Nature School Club Elementary School Heidekampgraben (Every Wednesday from 2.30pm to 4pm)
Administrators Grit Kanter (teacher) and Kathrin Najasek (project lead KlimaKids) worked with 16 attending children from March to July. Class representatives voted for the club in a participatory process in a student assembly.
During the realization of the projects, the nature school club worked with:
Hort (eFöB), parent companions, school social workers, parents from the elementary school Heidekampgraben, parent representation, school administration, facility management of the elementary school, team of the vegetable academy (Acker.co), Kiezbeete e.V., water network Berlin, NABU Berlin, Life e.V.
At the start of our school club in early March, we began by giving an Introduction into the topic natural environment and biosphere school. We especially focused on the questions “What does nature mean to me?” and “What does protection of our environment mean?”. Additionally, we collected project ideas for what we want to achieve in the nature school club. Some examples were:
- Understand and explore nature/living environment (Heidekampgraben as a body of water/plants and animals)
- Protect plants and animals – insect hotels, nesting aids, build a dead hedge
- Plants
- Collect garbage and raise awareness (recycling actions)
Our first project in March revolved around Upcycling, as we converted juice and milk cartons into plant pots. Furthermore, we explored the Heidekampgraben as an environment for plants and animals – also with the goal of improving it.
In May, we worked on building an insect hotel as a parent-child project in cooperation with the parent companion of the school and in collaboration with the NABU. This was connected with counting insects at Heidekampgraben for the NABU in early June. Afterwards, we installed a solar irrigation system for the insect hotel together.
Our workshop Heidekampgraben as a body of water in cooperation with water network Berlin began in July, where students got to learn more about local bodies of water in an interactive way, for example by taking water samples.
Another project in July was Fabric Magic – a parent-child project on upcycling clothing plus presentation of nature club projects, in cooperation with the Hort team, school social workers and parent companions.
The last July meeting was focused on Solar Circus –a workshop about solar energies, carried out by Life e.V. and Circus Cabuwatzi.
You can find a summarising impression of our school club under:
https://www.grundschuleamheidekampgraben.de/besonderer-abschluss/