little early at the school.  I was escorted to the Environment Room by two very helpful Year Two students, Lulu and Lili. Thanks girls! In class, the students were making posters about Compost, to be put all around the school.  Each class has a little yellow bin that gets emptied every day by one of the environment groups.  The posters help kids learn about what to put in the bins and what not to.

Ms Moreno is the Environment teacher at Leopold and it is her job to help kids to learn about growing food, the importance of trees, frogs and birds and lizards and lots more!  Learning about the environment is a part of Science, Cooking, English, Art, and all aspects of school at Leopold.  And it's also important that the kids have fun while they are learning!

We went on a tour and I saw that care for the environment happens across the school, not just in one room.  Year 2s have been reading stories about the ocean.  Year 6s have been cooking from the garden (and cooked me a FABULOUS LUNCH!), and others have been learning about the Lorax, who speaks for the trees.

Leopold students have been learning about frogs and the environment.  One student, McKenzie has even done some research and has designed a frog pond and the surrounding area.  I'm looking forward to reading her plan in more detail.

During my visit we called Catrina.  The kids were very excited to be sharing all of their news with her!!

Congratulations to Leopold for all of the work you are doing to take care of our environment.  Ingrid

Harvey PS Skypes Drysdale PS in Geelong to Share Ideas

Harvey Primary School skyped  Drysdale Primary School today. We asked them about their sustainability projects. Some of the questions and answer were.

Question- Does Davysdale have a worm farm?

Answer- No, but we have a Bokashi bin.

question- What kind of recycling posters does Drysdale have around the school

Answer- Yes, we have some posters on top of the bins to say what to put in the bin.

Question- Does Drysdale PS turn off the lights when they leave the room?

Answer- Yes, we have sensor lights that senses the movement in the room so they turn off or on automatically.

Question- Does Drysdale have any zero waste lunch day during the year?

Answer- Yes, we have one every week . We won a prize for our waste free lunch days. They are called Nude Food Mondays.

Question - Has Drysdale PS been on a trip to their landfill site?

Answer - No, but we are planning to go to the one in our town.

The skype talk was very good for all students. It was great to talk to the students from Victoria. We heard from their Principal too. We hope to do it again sometime so we can share information between our schools.

Article by Ethan and Jimmy

Kids Zero in on Waste

Doing More With Less students from North Cottesloe PS and Cottesloe PS met today after school to discuss their design for their custom made bin system. This was their second meeting with Rikki, from Creative Spaces, to discuss how they could help educate the public about waste and recycling. They discussed practical issues such as how they would get their creation to events like Sculpture by the Sea, Hallabaloo and the St Luke's Fair in Mosman Park. The team looked over the brief they had given Rikki last month and made suggestions about how people would see the rubbish once it went into the bin. They discussed on site composting and wormfarms, too. So many ideas. After an hour and a half they had honed their ideas and finally signed off on the designs presented by Rikki. Thanks to a Waste Grant from the Waste Authority the girls will see their custom made bins at events in their community at the end of the year.

Bellaire's Fabulous Compost

Bellaire Primary School's project is to create some wonderful compost.  Their teacher, Nicole Lindemayer has been visiting other schools to see what they are up to so that Bellaire can learn from them.  Then, in turn, Bellaire will teach others! The students have also been regularly looking at the Doing More with Less blog in an effort to keep learning. Each classroom in the senior area now has a green compost bucket.  The Bellaire MK team have made signs to teach people about what to do put in the compost bin.  We have put the school in touch with Anthony from Barwon Waste Education as they are very keen for him to come to the school to teach them what he knows.  The Bellaire team have made a short video using their MK blogger and this will soon be up on the blog.  Stay tuned!

Enviro Club at Geelong East

The Enviro Club at Geelong East Primary School has a new home, where they are planning to meet every Monday at lunch time.  It's a very popular club, with over 40 kids applying to be a part of it!  While the students in the club are leading projects, they using the skills and talents of lots of interested people.  The school now has chooks and a worm farm and a new compost tumbler.  Every Tuesday is Nude Food day and at least 70% of students are remembering to bring a lunch with no wrapping on that day.  The club hopes to make every day Nude Food Day!  Kids in the club have promised to send in photos and stories to Millennium Kids.  I'm looking forward to hearing what they get up to next!  Ingrid

Mano's Planet Protectors

Sometimes, when you are in the middle of something, you can forget how far you have come.  This is how it was this morning when I visited Manifold Primary School in Geelong.  They thought that they weren't doing very much...  Then, they showed me some of the projects from around the school....  Here's what they are up to:  They have a worm farm and compost bays are being built.  The kids have been working in the school garden and have been learning that the more you grow, the less you need to buy from the shops - so less waste.  Once a month they have a community food swap at the school where people bring along produce from their garden to share with others.  Mrs Hines has the environment as a focus in her class.  They have been looking at food choices and the waste that comes along with them.  The big question her class has been looking at is 'Is there an alternative?', so kids are suggesting making their own biscuits and bread, and bringing fruit instead of chips.  Mrs Hines keeps learning more and more herself so that she can teach the kid even more.  During the holidays she went to see the 'Ocean Crusaders' and has also done a Permaculture Design Course.  Mano is soon to produce a movie called 'The Day Rubbish Fought Back', using the blogger camera that MK gave them at the Roadshow.   Go Mano!  Ingrid