Environment Club: Student Involvement at CJFS
Over the past few months, Mrs. Downing and I started to work
with our Environment Club consisting of 24, 3-4 students. The students were excited to learn more about
our work this year both making our school and safe and caring place, and
leading the work in connecting our students to outdoor learning spaces in
meaningful ways. Here are some of the
things we discussed and worked on:
·
Our student group, along with the Environmental
Literacy Committee, will be spending $1000.00 of the $15, 000.00 grant on
“maker” supplies that can be used for creative play outside. We have decided to purchase wooden blocks as
they can be used both indoors and outdoors and are durable for all sorts of play
and creation. Students gave their input
as to which blocks would spark the most creativity and be the most fun to
interact and build with. We will proceed
with the order and students from the environment club will take turns moving
the bins of blocks outside at morning and lunch recess time. I will update you when we receive them and
share some pictures!
·
Back in October I applied for a $1000.00 Conoco
Phillips Environmental Grant to spend on our outdoor learning space at the
front of the school. We have just
learned that we were successful in securing the grant! Our Environment Club
students investigated purchasing real tools used by botanists for our students
as they examine and learning in our natural spaces. We have been working with a member of “Nature Calgary” where we have been consulting
with one of the volunteers to come up with further ideas to enhance our outdoor
learning space. They were most helpful
in helping us determine how we might spend some of our money on tools. In particular, our students decided they
would like the following:
o Real
equipment that scientist might use
§
Binoculars
§
Magnifying glasses
§
Bug boxes
·
We went outside on a nature hunt and found many
signs of fall, animals and plants. A few
weeks we took some amazing photographs of our nature finds after Ms. Downing
gave us a lesson on still life photography.
We will be sharing these photos in the school hall soon. Keep an eye on the frames down the main hall!
We are excited about the work of the Environment Club and I
will share more as the year progresses!
Sincerely,
Ms. Paull
