Salt Springs Elementary School gets efficient and makes draft snakes!

Engagement Officer Pam had the pleasure of visiting students at Salt Springs Elementary School last month!  The school has a total population of 70, so the school was split into two groups, Primary-2s and Grade 3-5s.

The Primary-2s presentation was to make the Green Schools Draft Snake, while teaching and encouraging the children to have better energy saving habits. They started off with an introduction about Green Schools NS, and then read “10 Things I Can to Do Help My World” by Melanie Walsh to the class, while asking them what they thought the next page would say from the pictures.

After the story, the students were put into groups of five, and they went to feel the windowsill, and were asked if it was hot or cold to the touch. Everyone said, “Cold!” Pam then showed them her Draft Snake, and told them how putting their own draft snake in the window can help their rooms to feel warmer, therefore more comfortable.

Craft time! Everyone sat back down, and Pam passed out the pre-cut knit cuffing to each student. After passing out the “snake” to the students, Pam showed them how to tie a knot in one end. A lot of students got a bit of help from the teachers and Pam for this part. Pam showed the students how to put the snake on their arm, hold the knot and turn it all inside out; the students were very quick with this and needed little help

Next, Pam showed them how to stuff their snake with the old t-shirts they had brought in. Some of the shirts were their parents’ and a bit big, so the teachers and Pam helped to roll them and stuff them inside.

After all the snakes had the t-shirt stuffed inside, Pam showed the students how to tie the other end. The teachers were excellent to help those students who needed a hand, while one of the Grade 2’s was a pro and was helping his classmates.

Pam asked the students what they were going to do with their draft snakes, and they all said “Put them on the window.” When asked why, they said, “To save energy!” The students then all had a turn testing out their draft snakes to see how much warmer they made the window. With the presentation wrapping up, the students took their draft snakes back to class to decorate!

The Grade 3-5 presentation was to teach about energy, and learning to use less of it to be more energy efficient. They also got to test out the energy meter with common household devices. They started off with an introduction to Green Schools and Efficiency NS, followed by a presentation and fun videos too! The students especially enjoyed the video about how to save energy.

After the presentation, volunteers were chosen to come to the front of the class. The volunteers got to test out some devices with the energy meter, including LED Christmas lights, an old Incandescent lightbulb, and even a hair dryer. They were shocked at how little energy LED lights took while the hair dryer read over 1300W, that’s a lot of watts!