Eco Group
Pupils in school have been busy working with Diane, our art teacher, on an alternative Valentine’s project. The project is part of the Climate Coalition’s ‘Show The Love’ campaign where people are encouraged to create green hearts to promote awareness of climate change and other environmental issues. The artwork was made using recyclable materials and is now on display in the school foyer.
You can find out more about the campaign at:
https://www.theclimatecoalition.org/show-the-love
Room 4 have been reading ‘The New Friend’ by Alex Scheffler for their book study this term.
In the book, the main characters Pip and Posy make a new friend at the beach and they work together to build a sandcastle.
We enjoyed the book so much that we thought we would have a go at making our own sandcastles! We visited the beach and worked together to build our own sandcastles. We thought we did a good job. What do you think? We even made our own new friend when we went looking in the rock pools!
As a reward raising our first £1000 through ragbag for the school fund, the class had a day trip. We went bowling then for lunch, followed by a short walk along the prom. As we ate one pupil signed “It’s nice here!” A great day out for all. Well done Room 16!
Remember if you have clothes or bedding to be recycled, there is a Ragbag container in school reception. Many thanks for your continued support in our textile recycling fundraiser.
Some pupils from Room 7 enjoyed a walk in the countryside today. We headed along the countryside path towards Kingswells and saw lots of exciting things. We took pictures of some of the animals and when we got back to school we used our Pixon and core vocabulary boards to talk about what we saw. We also practised our maths skills by counting aloud the number of animals. We saw 3 deer and 7 brown and white horses and far too many sheep and crows to count!!!
Monday the 22nd of April was Earth Day. Class 6 took part in a scavenger hunt to see how many different items we could find when we were out in the community, relating to caring for the environment. We also managed to find a few in school too!
The pupils in Room 9 recycled plastic bottles and made beautiful, colourful vases which can be used for holding flowers. Our pupils selected the colours they wanted to use and made choices about how to paste the cellophane onto the bottles. In doing so, the boys and girls were reinforcing the skills they developed previously when they made their Elmer the Elephant models. They commented on their work and were encouraged to comment on each other’s vases when they were on display in our classroom.
The pupils in Room 16 have been working hard on our Ragbag project for 18 months now. We are delighted to confirm that we have raised approximately £900 for the school fund (that’s more than 2 tonnes of clothing that have been saved from landfill!).
Rag bag is a Scottish textile and clothing recycling scheme. Items are graded according to their quality at their premises in Falkirk. Wearable items are sent to developing countries as 2nd hand clothing, items which may have been torn or damaged recycled and become carpet underlay or industrial cleaning cloths or even mattress lining. Either way they are kept from landfill.
There are 3 collection schemes, 1: send bags home, 2: inside collection bin (at school front office) and 3: external collection bin. We are proud to say that we have all 3 schemes in operation.
We collect clothes, pairs of shoes, belts and bags.
So this Spring, as you clear out your winter wardrobe, feel free to fill a bag of rags for us!
Room 5 went on a trip to ASDA to buy the ingredients to make bird feeders. We made them using nuts, lard and seeds. They were very smelly and felt slimy!!
We took them down to the duck pond and hung them from the trees for the birds. We hope they enjoy them!!!
Room 4 have been experiencing gardening.
We are so lucky to have our own planter containers right outside our classroom.
We dug, moved and patted the soil as we planted the crocuses.
Over the last year everyone at Orchard Brae has working very hard on developing our Eco awareness as part of our Eco Schools journey and we have participated in a range of activities based around the topics of Litter, Waste Minimisation and Food and the Environment.
We conducted litter picks in the local area as well as in the school grounds, planted seeds and bulbs and cared for the plants, and made soup from our bumper crop of tatties grown in the school garden. The work that classes put into the Rag Bag scheme and Orchard Brae Fashion Boutique was recognised with a nomination for the Aberdeen City Council EcoCity Waste and Recycling Champions Award and while we were not the winners of the categories, we were rewarded with a certificate for our hard work and effort.
We are absolutely delighted that all of our hard work and effort has been recognised and we have reached the gold standard and been awarded our first Green Flag!
The Green Flag Award is presented to nurseries and schools which have demonstrated a commitment to Eco-Schools Scotland programme and usually takes place over two years. We are so proud that our Eco work has managed to get our first Green flag awarded in just one year!
We have been truly amazed by the comments we received from the Eco-School Scotland Team who noted that our action plan and evidence ‘was innovative and engaging’, ‘demonstrated a true commitment to improve the environment’ and ‘our dedication to embedding sustainability within the curriculum’. They also highlighted aspects of our work as ‘examples of good practice’ which may be used as future case studies to support other schools.
A huge well done to all the students and staff for their on-going work and effort in enabling us to achieve our first Green Flag in one year.
