"WE ARE AWARE, WE DO CARE"

   We Aren't Alone In This

  "What's that? “, Maja pointed at a board in the hallway.

   "It's an international ecological action, to contribute to the protection of the environment. “, Marko answered.

   "Did you know about this? “ Maja asked Šimun.

   " I was just about to ask you whether Petra, Mate, Marko, you and I can start right after school? “

Maja, Mate, and Šimun agreed to pick up the trash around the school. Marko and Petra got in touch with the local community and asked them to participate in their project by providing them with seedlings. They called their parents to help them with planting.

Now they have created a real Mediterranean garden, with olive trees, rosemaries, lavender, and all sorts of flowers.

 "We're done! “ Petra sat down.

Mate looked around, "We should've done this sooner, this makes a huge difference both in the looks and the environment! “

 "Imagine if every school in the world did this, it's not much, but all of us together can make a huge difference! It makes me wonder how the world would look like if we ever happen to do that. “

   "We will do our best till then, surely, we aren't alone in this.“

Šimun's cousin Lily

Šimun came home, pleased, and called his cousin Lily who lives on the coast. He told Lily about an environmental project he had done with friends. Lily told that they already have a school garden that the students take care of.

The next day, after she woke up, Lily kept thinking about Šimun's words and an idea came to her. Lily called her friend Sophie.

“Sophie, what do you think about starting to separate biological waste and make compost out of it, an organic fertilizer for our garden?” Lily asked.

"Great idea! We'll ask other friends what they think about it," Sophie replied.

The very next day, Lily and Sophie talked to their friends who agreed to make a compost bin.

After making the compost heap, Lily called Šimun and happily told him what they had done.

"Great, this way you will reduce the amount of waste and the plants in the garden will get natural fertilizer that will not pollute the environment or water!"

The Vertical Garden

One day, during the break, Maja, Marco, Šimun and Petra were in the school garden and they saw outside the gate three abandoned pallets, near the trash can.

"Who left these?" said Petra.

"This waste can't be put here!" answered Šimun.

So they called their teacher and decided to take the pallets and take them to the class. The students and the teacher decided together what to do. They decided to smooth them and color them: the pallets could become containers for flowers and herbs!

The next day at school everyone got to work with great commitment, they got help even from a very kind grandfather.

After a week the pallets were ready. Marko took seeds and seedlings to school and, with the help of her friends, planted them in pots. The pallets became small vertical gardens and the three children decided to hang them on the outside walls of the school.

Please don't throw everything away, reuse it!

Together we can make the world a better place!

Saving the water

The children were very pleased and happy!

“How many good things have we done already!!!” said Marko.

Children took care of their plants and garden every day. But unfortunately the weather was getting hotter and hotter. And plants needed to be watered. Children decided to think about the way how to get more water not from the tap. They wanted to save some water. Finally they decided to collect rainwater. Parents helped them to find two big plastic barrels. 

The barrels were used before to store food for animals. They put them under the gutter and waited patiently for the rain. One day a big storm came and filled the barrels with the water. Now children could water the plants and they didn’t use tap water. They were very happy that they helped to save some water and preserve there garden.

Recycling Changes Life

Petra, Mate and Maja were playing games in the school yard. The faces of the oncoming Šimun and Marko were worn. Maja asked what happened. There was garbage in the school yard. Moreover, pet bottles were filled in the dustbin.

"I watched a documentary. It's about 7th Continental Grand Pacific Trash Patch. I must say this to my teacher. We should watch this with all my friends." Petra thought.

Their teacher liked this idea very much. They watched the movie. It was very sad. Then, they had a discussion about what to do in the class. The world was getting worse, at least they could do something in our school.

Petra, Mate and Maja suggested making recycle bins. It was a great idea. They made recycle bins out of the boxes. They made plastic, battery and paper recycle bin. They put these boxes in different places inside the school and in the school garden. Šimun asked "How will our friends at school know what this works for?" He was right. Petra said "Let's prepare a poster for this." They prepared banners. They walked in the garden with posters and slogans about recycling. This attracted a lot of attention. Moreover, it was very proud. They were very happy to have started a recycling movement in our school. They were very proud to take a step to change the world with their friends.

Creativity while using waste materials

One day at school, the technology and design teacher told the students that they would design 3 dimensional products using their creativity the other week and bring materials according to the product they wanted to create in the lesson. Meanwhile, Marko had an idea. He turned and said to the teacher and his friends, and asked "How about creating the products we want from waste materials at home and at school?" . They all supported her idea and started to think what they would create.

The next week, students collected and brought waste materials that they would excitedly use. Petra made a room for her dolls, Mate made puppets for her younger siblings, Maja made a jewelry box as a gift to her mother, Šimun made a house and some male students made cars. Their teachers, friends and families liked the products they created, and congratulated them for evaluating waste products and producing such beautiful products. They were proud of the praise they received and said, "Don't throw away, evaluate it."

