A school’s own Environment Day incursion

To kick off 2017, I am sharing an inspiring teaching story about the incredible rewards of including the whole school community in the diverse learning opportunities that come from a kitchen garden program.

St Mary’s Primary School sits in the heart of the city of Geelong, in Victoria. I had the opportunity to visit this school and take part in their Environment Day event, a whole school incursion.

This incursion, which took considerable dedication and time to prepare and plan, paid off with an extraordinary display of student immersion and engagement in an array of learning activities, from the Foundation years (prep) through to Year 6.

The key theme of the activities was sustainability, and each activity was linked to the kitchen and garden. The events and activities all occurred over the course of a single day for the whole school, including students, teachers, parents and the community, to experience.

The Environment Day activities included the creative yet easily do-able options listed below:

• Baking cheese-and-chive scones in the kitchen, with chives harvested from the school’s garden. The delicious scones were then shared with the rest of the school, at recess.
• Conducting science activities, including experiments in the kitchen. Students created batteries out of lemons and made spaghetti dance by fusing bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and water.
• Creating sensory books using a range of common and unique cooking ingredients to express different textures, sizes and scents.
• A grand display of care for the vegie patch with a session on garden maintenance (which saw students unearthing a giant forgotten beetroot!). Other maintenance and garden care activities including planting pot planters made from recycled handbags and boots, creating a large-scale worm farm, composting, and building new planter boxes.
• Making insect hotels for the garden. This developed and drew on the students’ skills in technology and construction. 
• Installing a mural made from old doors to the boundary fence of the garden. The mural took a nature-based theme, comprising a visual depiction of trees, and other flora and fauna. Students used their own palm prints to create the leaves on the trees in the mural.
• Utilising mathematical skills to conduct a whole school water audit. The students investigated the water sources in the school, including drink taps and drinking bottles, as well as sites where water was potentially being wasted. The data collected is to be put to use in maths classes.

In a positive expression of student voice, pupils had the opportunity to choose the activities that interested them the most.

While the kitchen garden program, and its inevitable focus on sustainability, takes place weekly for Year 6 students at St Mary’s, the beauty of this day was that it also gave the school’s younger students an opportunity to understand the importance of the program – and what they have to look forward to at the school.

As well, students in the school carried out the various activities in vertical groups, that is each group was composed of students from different primary years. This gave the Year 6 students the opportunity to display leadership skills and to support younger learners in enjoying the day. 

This was an incursion like no other I have experienced. If you have the time and the right event coming up in your school calendar this year, I highly recommend turning it into a learning day like this one.

Special dates on the calendar, such as Environment Day, are a great opportunity to involve the whole school in the kitchen garden. There are heaps of special occasions to choose from throughout the year, such as Harmony Day, National Science Week, Children’s Book Week, National Tree Day, and many more. Visit the Australian Government website for some ideas.

Happy teaching! 

Steph Davies, Education Advisor