We asked you to share some of your school’s environmentally-themed activities from the lead up to Earth Day. Here are some of the great ideas you had:

Ecole Burton Ettinger School held an Earth Day assembly. Various classes showcased their talents, while teaching the audience important messages about the environment. One class made drums out of recycled material and performed a well rehearsed number. Another class performed an earth-inspired rap song. The choir sang beautifully and another class performed an earth-themed interpretive dance. The whole school community was presented with a plaque for its participation in Green Schools Nova Scotia’s pilot year.

Tantallon Elementary also held an Earth Day assembly during which several classes shared helpful information, accompanied by posters about environmental impacts and positive suggestions for staff and students to better our habits and lead a greener lifestyle.  The Emcees for the assembly were senior elementary students and they kept the entertaining assembly going using skits and humour.

The passionate Eco Club at Dartmouth High held an Earth Day assembly for their school complete with a student-made PowerPoint, a raffle to support the World Wildlife Federation, and a guest speaker, Marcel Masesson from HRM Solid Waste. During the week leading up to Earth Day, the Eco Club created shifts during lunchtime in order to monitor waste sorting in the cafeteria.

Chedabucto Education Centre showed the film, “The Lorax” at the beginning of the week. They followed the viewing with time to reflect and discuss the importance of trees to the environment. They later held a “Litterless lunch” challenge, a “lights out” challenge, where staff and students supplemented electrical light with natural light, and a “paper reduction” challenge.

New Minas Elementary held an assembly where each class choose a topic or activity. Many of the activities were related to keeping their school clean and prepping their school garden. They also created booklets made out of one-side-printed paper for student staff and parents to use.

We are thrilled to hear of the great projects and initiatives that are taking place in schools around the province. If you have something you would like to share, please email us at info@greenschoolsns.ca.

On Saturday, April 28th, Green Team students from five high schools across Nova Scotia attended the first Free Thinkers Festival at Dalhousie University. The festival was hosted by the Clean NS Carbon-Free Thinkers program, the newest initiative of the Clean NS Climate Change Education Center.

Over 65 young people ages 16 – 30 gathered for the event, which included concurrent workshops about climate change and actions that we can take to help the problem.

Green Schools NS Session Attendees participate in team-building game

Green Schools NS facilitated one of the  workshops, which featured an interactive game highlighting the importance of team work and goal -setting in planning initiatives.

The Green Schools NS session also featured a panel discussion with four students representing three high schools, Northumberland Regional High, Dartmouth High and Auburn Drive High.

Panelists were asked to discuss the most successful initiatives their school Green Teams have accomplished, and what challenges they’ve faced in engaging their school community in sustainability campaigns and events. The discussion closed with a reflection on the best methods of facilitating authentic engagement with young people around issues of environmental protection and stewardship.

A huge Green Schools NS thank-you to all panelists and attendees who helped make the Free Thinkers Festival session a rewarding and enriching experience.

This week, West Pictou Consolidated was home to a school-wide campaign to celebrate 2012 Earth Day. The Earth Week campaign was wrapped up with a special presentation from the West Pictou Green Team at a school assembly. The Green Team showed the hit video “Energy: Let’s Save It“, an initiative of the Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign which works to promote and help organizations host Sustainable Energy Week campaigns world-wide.

The West Pictou Green Team on-stage presenting their Realtime Energy Monitor

Following the video, the Green Team students gave an informative presentation to their peers about energy usage, climate change and actions we can take to make the world a better place.

The Green Team then dispersed throughout the school, turning out lights in hallways and classrooms. The Green Schools NS Realtime Energy Monitor was brought up on-screen, and the results were dramatic; the schools’ power usage dropped from 137.09 kw to 72.62 kw, which represents a 47% reduction at the flick of a switch!

The Realtime Energy Monitor Showing a 47% energy reduction from the Green Team's efforts.

The Green Team hopes to continue educating their peers and encouraging them to be energy conscious at school. As demonstrated at the assembly using the Energy Monitor, every light switch makes a difference!

