Recycling Update

So our recycling depot is still humming along but we have found the time to add another member to our family. We finally signed up for our big glass bin. 
Bearing in mind that we invite all our neighbours to use our recycling depot with us, we have been limping along with a small bin that had to be emptied on a regular basis and there was a cost involved. Now we are getting a small dividend in return and are able to encourage more glass then ever to come in.

Environmental Talks

We always like to have the folk from Educate and Fascinate come round with their shows and this year was a really important one. The put on a show that highlighted the plight of the honey bee. The children were horrified to learn that the honey bee is endangered and the long term implications for our planet if we loose the bee.
The children are very aware of the role that the bee plays in the garden but were not completely aware of how vital they were to our ecosystem. It was a thoroughly enjoyable way to make sure the children learnt some very vital facts

We invited the Metro Dog Unit to come visit the children and give them a safety talk. Much excitement was had when they put on a display of their dogs' skills all the while educating them on how important it is to learn your parents phone numbers and other essential emergency numbers.

Rhino Day is a must every year. It's been on our annual calendar for a few years now because we feel very strongly that it is our responsibility to look after our heritage. We often talk about how the rhino lives on "our doorstep" and we are the closest so we have to lead the way in educating people about the rhino and raising money for the people who work directly with them. 

The same could be said for the African Penguin, which is another environmental day that has made it's way permanently onto our calendar and into our hearts. We love a good "penguin waddle" in salute of these well dressed endangered birds

Our Garden

"don't forget to roll your roots"

Our garden is a ongoing source of discussion, excitement, involvement, evolution and growth. When I look back on our garden's "path", I see quite a journey. It started with a simple veg garden, then we planted some fruit trees, then it came to incorporate a medicinal garden and now the beginnings of a sensory path.

The garden has exploded out of it's little corner and has crept into all areas of the school, on to window sills, behind the block in the compost pile and out front for the whole community to share.

We keep reiterating the basics of planting and plant care throughout the year while incorporating new ideas and water saving ideas and even experimenting with verticle gardening ideas along the way. Some ideas work and some not so much, but we keep trying. 

Tire gardening

Charities and community

It seems to trivialize the work we do with charities by putting them all under one heading, but as this blog is new and I am rapidly running out of time to submit, I am going to squash them into one post.

It also might give the reader a good idea of how may charities we support throughout the year. 

our focused theme this year was COMMUNITY AND HERITAGE so we put a lot of effort into maintaining our original charities as well as adding more

Our regular charities that we have been supporting for awhile now are CHOC and Peas and Carrots as well as Slipper Day and Hero Day. We started with one and then added onto our list over the course of about 10 years. We have weekly collections on Thursdays and each term is dedicated to a specific charity.

But we thoughrally encourage our parents to bring new ideas to us and this year provided us with more then a few once off fundraising oppourtunities.

We collected clothing and household items for the Knysna Rd Informal Settlement through a group called the Love and Hope Project

We collected scarves at the end of autumn and distributed them in the Cato Manor community just adjacent to us and we are ending the year by supporting the Santa's Shoe Box project which requires us to fill a box with essential items that a child will need in the coming year

The children are very keen to support the charities that we put forward to them as they have interacted amongst our community more and more and are aware of how much need is out there. 
Bi-annually we invite the children from the Open Air School to come and visit so that our children get the benefit of learning to play and assist those with difficulties and the Open Air children get the benefit of our facilities for the day (which have been modified to accommodate their needs). These visits are greatly anticipated by both schools.

Of all the themes outlined by the eco-schools program, I think that community and heritage best describes Glenridge pre primary. Its the theme that we seem to rise up to time and time again. 

Water Week

Water week is a very important annual event at Glenridge. Particularily in light of our current water climate. Each year we have a talk for the whole school and follow it up with a fun and informative pamphlet for the children to take home and teach their families.
Each year we tell water's story from a different angle.

This year we focused on what life would be like without water and the difficulties that we would experience. Where do we use water in our every day life
The children are very aware of some of the ways that we use water throughout the day but were surprised to find out the "secret" places that water gets used. We all made renewal of vows to watch our water more carefully.

Arbor Day

We celebrate arbor day every year at Glenridge. We have ever since actively signing up to be an eco school. Since then we have participated in a few arbor day events but our favourite thing to do is to walk around our school and get familiar with the trees in our playground. 

Luckily for us we have had a dad, Jan, around for the last 4 years who is very knowledgable about trees and is very giving of his time so once a year he comes to our school and patiently leads our children around the grounds explain and answering all questions. 

We are fortunate that the founding school members saw fit to plant a lot of indigenous trees around so we have a rich source of material to chat about. 

Jan tells the children little stories about where the trees got their name and what medicinal uses they have or which trees are preferred by the birds for nesting.