Earthkeepers Program

The "Earthkeepers" Program is the highly acclaimed earth education program for Year Five Students. This program is an exciting, hands on, three day program which teaches children about the basic concepts which sustain life on Earth.

* Energy Flow - all living things need energy to grow, move, to do anything. ALL energy comes from the sun in the form of light. Green plants capture this sunlight energy and turn in into food. Animals get this stored sunlight energy when the 'munch' plants or other animals that eat plants. In "mother Nature's Munch Room', we learn of the importance of becoming 'munch line monitors' for the

* Cycling - everything is made up of the same basic building materials, whether it's a plant, animal, rock or you! These specks of materials that make up everything have been around a long, long time and are used over and over again by all living things. We call this movement of life's building materials, in great circles powered by the energy of the sun, 'cycling'. At 'Spec Trail Junction' we follow the travels of a water spec, air spec and soil spec.

* Interrelationships - every plant and every animal is related to every other living and nonliving thing on the earth. Energy from the sun provides fuel for all life. Materials that cycle are used over and over again, providing the stuff of which all things are made. Together, the energy and materials CONNECT all the things on the earth in a giant web of life. As a result, everything is related to everything else. If one part of the web is broken or damaged it will effect other parts. We complete the 'Connection Inspection' to learn about the web of life.

* Change - Over time, the flow of energy and the cycling of materials through living and nonliving things changes those things. materials such as air and water moving through great cycles powered by the energy of the sum, change the landscape. Living things are constantly changing so they can get and use energy and materials in better ways. It is this constant change that keeps life going. We learn about change during the 'Time Capsules' activity.

Earthkeepers is a program that Year Five started at the end of Term One. We spent three days in the bush around Warrimoo Public School getting in touch with nature with the help of Mr Banffy, Mr Hutchinson, Mrs Ticehurst and Ms Jackson. We did many activities including Time Capsules which is about change from the beginning of Earth to now and Connector Inspector where we locked ourselves into the web of life and learnt how everything in the universe is connected. For Magic Spot each student in Year Five had to find a special spot in the bush to sit and absorb nature and Seasons taught us to use all our senses to experience our surroundings. In this activity the teacher, in our case the fabulous Mrs Ticehurst, read out a story which we had to perform to a blind-folded person. Our final activity was a bush walk following the directions of the original Earthkeeper. By the end of the three days we learnt so much about our place in helping keep the earth healthy and it had been fantastic fun as well. Many students are hoping to continue the program and become Master Earthkeepers in the future.
Will and Cameron