LAUDATO SI...on Care for our Common Home...a new term begins!

A new term always brings great excitement and anticipation. So it was today when the students walked in to see the new inquiry question...How are we called to care for our common home? The language in our rich question is based on the words of the latest Papal encyclical letter on ecology and climate.


Today we participated in a Silent Word Wall where we reflected on the meaning of four words or phrases: "our common home," "creation,", Stewardship of creation" and "ecology."

PLASTIC NIGHTMARE

The students usually write the posts for our class but, today I'm feeling proud of the great work they are doing so I'm having a turn! The actions being focused upon, in learning about writing an exposition, include writing a provocative opening sentence, using rhetorical questions and utilising modality when giving opinions. Some excerpts of writing, and the movie used as an inspiration, are included below.  Mrs Y

“Plastic Nightmare”
 From Steph....
During the 21st century, plastic bags are part of our everyday lives but do you actually know what the consequences of using them really are?

Australia uses about 4 billion plastic bags a year! That’s enough plastic bags to make a chain long enough to reach around the world 24 times, yet we still continue without considering the things that are suffering.

From Joe:

NO! NO! NO! Nightmares are bad but the worst nightmare is a plastic nightmare.Plastic bags, killers aren't they, by getting into the ocean and  killing the animals that live there? This is why we need to stop them and we must do it now.

From Chloe...

While you're busy with your plastic bags, do you really know the consequences of using them?

When you're finished using plastic bags they go to landfill, but they take forever to break down and they hang around for a very long time. Sometimes they blow away and sail around in currents until they are either eaten by marine life or end up on the shore.

From Eden...

Today we are in the 21st century, aren’t we? So why are we still getting millions of pieces of rubbish in our oceans? That’s what I want to know.

We use around 4 billion environmentally harmful plastic bags in Australia. That is enough to be tied up and go all the way around Earth 24 times but we still keep using them. More than 100,000 animals are killed each year because they have swallowed harmful plastic. Plastic is made from polyethylene which takes hundreds of years to break down.

From Will:

Are you busy using plastic for your daily shop when 3.5 million plastic pieces enter the sea everyday?

Australia uses a whopping 5 Billion plastic objects a year and 3.5 Million enter the sea a day, but in a year, 1,277,500,000 Bags enter the ocean…which isn't a good statistic.

CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY

What an important day it was with the whole school cleaning up for Clean Up Australia Day! It was so exciting because the Environment Team ( that my friend and I are on) go around with one class each, helping the clean up with small rubbish bags. Happily, NONE of the bags were full so that means we're a very environmentally aware school! Please tell us what you did for clean up Australia day!
Alex and Kitty.

MELBOURNE ZOO - a response

The students were asked to respond, in any way, to the wonderfully educational visit to Melbourne Zoo. Read Jess' response!

IDEAS SHARED ARE THE BEST IDEAS OF ALL!

Through our classs twitter account, we received this great link from another Melbourne class studying the same environmental issues as us! Establish your environmental footprint and much, much more!


http://www.wwf.org.au/our_work/people_and_the_environment/human_footprint/footprint_calculator/

ENVIRONMENT TEAM LEADS - SCARECROW DAY!

What a fantastic day of collaboration followed when our Environment Team led the whole school for "Scarecrow Day!" Meet our three new friends all ready for gardening time next term!


Three Wise Scarecrows from Marg Yore on Vimeo.