West Pictou Consolidated was also presented with a Green Schools NS Certificate of Participation plaque to recognize the hard work they’ve been putting into being more environmentally conscious at school. Among other things, they’ve been making colourful signs to remind people to turn lights off and preparing a vegetable garden for the spring.

The Green Team hosts Water Jeopardy with their school-mates.

To celebrate the conclusion of a successful Earth Week campaign, the Green Team facilitated environmental games at lunch hour, which were thoroughly enjoyed by all!

A huge Green Schools NS congratulations to the Green Team students and staff who helped to make the campaign a success.

Movies made by students at West Northfield Elementary and Pictou Landing First Nations School were shown at the Atlantic Film Festival’s Viewfinders Green Screen Challenge this weekend. Both member schools in the Green Schools Nova Scotia program, West Northfield and Pictou Landing First Nations were big winners in this years’ contest! A packed house at Empire Theatres Dartmouth Crossing watched finalist entries for the Green Screen Challenge at the Green Screen Gala on Thursday, April 19. The top three movies were then announced at the Gala and were again featured on Saturday, April 21 at the NBC Universal Film Challenge Finalist Screening, where a grand prize of $1000 was up for grabs!

Paige Jenkins (West Northfield Elementary) receives the Green Screen Award from Laura Sinclair (Efficiency Nova Scotia)

‘Plastic Bag Productions’ (first place, Green Screen Challenge) film-makers Paige Jenkins, Whitney Minick and Bethany Boutilier traveled to Dartmouth from West Northfield to accept the award. “I had a lot of fun doing this project with my friends and it was overall a great experience,” said Paige. “Making our film was no easy slice of cake but it turned out to be a great experience,” Whitney added.

Bethany noted that making the film involved learning and using new techniques,  “It started out as a school project but then it grew to be so much more!”

The film-makers for ‘Caring with Puppets’ (third place) attended the Finalist screening on Saturday, April 21; traveling from Pictou Landing. Grade three students, Shyanna Denny, Emma Prosper, Davonia Augustine and Marissa Swallow, enjoyed the the occasion. “The filmfestival was fun to go to and we loved watching our film on the big screen,” said Shyanna. “It was fun to make our film but when I went on stage to introduce it I got stage fright,” Emma added. The students chose the environment as their theme in the hope that others will follow suit. ” I want our environment to not be hurt and there are things we can do to help it. I wanted people to know what they can do so they will not hurt the environment any longer,” said Marissa. Davonia added that, ” Our school does a lot of recycling so we knew the things we were filming could work at other schools.”

Both schools benefited from Green Schools Nova Scotia’s partnership with the Atlantic Film Festival’s Viewfinders Festival in a Van program last fall, which served as inspiration for the projects. “We think having the Festival in a Van come to our school did play a role in inspiring the students to take this on,” said principal Irene Endicott. “meeting with Rose and others and viewing the films did get us thinking about taking part.”

Luke being interviewed by Global News during the February Water Rally

We are pleased to share that Luke Ehler, a grade 12 student at Auburn Drive High has been awarded a $5,000 Toyota Earth Day Scholarship to attend “Earth and Environmental Science” at Acadia University in the fall. Auburn Drive High is a registered participant in the Green Schools Nova Scotia program, and has an active Green Team which facilitates environmental events and campaigns in the school community. An active member of the Auburn High Green Team, Luke is among 20 Canadian students to receive this annual scholarship. Students are chosen based on their demonstrated commitment to the environment, academics, and their capacity for leadership.  Luke has demonstrated all of these attributes and skills throughout his time on the Auburn Drive High Green Team and through his participation with the local student group, “Engaged Youth for Environmental Sustainability (EYES).”  Along with the other members of the Auburn Drive High Green Team, Luke helped to organize Aurburn Drive High’s water rally in February. The team is also responsible for the creation of a life-size water “snakes and ladders” game that is being used by other local high schools.

We are sure that Luke will continue to take a leadership role and will continue to encourage others to move towards positive change.

