Have a sustainable Easter!

It's one week until Easter and with lots of Easter egg hunts and games being planned, there is a risk of creating unnecessary waste and buying items that will be single use only.  Tonnes of packaging, toys and decorations are thrown out each year on festive days such as Easter, but with some sensible shopping choices and more crafty thinking, you can still have the same amount of fun but with less impact on the environment.

Here are some useful ideas or choices you can make when celebrating Easter this year:

🐥 Many chocolate brands are selling chocolate eggs without plastic packaging now; make sure you look for these and recycle the foil and cardboard appropriately

🐥  Buying ethical chocolate is also important;  look for brands that have Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance logos, or that are made without palm oil (often found in chocolate products as an emulsifier)

🐥 Try to make long-lasting or reusable decorations out of paper or material; keep them safe and remember to take them out each year

🐥 Make an Easter egg trail using painted stones; these can be used over and over, or you can even get children to paint their own stones!

🐥 Try making your own natural dyes and use them to colour egg shells and make patterns; cabbage, spinach, turmeric and blueberries work really well

🐥 Have a go at making your own hot cross buns; they're easy to do and just need a little bit of time to allow the dough to rise;  BBC Good Food has some good recipes

🐥 When planning an Easter meal, try to think about where the food is coming from and buy local/seasonal as much as you can

🐥 And finally, get outside and see what nature is doing at this time of year!  If you have a local farm, go and visit and see the newborn animals and buy some local produce while you're there

🐥🐰👒 Happy Green Easter! 👒🐰🐥

Earth Hour 2021

This time next week it will be the build up to Earth Hour 2021 🌍💡

The first Earth Hour was held in 2007 as a way of drawing attention to the environmental impact we are having on our planet.  Turning lights off is an easy action that we can all do to reduce our carbon footprint, but what other simple actions can we take to minimise our energy consumption?

I've been doing some research into schools and they are some of the most energy inefficient places you can find! From leaving lights on all day, to leaky taps, to wasting reams of paper... the wastage in some schools can be seriously high and this is sending a worrying message to young people.  However, schools are also an ideal place to highlight the inefficiencies that exist in all areas of our lives and show children easy steps to reduce our levels of waste and carbon emissions.  This will help teach them a valuable lesson and hopefully make them more environmentally responsible citizens in the future.

Here are some of my favourite easy steps you can take:

💚  Keep scrap paper to use for quick and simple activities that don't need to be kept

💚  Assign children to be classroom eco-monitors who can turn off lights and close windows

💚  Teach children the importance of looking after their belongings and not throwing them away as soon as they are damaged or broken

💚  Install recycling bins in all parts of the school and encourage children to bring in snacks in plastic-free packaging or reusable containers

💚  Have times where you turn off the lights and use natural light instead

💚  Invest in some low maintenance indoor plants to bring greenery into school and clean the air

💚  Install smart meters that help visualise the amount of energy being used 

💚  Incorporate some outdoor learning activities into your curriculum to help bring awareness to the importance of the environment and how much we are connected to it

To find out more about Earth Hour, visit earthhour.org and learn more about their mission

To learn about making your school more environmentally friendly, visit eco-schools.org.uk

 

Friluftsliv

If anyone's good at embracing the outdoors, it's the Scandinavians. "Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlig klær!" - "There's no bad weather, only bad clothes!" There's a lot to be said for this approach, and (aside from cases of extreme weather!) encouraging children to play outside every day and develop resilience is an important life skill.

Friluftsliv is another Nordic word/concept/expression which we can learn a lot from.  Literally translated, it means 'open-air living'.  This means getting outside everyday no matter the season, weather or what mood you're in.  This is generally a part of Nordic culture where there is an emphasis on spending time in nature and being close to greenery, forests and water.  Historically, this may have meant spending extended periods of time in the great outdoors, but nowadays it can mean spending a part of every working day or school day outside, either as part of or in addition to the normal outdoor recreation time.  

In Norway, Friluftsliv is included into the school curriculum.  This means that all children will be taught in an outdoor setting and will learn the skills needed to have adventures and stay safe when outside; this includes skills such as swimming, orienteering, building a shelter, foraging safely for food, using tools, and practising simple first aid techniques.  Some of the teachings come from the Sami people (who are indigenous to Scandinavia) and their traditions, which helps children to understand their culture and develop in a more rounded way.  This approach has been shown to improve social, emotional, physical and cognitive development in children and teenagers. 

The English curriculum includes some outdoors education but this is generally in the context of sport rather than learning about the outdoors. Forest Schools are becoming increasingly prevalent but this is mainly in the primary school setting.  Why not think about adopting some of the ethos of friluftsliv and include it in your curriculum?  What benefits could it bring to both the children and staff at your school?

Take learning outside this spring

The return to school tomorrow is feeling like a new start for many of us :)  The long winter slog is almost over, and the longer, lighter days are bringing us sunshine, new hope, and the chance to rekindle old friendships.  Why not take the opportunity to introduce some new ideas into your teaching too?

Taking learning outside has been shown to increase engagement and stimulate many more senses and types of learning than in the classroom.  Being outdoors facilitates more practical, hands on learning and encourages children to thrive who might normally shy away from participation in an indoor setting. 

Forest Schools have become a way of making outdoor learning more regular and this helps children to engage with nature and appreciate its dynamics and rhythms over the seasons.  You don't have to be an official forest school, however, to take advantage of the benefits of teaching outside.  Why not incorporate some outdoor time into your science or geography lessons, or even think of a way of taking maths outside or spending time having discussions during a PSHE session?  

Spending time outside may be a particularly useful way of easing the return to school for some children who may find the intensity and chaotic, noisy nature of being in the classroom a bit overwhelming at first.  Including some activities such as forest school crafts or team building games which can be done in an open space might help children interact with each other and remember how to play together.  

There are loads of useful websites for outdoor learning, these are some of my favourites:

🌳 The Wildlife Trust 

🌳 Learning through Landscapes

🌳 The School Run

🌳 Twinkl (you may need membership to access fully)

Have a search on Pinterest for tonnes of ideas, or look at the resources on my blog too:  learningthroughnatureblog.blogspot.com