Art Exhibition

A few weeks later, the kids were in an Arts and Crafts class. The lesson was about being creative in designing useful and original objects. They were not at all inspired... All of a sudden; 

"I have an idea" shouted Marko, we have it all before our eyes! We have the objects already made. The boy presented his idea to the teacher and his classmates. 

"It's unbelievable! How did we not realize it before?" exclaimed Maja! "You are a genius!" 

Marko's idea, unanimously approved by the teacher and his friends, was to organize an art gallery displaying all the objects designed with recycled material in the previous weeks. They designed some beautiful invitations using recycled materials for their family and friends and exhibited all the objects created. The party was a great success. They had a really good time. 

They invited everyone in the village. People liked it so much that they wanted to pay for the entrance, so they could raise funds to buy more seeds and plants. It was a surprise that the major who had also attended the exhibition was very enthusiastic about the idea so he offered them one of the public gardens of the village so they could use it to plant. There would also be a box that people voluntarily left money to plant more plants.

Art Contest

Petra, Maja and Mate thought that they could organize an annual Art contest based on creativity and environmental awareness. The idea was to create a piece of art with the maximum amount of recycled materials and the best would be the winner.

They decided to go to the local newspapers and inform about their project and activities to get more people involved. They also thought about going to the closest towns and villages to promote it.

They became ambassadors for the school environment experts organized by their local town hall and they were invited to the villages around.

Don't waste energy

After having lunch one day, Maja saw that the lights were on even though it was daytime. The issue of energy they learned in the previous Science course came to mind and his teacher said: "Don't waste energy. Use it consciously." He thought that it was necessary to raise awareness of everyone in the school. She called to Petra:

"We need to teach what we learned in class today to the whole school. Look, the lights are wasting."

"You're right," said Petra.

"So what shall we do?" she asked Maja.

"We will immediately prepare posters that we need to waste energy and we will hang it everywhere at school," Maja replied.

They both went to the painting workshop and prepared many posters on energy. Simon and Marco;

"What are you doing". they asked.

"Now we need your help. We have to hang the posters. Let's ask questions, join us." Maja replied.

"We did a very good job. Thank you, friends. We will tell everyone that we should save energy." said Maja.

Add green to life

"What are the boys doing there" asked Marco to the children while they were sitting after finishing their work to prevent waste of energy.

"Let' go and talk to them" answered Mate.

"Hey, guys. What are you doing? Do you need any help?" asked Marco to the boys.

"We are organizing a planting trees activity and looking for eco-friends to help us" one of the boys answered.

"What a wonderful idea for the nature" said Maja and added that they wanted to join them.

The children first talked to their families and then to the authorities in their region. They spoke to the authorities to collect more seedlings and prepare the tree planting site, and agreed for the date.

On that day, all children went to plant trees. They all worked with heart and soul and planted many new lives there.

"What a beautiful scene, Petra! There will be a green beach in the future and many people will sit and rest under the trees. We all planted seedlings into the future. I am really happy and proud." said Maja.

"Us, too" said all children.

"From now on, I will always add green to life and help others to do so" said Marco.

Useful paper

"Come here, Petra! I want to show you something I`ve done", said Maja excitedly. Petra entered the room and saw a few colourful paper bags on the desk. "Wow! They`re beautiful", said Petra. When she touched one them, she noticed the material it was made of. "It`s paper, isn`t it?" " Yes!", answered Maja. "Paper bags."

"Paper is a versatile material used for writing, printing, decorating, packaging. wallpaper etc. It is too valuable to be wasted. When we save paper, we reduce the need to cut down trees which are the lungs of the world." said Maja.

The girls agreed to make another work together.

"I`ll make an animal paper poster", said Petra. "Good! I`ll finish my paper shape project I started last week", added Maja. "We can ask Mate and Marko to join us." The boys were pleased to take part in it. They also made paper flowers for Maja and Petra. It was a surprise.

A few days later, Maja, Petra, Mate and Marko showed their work in the school hallway.

Their teacher and classmates praised their work. The children were very proud of their collaborative work which proved to be a good example of how important it is to share ideas and care about our environment and preventing waste.

School Newspaper

Petra, Maja, Marko, Mate and Simun did a lot of things to attract people's attention to the environment. They tried to make the world greener and clean for living better. One day in lunch time at school, they thought of making something new to spread environmental awareness. Petra said '' We planted flowers, trees and seedlings. We reused the waste materials. We paid attention to recycling. We reduced the energy.'' Then Mate continued '' We did an art contest based on creativity and environmental awareness. We made an art exhibition about recycling materials.'' But they wanted to show the good and the bad sides of the world. So they all decided to publish a school newspaper to show the news about the environment.

Petra and Maja brought some cardboard and glue. Marco and Simun brought some national and regional newspapers. They all searched the good and the bad news about the environment. They cut them out and stick on the cardboard and made their own newspaper. Then they hanged them on the clipboards in the halls. The other students showed a lot of attention to this work. Our heros and heroines seem to continue to search and make more things to attract more attention.