Newcombville Elementary School takes action “Recycle Zone: T-shirts” project.

Mrs. Linda MacPhee with her class at  Newcombville Elementary School, took hands-on learning, community engagement and integrated curriculum to a whole new level with her “Recycle Zone: T-shirts” project.

After hearing about all the plastics in the oceans and its effects on marine species, her grade 2/3 were inspired to take action!

They reached out to the greater school community asking anyone who had old T-shirts to send them into the school so they could upcycle them to make reusable cotton bags. Students are aware that many plastic bags make it into our oceans. Sometimes turtles think they are jellyfish and eat them. Engagement Officer Natalie McMaster visited with the students to talk about the importance of making sustainable choices around our energy use and plastics. The students were keen to learn about the many ways they could help the earth in their classrooms and homes.

Natalie shared the  Green Schools NS Support Package and Slideshow on Ocean Plastics with Mrs. MacPhee as her class worked on this awesome Active Community Citizen Project.

The students turned 132 T-shirts into reusable bags! They even got creative with the ‘waste’ and made hair scrunchies with the collars and headbands with the sleeves. In the end, each family received a reusable upcycled cloth bag but this inspired students and family to use the reusable bags. A month later, Mrs. MacPhee was surprised that the students and families were still talking about the project and how using their t-shirt bag has become part of their everyday life. This behaviour change initiative has opened the conversation with others to why we should replace single use plastics with reusable options.