Be an Eco-Champ for Science Week

Start championing the environment. Become an Eco Champ –  here’s how:

This year’s Primary Science Week (14-18 May) is where the action is. Have a look to see how you can take part.

• Find something that is important to your school
• Record observations like the number of pieces of litter picked up on the beach, how many grams of soft plastic collected at school, the number of footprints on tunnel traps, chew marks on cards, observe number of birds at the local park or collect weed seeds off socks and count them.
• Collect and record data over time and analyse it.
• Discuss the changes you observed and suggest how you could find solutions.
• Look at what happened after you made changes, what happened before and after.
• Communicate what you did.

Take a look at our Science Fairs page and books for more information on getting scientrific!

Gardening

So why not pick a project you want to champion and get stuck in cleaning up the environment? Why not start a worm farm or compost heap at school for all those apple cores from your lunch boxes then use all that lovely compost to start a school vegetable garden? Be part of Sustainable Christchurch at home, in school or out in the community.

Become an environmentally friendly school with the help of Enviroschools and see what’s growing near you by visiting a community garden.

Learn how to grow your own food in school and start a school garden. There are lots of resources to help take a look at:

• Edible Christchurch
• Create An Outdoor Learning Garden Guide   [PDF, 2GB]

• Kids Edible Gardens Guide

• Books for children about gardening and compost
• Learn how to compost your organic waste
  • worm composting [PDF, 3.1 MB]
  • composting [PDF, 2.6 MB].

Recycling

Clean up rubbish at your school beach or local park or start a recycling scheme at your school or find out more about soft plastics recycling  Check out information on tackling litter and resources for school  from  Keep New Zealand beautiful. Check out how the Recycling plant (Material Recovery Facility) works and how to recycle right with these videos:

• Recycling plant (Materials Recovery Facility) (video)
• Adam and Eve sort recycling (video)
• Are you recycling right? (video)

Find out all about recycling  and the 4R’s Reduce Reuse Recycle and Rebuy in these resources:

• Many Answers: recycling entry
• EEK! Our Earth – What a Waste.
• Recycling Children’s Books

Eco-pests

Learn about what pests visit your school or park by making a tracking tunnel and chew cards. Find out how you can remove them from your school and community from Predator Free New Zealand. 

• Making a tracking tunnel activity notes from Science Learning Hub
• Are there rats in your garden? (pdf)

Become a weedbuster by cleaning up a local beach piece of bush or participate in the restoration of a local stream. Take a look at what to plant streamside in this handy booklet on what to plant produced by Christchurch City Council.

More information

• Science Learning Hub has great information and ideas on how to be an Eco-Champion and the importance of conservation and biodiversity.
• Many Answers Conservation (New Zealand)
• Environmental Books for Children
• Explore environmental topics with National Geographic KiDs

Does your school already do a lot? Then share what you have done by making a poster, infographic, display or video.

Tell us what you are doing for National Primary Science Week. We’d love to hear.

The Amazing Jeff Kinney – WORD Christchurch

He’s the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, creator of Poptropica, and thanks to WORD Christchurch I got to see him speak on Wednesday.

The auditorium was packed full of excited kids and parents. We were all waiting for 6 o’clock to finally arrive and the star to walk out on stage, I looked around at the demographics represented. It was wonderful seeing kids of all ages present – most clutching well-worn copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I’m sure one kid was carrying the whole series, his stack of books was almost too big to carry. Several kids got up to boogie along to the pumped vibe music – it was just too exciting to keep still.

Finally Jeff Kinney himself walked on stage – oh my gosh, one of the coolest authors for kids was actually within throwing distance!

If you want to get your kid into reading, introduce them to Diary of a Wimpy kid. You won’t regret it.

Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. WORD-JeffKinney-IMG_7788

He talked a bit about his history, why he became an author and things from his childhood that shaped him. Reading all kinds of things from his local bookstore was a big part of his childhood, particularly comics.

“Comics can also be literature” he said.

Remember that, pictures and the meaning they bring are so important. His books have his cartoons dispersed throughout the text. He describes this as “little islands to swim to,” which is why these books are so great for all levels of readers.

Encourage your kid to read comics, if that’s what they like.

Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. WORD-JeffKinney-IMG_7798

Jeff’s iPad was hooked up to the big screens, so we could see him draw in action. He taught us how to draw his main characters, and showed us how a slight difference in line can make the character have a completely different emotion.

Have a go! Then try do it blindfolded. He had a couple of volunteers up on stage drawing with him, with hilarious results.

It all ended too quickly, and I can’t wait till I get to see him speak again.

*scurries off to read Diary of a Wimpy kid again*

More Jeff Kinney

• Photos of Jeff Kinney event
• Find books by Jeff Kinney in our collection

Another great writer for kids coming to town …

Heads up! Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton (the Treehouse series guys) are coming to New Zealand! The Christchurch show is sold out – but there’s still space in the Dunedin one!

Andy Griffiths. Image supplied.