As part of our Hall House Eco Week, all the children in the Pre-Prep enjoyed participating in a wonderful workshop called ‘Plastic Pirates’ (run by Devon County Council). Nursery and Reception joined together, with Years 1 and 2 having their own separate sessions tailored to their slightly older age groups.
Demelza gave a brief introduction to the children, asking them to reflect on how much rubbish is generated by all of us, as well as what happens to the rubbish when we throw it away. Demelza then transformed in to ‘Captain D’ and led us all on a pirate adventure in the back garden to look for treasure. The children had to solve clues to guess the names of various animals, which they then had to find hidden in the garden. Sadly though, each animal had been affected in some way by discarded rubbish – a turtle ate a plastic bag thinking it was a jellyfish, a seagull made a nest of plastic rather than twigs, a seal got plastic wrapped around its nose and couldn’t get it off, and a fish ate micro plastics and felt unwell. As each animal was found and helped, the children were encouraged to think about how the animals had been exposed to the plastic, as well as how we could stop this from happening in the future.
We talked a lot about ‘the 3 Rs’ – reduce, re-use and recycle. (We were also taught actions for each word which I’m sure your children will enjoy sharing with you). Finally, we found the treasure, but Captain D kept it for herself, as she was the captain! Instead, she gave each child a wooden pirate doubloon, asking them to draw a sea creature on one side, and a message of hope on the other, such as ‘save our seas’, or ‘plastic isn’t fantastic’.
After all classes had been on their own pirate adventures, Demelza led the whole school in an assembly, rounding off a fun and educational day with a recap of the 3 RS, and a lovely storybook. Thank you so much to FECS who very kindly funded our Plastic Pirates day, we all really enjoyed it, and everyone learned a lot.
