EcoSchools

We did it!!!  John Wanless is a certified GOLD level EcoSchool for a second year in a row! To learn more about what this means and how the TDSB is working to green our schools, please visit the EcoSchools web page.  Thank you to all of the teachers, students and parents of JW for helping us achieve it.

Check out some of our Eco Literacy!

Ms. Gall's grade 2s have the whole world in their eco friendly hands

EARTH WEEK 2013: April 22 - 26

Earth Week will be kicked off with an assembly for Grades 1 through 6 first period Monday morning. Each day of the week will have theme and House points will be rewarded for each student who participates. Kindergarten classes will also have their own presentations and activities throughout the week. The themes help bring awareness to important environmental issues in a way that students can understand and their show of support brings attention to these issues. Announcements were made throughout the week last week so students have more information about each theme. There will also be a Beautiful Junk contest between classes and an Eco-Mural created by the entire school.

• Monday: Conserve Energy (lights will be kept off as much as possible)
• Tuesday: Water Day - wear blue
• Wednesday: Endangered Species Day - wear a shirt with one on it or bring a stuffed toy of one
• Thursday: Clear Air Day - wear white
• Friday: Waste Free Lunch / Community Clean Up day (during afternoon classes)

 Students interacting and learning about endangered animals

Some great contributions to our Beautiful Junk contest!

Thanks to all that participated - you made everyone GREEN with envy!

View our 2010 Earth Day Video Podcast about Pollution
 

Areas of Focus for the 2012 - 2013 School Year:

Due to the work situation this year JW Green Team had to scale back on our initiatives, BUT - we are still doing what we can to stay active and maintain our Eco Goals.

Keep an eye out for our Green Bin initiative - Coming Soon!!!!

Here are some things that we have done in the past.

Terra Cycle

Terracycle is a company that collects hard-to-recycle materials and turns it into affordable green products.  Their goal is to eliminate the idea of waste.  Terracycle diverts waste from landfills and UPcycles it into other green products such as pencil cases or bags.  They also recycle products that municipalities are not able to, such as clear sandwich bags.  Here at John Wanless we are doing our part by collecting some of the items that can be Terracycled, such as empty and clean yogurt containers, Kool-Aid Jammer and Del Monte juice containers, as well as Nestle candy wrappers and used sandwich bags.  Students can bring any of these items in and place them in the boxes located in the front foyer that represents their house colour.  For every item collected they earn house points!  Also we get paid 2 cents for every item that we collect.  It is a win-win-win situation!   If you want to learn more about Terracycle check out their web site: www.terracycle.ca

ABC Wednesdays

ABC Wednesdays are Back!

The Eco-team challenges YOU to pick Wednesdays as your Anything But a Car day! Run, skip, hop, ride or walk to school with a friend or a parent. By not driving to school you maintain a healthy lifestyle through exercise, it keeps the air we breathe cleaner and creates a safe school by minimizes traffic congestion around John Wanless.  Don't forget to check in with your house colour representative to earn points.

Lunch Room Waste Reduction

Students who eat lunch at school are strongly encouraged to participate in our "boomerang" lunch program. This program asks students to bring everything (garbage/waste) back home. In this way, we reduce the amount of garbage the school puts out. Moreover, the food waste/compost can be put into green bins at home and thus diverted from landfills. We currently only have Recycling bins in the lunch room.

Earth Educators

A group of students on the Green Team will be working with JW staff to promote earth friendly activities through various media including announcements, assembly presentations and posters.  Some of the initiatives we will be promoting are Earth Hour, Earth week, water and energy conservation and waste reduction, to name a few.

Waste Free Pizza Lunch

Fortunately, thanks to our amazing parent community, we were able to continue this through out the year1

A few years ago, the Green team developed a comprehensive recycling program for our Pizza Lunches. We have nine Pizza lunches over the course of the year where close to 700 students eat in our gym. To combat the staggering amount of waste, our Green Team championed a recycling program that ensures that students place all refuse in the appropriate place. Moreover, all food waste is collected and brought to a parent's home to be collected with the city of Toronto green bin collection.  More recently we eliminated the use of juice boxes and encourage students to bring in their own re-useable drink containers.

Gardening

There may be a shortage of bees on our earth but not at John Wanless! That’s because the Green Team’s Gardening Gang was as busy as a hive full of bees last fall when they planted daffodils and wildflower seeds in the Outdoor Classroom on Fairlawn Ave. They even started the flagstone path around their Peace Garden. Flower John donated the daffodil bulbs, and an anonymous donor gave us the flagstone. We’re always looking for donations for our garden: in particular, right now we are in need of more flagstone. If you have any perennials or herbs that need a good home, we’d love to have them too! Please contact awordnerd@live.caOpens in a new window if you have flagstone or plants to donate! Hope you enjoy the spring and don’t forget to walk through the garden to see your children’s hard work.