ENVIRONMENT WEEK celebrations across School

Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and an ailing environment? Nani Palkiwala.

Reams of paper have been dedicated to raising awareness on the alarming state of environmental affairs. Much has been spoken on this issue of humungous magnitude. Alas! Much remains.

Never one to shy away from social obligations, The Indian School-Second Shift observed Environment Week, with a clarion call to everyone to take stewardship of the environment and to actively engage for the protection of our earth..With Environment vs Development as its theme, the School plunged into a vigorous campaign to engage students from 22 to 26th April, 2019.

Environment Week provides the opportunity to teach and enhance both environmental science and nature of science activities. The idea is to bring environmental issues to life, for the children through a wide range of fun and interactive educational activities.

The students of all classes across the board, were sensitised towards their environment through an array of activities. Workshops, nature trails, nukkad natak, special assemblies , art and craft activities, storytelling, role plays amongst many others, shared the limelight during the week-long festivities.

Pre-school and the pre-primary sections actively participated in a plantation drive. The little green- lovers got eco-friendly planters from recycled items of daily use, like the humble coconut shell, egg cartons etc to plant tiny saplings which they happily carried home. Around 150 saplings were planted.

The kids rejoiced in a nature walk where they collected leaves and twigs to use in class for leaf printing etc. The Trash Parade was a heart-wringer with the diminutive cherubs donning costumes made of trash! They also came up with short slogans to charm their audience.

Class 1 students made a model of Earth in paper mache and wrote slogans about saving the earth. They planted herbs and flowers in a used egg tray and made a bird feeder using old material, to be hung on a tree.

Class 2 made paper bags from old newspaper and magazines and also noted messages of how we can contribute towards making Earth clean on a handprint cutout. They were also taught the 5 RS Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink.

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Class 3 students wrote short messages to Mother Earth on a Promise Wall, reusing waste paper cutouts as a promise to revive the beauty of our blue planet. They made colourful little gardens reusing bottle caps, plastic bottles and straws. Also, decorative wall hangings were made using old CDs.

Class 4 students germinated cumin, coriander and mustard seeds in waste cold drink bottles and decorated these using reused material. Their creativity and innovation knew no bounds as they created a scene of 'Life in water' on earthen plates focusing on the SDG 14. They reused bottle caps to propagate awareness about NO MORE PLASTIC. Videos on the 3Rs that are synonymous with preservation were played. An exciting no sew cloth bag- making activity using old T-shirts was demonstrated by Devyanshi of class 7. Students enthusiastically joined in the pollution rap to protect our oceans. Everyone sang the lilting environment song, Saving Earth that talked about saving our planet and making it a better place to live.

At the workshop conducted by Chintan ,an NGO that specializes in waste management, students discussed the conservation of resources, waste segregation and ill-effects of using plastic bags. This was followed by poster-making, flip book, paper bags using old newspapers etc.