Saving energy in changing rooms

Today two handyman came to your school and they put light that will turn on only when somebody enters to changing rooms and automatically will turn off when the changing room will be empty. We are very happy. Specially during weekends lights sometimes are on in a empty room for several hours.
So let´s continue to save energy!

Earth Hour

This year we took part in Earth Hour again. On 31. of January we switched all the lights for an hour to save energy. Kirsi talked to the pupils in loud speaker on Friday to remind pupils about this and we sent email to parents. Our hometown, our school and many homes was involved with this action.

Seminar in Heraklion

There was the final seminar of this 50/50 project in Heraklion. Marita took part in that. It was great to hear acts and feelings in other 50/50 schools all over the Europe. We also visited Knossos and learned about it´s history.
Thank you!

Happy End!

We are now about to finish our project. But we will of course continue to save energy in future too. We managed to save electricity and water during last year in our project but heating didn´t go to well.
We got 50% of the money that we saved to our school and with that money we made a excursion to Pori and visited an egologigal swimming hall. We really enjoid the trip. On 15th of March we had the final seminar here in Vaasa University. We told about our project there and in the end of the day, we saw Motoriikka Miika. He is an actor and he had his funny show.
Next week Marita Reinikka will travell to Crece to take part in the international seminar of this project.
I think we will not write more to this blog but it´s great to read and remember how much we have done during these years and as I said; we will continue saving energy!

Best wishes Kirsi Autio and Marita Reinikka

Marita's (superactive teacher in our energy team) notes in November

In the 6th grade we had an enviromental theme in physics lessons on November. We measured about acidity and alkalinity. Then we learned about recyckling and waste. We had books which were some years old and we realized that some of the advices about recycling were old. So, recycling has been improving during some years. The best advices we found from the website: www.stormossen.fi We also discussed no to buy all that you want. We reminded pupils first to think that "Do I really need a new?" item as well as "What to do with all the things that are home without use?" Sometimes something that is left-over can be somebodys treasure. For example when one teacher drops her telephone to toalet bin, other teacher can recycle her old but quite good telephone to her colleague. ; )





We repaired some clothes during textile lessons in the beginning of this autumn with 6th grade pupils. First girls found it quite difficult to find something which needed to be prepared. Now suddendly some pupils still take some clothes to fix during lessons. As a textile teacher I´m very happy about the change of the attitude. Last week one girl took her winter jacket and sewed the pocket and one button and was so pleased. It was her favourite jacket and with just little work it is again ready to use.



The windows in our school has now new weatherstrips and we have already noticed that it is warmer inside though it has been colder outside. Let´s hope we can save from the energy that needs to be used to heat our school.


We were making cards to fathers and I was copying for my pupil. Other teacher was laminating some instructions and cut some plastic parts off the paper and put it to the wrong waste basket. I didn´t need to say anything; my pupil was quite demanding towards the other teacher to sort papers and plastic right.



25.11. we have a special day in Finland. The name for this day is "don´t buy anything". We will remind our pupils and their parents to take part in this!
http://www.alaosta.fi/


Our energy team has been working so active that we wanted to give them a surprise. We are going on a field trip to Pori. There is a special swimming hall that works with solar energy. So we will have fun and learning at the same time. We will hear how the hall works with the solar energy and then we will go swimming. More information about this you can find: http://yle.fi/alueet/satakunta/2011/09/porin_uusi_uimahalli_2890016.html

Energy saving week at Länsimetsä School (week 41)

We decided to take focus every day to one issue during this week.
On Monday teachers gave information letters to pupils about this week. There were 4 coupons to fill in during this week. By doing little tasks, pupils get to take part in four lotteries. The prizes in these lotteries are related to saving energy. On
Monday we had an exciting thing, too; a demonstration against using always cars to go to work. Energy team members made banderolls like "Use carpool!" "Bicycle is invented!" "Biking is wise!" etc.. On Monday morning (yet raining) we went with those banderolls next to roadway and stood there for half an hour. We were noticed in local newspaper; someone sent thanks to us:-)

On Tuesday we think with parents what is the most unnecessary electrical equipment; in Finnish “Turhuke”. Let´s see what kind of answers we´ll get!
These equipment got many votes: coffeemaker,tv, playstation, volumaster,..
The winner of lottery on Tuesday was Jenni and she got bicycle lamp with solar cell.

On Wednesday we focused on switching off unnecessary lights and electrical devices. If you would be active and switch off something at home or at school, you can return your coupon to lottery.
The winner of lottery on Wednesday was Jenny and she got torch with crank (batterys not needed).

Recycling was the theme on Thursday. We have a pillow in our canteen and pupils have to guess what is the recycled material that has been used in making the filling for that pillow.
Pupils thought that the filling was made of cotton wool but the right answer is recycled plastic bottles!
The happy owner of this pillow is now Hanna Ågren.

Then we had Friday left. We want to encourage our pupils to use feet and bicycles when they come to school and go back home. If a pupil have been doing that for all four days this week, they are allowed to return this last coupon.
We got 63 coupons, so we made a good job.
The winner of lottery on Friday was Nico. He also got bicycle lamp with solar cell.

Mother-Teresa patches

In handicraft lessons every girl from the 6th grade knitted her own patch. Patches were made from secondhand woollen yarn. You don't have to buy new yarn every time. We put our patches together and we get a blanket! Our blanket will be sent to India.