As many of you may know my class won the Big Grow 2018. The excitement is still buzzing around the school as we hosted the press launch for this years Big Grow competition. We were delighted to have representatives from both Innocent and GIY come out to visit our school and see the work the boys have put in to our school garden. This will be my sixth year taking part in the Big Grow and I have taken part in both a SEN and mainstream classroom setting. I highly recommend it and love to see more schools growing their own. All you need to do is go online and sign up for your free teacher pack. There are limited packs available so remember to register as soon as possible. The pack can be seen in the photograph above, it contains: cups, compost discs, Veg detective badge and poster, tomato, cress and pea seeds. The teacher's resource pack is the best part of the pack. It has step by step guidelines for planting your seeds and contains plenty of lesson ideas that link in with the curriculum. This is perfect for those teachers that may be a bit apprehensive about planting with their classes. Over the next few weeks as you plant your seeds and watch them grow you can share your progress with others on social media. You can also search #biggrow to see what other schools are doing and find addditional inspiration. This year the website is even better than before and has plenty of resources to download. One of my favourites is the Special Growers Certificate, it is much better than the ones I made myself last year. I can just imagine how excited my students will be when they receive this. If you do sign up feel free to share your ideas on my page. I would love to see how other teachers are getting on and can offer advice if needed! Also if you are completeing your Biodiversity Green Flag this is a fantastic competition to get involved in.
*this is not an ad/sponsored. I just really think this is a great way to get children growing their own fruit and vegetables!
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Happy New Year to you all! I hope you enjoyed the Christmas break and are looking forward to the year ahead. I don't do New Years Resolutions or goals, to be honest I would never stick to them. This year I want to contnue something that I have already started in 2018. Over the past year we have been working on our green flag for Global Citizenship Litter and Waste. While working on this flag I have become more aware of the levels of waste in my home, school and the wider world. Our reliance on easy convenient products has resulted in an over use in single use plastics. Over the past few months I have tried to reduce our household waste and also use less chemicals in my cleaning. One website that I have found to be a great help is Wellness Mama, it is a treasure trove of beauty, food and cleaning ideas. Some cleaning products that I have switched over the past few months are: All Purpose spray- I now use a vinegar spray. I did try infusing it with orange peels for a few weeks but I still felt that it smelled like vinegar. I don't really mind the smell as it dissapears quite quickly after you use it. Toilet cleaner- This has been replaced by toilet fizzers. I am delighted with these and you can choose what essential oils you would like to add. Furniture polish- Microfibre cloths catch all of the dust and can then be washed in the washing machine. I don't like the feeling of a lot of microfibre cloths. The one I bought is from Lidl and has more of a suede feel to it. Oven cleaner- Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda is all I use now. It might take a bit more elbow grease but I much rather it to the chemical filled oven cleaner. Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda is also great for getting rid of tough grease and unblocking drains. Most of my beauty products are from Lush . I like the range of products they have and their focus on reducing packing. Shampoo & Conditioner- I use the Honey i washed my Hair shampoo bar and I love it! I have two conditioners, one in a bottle and also a solid one. American cream is the bottled conditioner and is a great treatment. I am still getting used to the solid conditioner and I keep this one in my gym bag. Body scrub- I made my own sugar scrub from Wellness Mama and am very happy with how it turned out. Face scrub- I made my own oatmeal and lavender facial scrub , again from Wellness Mama. It is a bit messy but well worth trying out. Deodorant - I bought a solid deodorant in Lush several months ago and am very happy with it. I wasn't too sure about it first but I wanted to try it and I am glad that I did. A few other reusable items I have are a stainless steel straw, stainless steel cutlery set, homemade beeswax wraps and a reusable bottle.
I bought my Tupperware bottle 9 years ago and it is still going strong. This was the first year I brought it away while travelling and it was great to be able to fill it in the airports and not have to buy single use plastic bottles. I buy all of my vegetables from Green Earth Organics. They are based in Galway and deliver organic vegetables. We have bought our vegetables from them for over 18months and have been extremely happy with the quality. We have also noticed that we have a lot less food waste and none of the vegetables are packaged in plastic. I live in an apartment and don't have a brown bin. So each week I empty my food scrap bin into my parents brown bin. I'm sure some of the neighbours think I'm crazy! I hope to continue to focus on reducing waste and chemicals in my house. If you have any other useful ideas feel free to share! |
AuthorI have been teaching for several years and hope to share some of my ideas and experiences with you. Archives
March 2020
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