In First Class, we went on an Autumn Walk. We were looking at all of the different colours and all of the different leaves. We were trying to remember what the trees had looked like in the summer and spring. We talked about seasons and how much nature changes every day. We went for a walk around the park and looked at different types of leaves, red, yellow, brown and orange. We collected many types of those leaves. We set up a nature table in the classroom and tried to add interesting leaves and other natural items, like conkers, to it every day. We didn't see flowers anywhere because they were all dried up. We saw lots of colourful leaves but very few trees or plants had green leaves on them. It was great fun and we learned a lot about autumn.
In March, our Green School's Committee participated in Walk for Water to empathise with those who have to walk for miles everyday just to get access to clean water. The children and some teachers went to Glendalough on a rainy Tuesday and took part in a 6km walk with lots of bottles filled with water in their bags. The children said that they found it so hard but that they felt very good after it.
The school has been involved in lots of other activities regarding Environmental Awareness & Care throughout the year. We had a visitor in to discuss small ways that we could support the animals in our environment and another visitor to discuss our use of water and how we could conserve it.
6th Class, 5th Class and 3rd Class had a visit from Global Action Plan this year. They were teaching us all about biodiversity and caring for the environment. We learned a lot about the natural occurring habitats in Ireland. It was so interesting to learn how all animals and mini-beasts rely on each other so much. We created a food chain to show us that if you remove or lose even one part of the web that it will have a knock-on effect on everything else. We were really shocked by this. We decided to create and sign a pledge and we all promised to help preserve even the smallest animal or plant.