Sharing Our Gifts & Stories of 2017

Engagement Officer: “Where do we find coal?”
Student: “In our stockings!”
~Grade 4 student, Inverness Academy

Here at Green Schools Nova Scotia, we receive gifts every day when we engage with students learning how to live lightly on the Earth. Sometimes these are “aha” moments of realizing our ecological footprint, and other times, it’s a future inventor coming up with great ideas for wasting less or a new tech innovation. Our program includes communities and schools all over our beautiful province, and we are so excited to continue our work to waste less in the new year! As we say a festive farewell for the holidays, we’re sharing some of the highlights of 2017 in the form of testimonials and quotations from participants in our free program.

”Instead of using a blow dryer, I could jump on a trampoline to dry my hair!”
~Grade 5 student at Newcombville Elementary

“Thank you for the work that you are doing, visiting and helping schools to take better care of Earth. I think it’s important and wanted to say thank you for showing me what I can do!”
~East Pictou Middle School, Grade 6 student

“My daughter came home yesterday and told me ‘a girl came to our class today and told us we should play outside instead of watching TV.’ I told her to ask her older sister to go out and play with her, but her sister was playing her Nintendo DS and didn’t want to go out. So I got my jacket on and went outside with her. Her sister ending up joining us and we had so much fun. We ran all around our whole farm. Last night when I was putting her to bed she said, ‘mom, that was the best day ever.’
~Parent of a Primary student at Cape Breton Highlands Education Centre/Academy

“You’ll be happy to know that I am having to plug all my lamps and appliances back in as Isla has been unplugging everything since her first Green Schools presentation today at St. Catherines. Not sure who from your team was there, but it sounds like they did a great job. Isla was explaining to me the differences between renewable and nonrenewable power and told me that we should change all of our lights to LEDs… Kudos to you and your team!”
~Parent of a student at St Catherine’s Elementary, Halifax

“For the last three years, we have been working on making our school a more environmentally friendly space and on increasing our student body’s awareness of environmental issues. Green Schools Nova Scotia has been a tremendous support for us through this process by providing resources and expertise. This partnership has led to significant gains for our school and local community.”
~ Matthew O’Toole, Principal of Northumberland Regional High School

“What we love about Green Schools NS is that it provided a framework for the many things we were already doing around our school.  Natalie does a wonderful job of searching out the curriculum links, providing engaging ideas for lessons and activities as well as keeping us informed about local and global issues and events, like Earth Day. They are a valuable resource for our school that we greatly appreciate.”
~Crystal Turner-Tracy, former Principal at Cambridge and District School

Happy Holidays from Green Schools Nova Scotia!

~Amber, Colleen, Marlène, Natalie, Olga Lucía, Pam, & Shandel