Randy Explorer: Randy takes action

Randy takes action · Jun 30, 10:50 PM

This Wednesday we started Together for Water, phase II. Kids are ready to start the action and applied all they learned and start to work on some changes in their schools.
Initially we were projecting four work teams but we decided to
incorporate one extra activity to give an extra value to the project.

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The projects we started today are:

1.    From waste to art
2.    Restoring gardens
3.    Vegetable garden and organic fertilizers
4.    Waste management and proper garbage disposition
5.    Murals

Eventually we´ll develop other groups with other kind of activities such as signs for the school and a bulletin.
Each project will be attended by an instructor and the groups will work in a way that activities intertwine:

From waste to art

The main objective of this activity is to teach kids different art techniques with reusable materials.
For the first day we developed a workshop about recycled paper, we
begun talking about recycling and reusing, then we went to the
practical part:
1.    Cut the paper in pieces

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2.    Put it in a container and soak it in water

Restoring gardens

In this second phase we´ll work to improve the school gardens with
plants that besides looking good helps to attract birds and insect,
specially butterflies.

We turned the kids into landscapers, we gave them paperbacks and they
went out the classroom to make observations about the surroundings,
they also wrote down some of their own ideas and using a compass they
made suggestions about where to locate the plants.
Vegetable garden and organic fertilizers

The main objective here is to create a vegetable garden where kids, teachers and parents can work and produce.
We started giving a lecture about worms and fertilizers. We explain
them how worms work and how important they are for the soil. After
that, kids were able to hold the worms and know them better, besides we
looked for the right spot to have them.
Then we made a walk through the school to find a right place to grow
our vegetables, in Alajuelita we´ll do it different due to the space so
we´ll grow the vegetables in plant pots.
We also went to the dining hall and talk to the ladies in charge so
they can help us separating the waste we´ll need to feed the worms.

Waste management and proper garbage disposition

The main objective here is to create awareness in kids and teachers
about the necessity of decreasing the amount of garbage inside the
schools through interactive and participative techniques.
For this first work session we did:

1)    Brainstorming: we did this to value the knowledge level kids have
about waste and its different components. All students participated and
gave examples about different kinds of waste produced in their houses
and schools. They are aware about the amount of waste produced in their
schools.
2)    Lecture: we gave kids different information related with wasteÑ
recycling, how to classify them, biodegradable and non biodegradable
waste, kinds of waste (glass, paper, aluminum). Besides we showed them
different materials we use every day and end in the trash.
3)    Walk around the school: we did this so kids can observe how the
schools ends after a break (full of garbage). We also count the trash
cans and where they were located. Then we picked up all the trash we
found around.

Murals
For the three schools the work plan was the same: an introduction, a
lecture about water and improving our surroundings, then brainstorming
and drawing all in paper so we can create a design to paint next week
on the walls, benches, etc.

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Each
kid draw their own ideas: water crystals, the sea, plants, tress, roads
to the mountains, forest, pollution, love and more crystals. Our ¨job
here was to unify all the drawings and create a design to build the
murals.
At least two drawings per kid was the result, these with the objective
of free imagination and they have self confidence at the time they star
painting.
That was the day: drawing, coloring and visiting the areas where their art will be.

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Foundation Randy Explorer