“Our Year 3 and 4 students love to sing and this year they decided to sing at our two local rest homes. They planned their singing practises, chose the songs, organised days and times with the rest homes and our guitarist. The elderly residents loved our visit. We may look at developing this further with more visits next year and include some reading or art and craft activities. The kit inspired us to look at all of the other projects around the country. We had so many suggestions made by the students it was tricky to choose only one.”
“Our Year 2 student were totally involved in looking at how they could support the community and look after our local Taonga. Living in Kohimarama, the beach was an easy pick for them, and something that they wanted to look after and make better for all.
After looking at their own skill sets they were able to select a job suited to them. They thoroughly enjoyed our beach clean up and have been very engrossed in looking at ways to keep our beach and oceans clean. The kit has sparked innovation, imagination and problem solving, as they have looked at the way that 1 person and 1 classroom can make change for the better.
They have been inspired to learn more about the science behind pollution. There have been a number of writing opportunities too - making posters, thank you cards, writing persuasion pieces, reports and letter to ask local business if we can place posters in their window to encourage picking up rubbish after yourself.
As a teacher I have enjoyed going on this journey with my students.”
“Great resource. Students were super engaged and enjoyed giving back to the community. Students researched the needs in our community and found a need that they thought was interesting before contacting all the necessary stakeholders to put their service into action. Great to see students thinking critically about the world around them and how they can make a difference in other's lives.”
“The kit was useful to direct us into our project and make it something engaging for the students. They choose to look at a local stream and then do projects to help the stream. The extra projects were designing littatraps for school and also planting on an unused area of the playground. We roped in the class next door for the stream investigation - they looked at the health of one part of the stream while we went further upstream to see if the health was different. We discovered it was a lot healthier further up from our school but not so healthy by where our school is. This made us realise we can do something at school that will help the community, by planting and putting in littatraps we are limiting the effects on the stream from our school.”
“Our group of year 3 children were very keen, they decided on causes they were passionate about, we whittled them down to a selection of 2, planting trees and a beach clean up. After planning our beach cleanup in groups as the officers , the children cleaned 4 bags of rubbish from Rothesay Beach. They found rubbish on their walk down to the beach and picked that up too. This was a fantastic opportunity for the kids to participate in. Thanks!”
“Our senior students are in the midst of making a major mark on the environmental events calendar for the Coromandel. We have started on our organisation and will continue to use this inspiring kit to fulfill the project into 2020. As our class rolls into next year our Year 7's will take over and we will post details of the Save our Oceans event and how others can support our cause. Students are excited for what they can and will achieve!”
“We had SO much fun doing this kit. Our kids decided to visit a local childcare centre and plan activities to do with the tamariki. They did so much contextual learning such as persuasive writing, letter writing, key competencies and soft skills. Two of our groups managed to get sponsorship from The Warehouse and a local Sushi shop to provide things they needed. Our kids did all of the project from writing the information notice to go home to parents, permission slips, SAP forms and we had great daily huis where each group would share where they were up to and other groups could ask questions to clarify their understanding. It has been a great end of year project for us so we can focus on our school value of Kindness. Would do this SVA kit again in a heartbeat. Thanks team for making an amazing, student led resource.”
“Thanks for allowing us to use this kit, my year 2-5's have in the past watched as the older students participated in lots of 'fun stuff' so for them to be involved was great! It's been hard with timing, maybe not as fabulous as I'd first planned but still great in building blocks for our kids to give back to the community. The students are so interested in nature, so we decided to make mini gardens and gift them to those in need. They've planted a mixture of flowers and vegetables, some have begun sprouting so it's time they get to their new homes - Community Garden and Pre-school's. Thanks again, it's been great!”
