Service Learning

Recycling

In this social action project, we did a recycling project called the recycling bees.

In this project, each Foundation Phase class was given two stock 7 boxes. As a class during a art lesson, the learners were required to decorate these boxes. Between all the classes in the Foundation Phase, one class was chosen that had the best decorated boxes, each child and the teacher of this class then received a chocolate.

Throughout the five weeks that we completed our Teaching Experience, the learners were challenged and encouraged to fill the boxes they decorated as many times as they can. This was to keep the learners motivated and encourage them to keep filling the boxes. At the end of the term, we went to each of the classes and took in the forms from the teachers which showed how many boxes in total the learners had recycled. The class that filled and recycled the most amount of boxes won a civvies day and a pizza party which was awarded to the learners in Term 4.

What was the benefit of this initiative to the school and its sustainability?

In the Foundation Phase and in schools in general, there is a lot of paper and plastic that gets used. Scrap paper, juice boxes, lunch bags, etc. These are all things that are all around the school environment each day.

Recycling is an initiative which gets the learners thinking about the environment and gets the learners to look out for the environment. At lunch and during break time, the learners are likely to leave their lunch bags, juice boxes, chip packets on the ground and waiting for someone else to pick it up. With our social action project, we are encouraging the learners to not leave their papers and plastics lying around but to rather pick them up and recycle them.

As the teachers have the boxes in their classes, this will be an easy initiative to carry on with even after we have left the school. The teachers can keep the boxes in their classes and encourage the learners to keep recycling even after the social action project has come to an end. The teachers can encourage the learners to keep their school environment clean and help protect our planet.

The effectiveness of Recycle Bees

Once our social action project had started, the learners throughout the Foundation Phase would walk around during break with plastic bags or smaller boxes. The learners took the boxes and the bag and collected litter and rubbish during back so that they were able to go back to class and fill their paper and plastic boxes that are in their classes.

Throughout the recycling project, the learners were involved and excited. The learners all decorated their boxes really well and then got actively involved in collecting rubbish and litter to fill their boxes. Learners were also emptying the boxes into the allocated dustbins in the recycling area. Recycle Bees had a positive impact on the Foundation Phase as a whole as everyone got involved and participated in the project.

How service-learning has changed me and how it developed me professionally

This service learning project really helped improve me and my skills for becoming a teacher. Doing a social action project like the recycle bees showed me how important it is to get learners involved in different projects that will benefit the school and the community around them. By doing a project like the recycle bees, the learners were taught how to pick up litter and look after their planet as well by not littering. As teachers we should be developing the learners we teach both academically and socially. I learnt that the learners will get excited about different projects once they know and understand the importance of the project. I also saw how easy it would be for teachers to start a small project like this with their class, grade or the phase that they work with, teaching the learners about how important it is to look after the school and community they are in.

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