This term, the Kindy and Pre-Primary children embarked on a journey of inquiry to answer the question: “How can we protect the environment?”. The children were shocked to find out that the rubbish we put in the bin is waste that ends up in landfill. “We don’t want our world to be full of rubbish!”, one child exclaimed. This sparked some discussions about recycling, and how that can reduce the amount of rubbish in landfill…
One day, some children found a worm in the garden during our outdoor play time. After some research on worms, we found out that worms can eat food scraps and recycle them, turning them into great fertilizer for the garden. This was a very exciting discovery. The children asked eagerly if we could get a worm farm to recycle our food scraps. We started searching for a way to purchase a worm farm, and we realised that they had a big price tag!
One child told us about an organisation called Containers For Change, which recycles your containers and gives you money for them. Someone suggested we take the milk cartons and juice boxes from our lunch boxes to Containers for Change, so that we can use the refund money to buy the worm farm.
The Kindy and Pre-Primary students asked their families to send us cans and bottles, so we could take them to Containers For Change and earn enough money for a worm farm. After just one month of collecting and recycling, we had $143.70!
We contacted a local sustainability centre and ordered a 240-litre worm farm. They delivered it to Regent College and gave us a presentation on how to look after the worms. Some Year 6 River Rangers helped us set the worm farm up. Now, the Kindy and Pre-Primary students can place their banana peels, apple cores, watermelon skins, grape stalks and other food waste in the worm farm rather than in the bin. It is going to be greatly satisfying when we harvest our first bucket of ‘worm wee’ to fertilise our garden too!
The Kindy and Pre-Primary students asked their families to send us cans and bottles, so we could take them to Containers For Change and earn enough money for a worm farm. After just one month of collecting and recycling, we had $143.70!
We held a meeting with all of the Kindy and Pre-Primary students to ask them: “Where to next? How can we make our school more sustainable?”. The children gave suggestions, including a bird bath to attract more bird life, bird nesting boxes, insect homes, and a compost bin. The classes voted and decided to work towards bringing bird nesting boxes into our school, so that endangered black cockatoos can lay their eggs in a safe place. We are hoping to work alongside Willetton Senior High School next term to create the nesting boxes. So far, this inquiry has been an exciting journey, and we are looking forward to seeing how we can make Regent College even more sustainable!
