Earth Day is celebrated worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Here at BIS, we are global citizens who care for our world. Earth Day is, therefore, the perfect opportunity to promote the importance of being environmentally friendly.
Contact with nature is a source of wonder and inspiration for children, and this is essential for their holistic development. We want our children to learn how they should love, respect and take good care of their planet so that future generations can enjoy it too.
To show we were thinking about how to make the world a better place all of our primary children came to school dressed in blue, green and white. Every child made an Earth Day promise to illustrate how every person has a responsibility to care for their planet. Some of the pledges included:
“We promise to turn off the lights when leaving a room.”
“We promise to avoid using plastic straws.”
“We promise to use our water bottles.”
“We promise to water the plants in our garden every day.”
“We promise to tidy up.”
“We promise - NO MORE PLASTICS!”
The theme for international Earth Day 2019 is ‘Protect Our Species’ so each year group explored an endangered species and thought about why the animal is endangered, reasons to protect it and what we can do to help.
For example, our youngest learners in F1, were introduced to the importance of bees to our existence. The children discovered that bees play a vital part in our ecosystem. Plants need them to pollinate, which gives food for other organisms and humans, and promote floral growth for other insects’ habitats. Sadly, the children found out that the worldwide bee population is now in decline. This is all caused by widespread use of pesticides, climate change, pests, loss of habitats and more.
In Year 2, children reflected on what they could do to save the coral reefs around the world. Following on from the work they had done as part of their International Primary Curriculum (IPC) topic about the Great Barrier Reef, they decided to make large models of coral reefs and the creatures that live within the ecosystem. The children had a fantastic time gluing and sticking together recycled materials to make their creations and celebrated their learning by sharing their models with the whole school.
At lunchtime the children at both campuses enjoyed a vegetarian lunch; an idea suggested by the Junior School Council. There were many more activities enjoyed by all including making animal sculptures from recycled materials at the Early Years and Infant Campus, rice seed planting, ‘cleaning the ocean’ activities and even planting new trees at the Junior Campus:
Although we are facing global environmental problems, we believe that it is not too late to help our planet. As Mahatma Gandhi once said “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” So please join us and let’s work hand in hand in taking care of the many wonders that we have. It is pivotal to act now so our world will be a better place and our children will have brighter tomorrows.
Aziza Williams, Matthew Payne, Emma Spencer and Crislet Silva
Joining BIS HCMC in Foundation Stage 2 (F2) is a fantastic age to begin a lifetime love for learning, encouraged and nurtured by our experienced and committed class and specialist teachers, who personalise learning unique to every child. We look back at what our F2s have experienced in less than one term already at BIS HCMC.