For more information on the Toyota Earth Day Scholarship, please visit their site: http://www.earthday.ca/scholarship/

Northumberland Regional High School (NHRS) celebrated Earth Day this year by hosting a week long school-wide campaign, including educational games, a school garbage clean-up, an adopt-a-highway project and a “wear green” day.

The campaign was organized by the NHRS Environment Club, led by Mary-Alice Ali, a math teacher who volunteers her time during lunch hour and after school to help the students plan and facilitate environmental events in the school community.

Life Size Water Board Game Made by Auburn Drive High

The NHRS Environment Club invited Chloe from Green Schools NS to facilitate a life-size water themed snakes and ladders game, where students were the game pieces and had the chance to answer environmentally themed trivia questions. This interactive game was made by the Auburn Drive High Green Team for their Ban Bottled Water Rally on February 17^th, and is available for loan to other schools. A huge thanks to Auburn Drive High for lending their game to help other students have interactive, fun learning experiences. Chloe also brought a water-conservation themed Jeopardy game, where students answered trivia questions for the chance to win eco-prize bags.

NHRS Students Clean Their Adopted Section of Highway

NHRS students have an annual school-wide garbage clean-up. This year, decked out in bright yellow vests, they also participated in the Adopt-a-Highway program. A province-wide initiative, an annual average of 5,000 – 6,000 bags of garbage and recyclables are picked up along adopted Nova Scotia highways. Congratulations NHRS for helping to make Nova Scotia a cleaner place, and to the Environment Club for hosting a very successful and educational Earth Week campaign!

Wondering what to do leading up to Earth Day on Sunday, April 22^nd? Here are some ideas for “Earth Week” activities.

• Pick a theme to highlight each day such as waste, water, energy, food and transportation. Or it could be a topic such as waste free lunches, carpooling, paper reduction, healthy eating. Check out www.earthday.ca
• Set up a GOOS (good on one side) paper recycling bin in your classroom. Collect one sided paper and make reusable scrap paper pads and distribute to teachers.
• Borrow an energy meter kit from Green Schools NS to test some of the electrical items that you use every day.
• Set up a bulletin board with information on an environmental topic.
• Watch the film, The Lorax.
• Hold a “power-down hour” by having the entire school turn off all classroom lights and computers for one hour (or an entire day, or an hour per day).
• Hold a school Earth Day assembly and have each classroom participate. It could be in the form of a rap song, a poem, reading or a poster; use your imagination.
• Have students clip a small litter bag to their hip for a day to create awareness of how much waste we create. You could use a brown lunch bag and clothes pins.
• Have a litter clean up.
• Have a litter-less lunch at your school.
• Invite a special guest like your local waste educator or someone from a local environmental organization.
• Set up a “green” book display in your school’s library.
• Share “green” information and facts on your school announcements.
• Have everyone wear green.

If you have more ideas or any questions about the ideas listed, please contact us at info@greenschoolsns.ca

On Thursday, March 29, 2012, Ecole Burton Ettinger School’s green team found a way to turn its recycling efforts into stewardship this month. Students from the team announced at their month-end assembly, that they have been able to send a little girl from a developing country to school, using funds they raised through a recycling initiative. More than 36 million girls worldwide do not have the opportunity to go to school, primarily because of their gender. This struck a chord with many members of the green team, and they quickly decided that they would take action on the issue, donating through the World Vision Canada program.

Burton Ettinger's Green Team used recycling as part of Ryan's Project, to help a child in a developing country.

The green team raised the money by selling recycled Christmas cards at their Christmas concert with the help of Saint Mary’s University (SMU) business students. The SMU students are a part of the SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) program and are named “Ryan’s Project,” after Ryan, a student who previously attended Ecole Burton Ettinger School. The SIFE students met with the green team each Friday at lunchtime from November to March to work on green projects around the school.
A big congratulations goes out to the Green Team at Ecole Burton Ettinger School for choosing to use their money to change the life of another child!