Thorndon Envirogroup

World Environment Day – Thursday 5 June

2008-06-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday the Envirogroup went to Macalister Park to help plant five thousand New Zealand native plants.

We went on the bus at 11:15 to the park and listened to a speech. There were a lot of people there including TV3 News. Once the speech was over we had lunch. They had prepared things like sandwiches, fruit, brownies and drinks. It was really tasty.

After lunch we started to plant the native plants. They already had holes dug in the ground and the plants were waiting in the holes to be planted.

Someone taught us how to get the plastic covers of and how to plant the plants. Once the last planting was done (which took a very short time as there were so many hands to help) we relaxed. Then it was time to leave and we were tired as we got off the bus and started to head back to school. It had been a big day! It good that we could help plant trees to reduce New Zealand’s carbon footprint!

By Noah and Datu

Compost and Recycling – Whole School Responsibility!

2008-06-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

Last week the Envirogroup decorated some new compost bins for of the classes. The compost bins are containers with wheels and clip on handles. They are also New Zealand made.

We decorated the compost bins individually or in pairs.

After we made them we went to the supermarket and bought scrubbing brushes and gloves with money we raised last year. This was because when we surveyed the classes about composting last year they said they didn’t like the mess. This way the classes have no excuses!

When we got back to school we delivered the compost bins, the scrubbing brushes and gloves to all of the classes. While we were delivering them we brought a timetable which had the day they needed to empty their compost into the worm farm.

Now all of the classes (including the junior school) are responsible for their own waste (instead of Room 2 collecting it each week).

By Olivia

Preparing for World Environment day

2008-06-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

To prepare we talked about what sustainability is and what CO2 is. We also went on a sustainability website and did a quiz on how much energy the world would need in the next few years. We also went onto a carbon footprint website and completed a basic quiz about our life styles. Even in our Envirogroup there were big differences in the sizes of the individual carbon footprints. We talked about actions we could take to reduce ours on an individual basis.

We also wrote a pledge on the World Environment Day website. Every school in the country had this opportunity on June 5 we could see what other schools around the country are doing for the environment.

We had two pledges. The first was that we would try and get more people in our school to use public transport. The second was to ask everyone to be responsible for their own recycling and compost.

Here is the website for you to have a look at what schools are doing around the country.
http://efs.tki.org.nz/wed

By Charquera