As part of their eco-schools programme, Plettenberg Bay Christian School held a bin competition for their school. Learners from the junior, intermediate and senior phases competed against each other designing bins of two categories, that is, a bin for paper and one for compost (organic material). Learners had to bring all the material needed for the bins from home. It was a school initiative to get all the learners involved in the eco-schools programme.
Display of the bins made by Plett Christian School learners.
The Nature’s Valley Trust (NVT) was asked to judge the bins from each phase and decide upon a winner. Cindy-Lee was tasked to judge according to the desired theme and overall design appeal. The senior phase won the competition, with their reward being a trip to Nature’s Valley doing fun activities with the NVT team. The day started off with a trip to the Groot River, doing a MiniSASS activity to test the ‘health’ of the river. This involved using nets to collect aquatic insects and using keys to identify the insects, after which the ‘health’ of the river was determined.
NVT team briefing Plett Christian School learners about MiniSASS.
One of the learners sampling in the river.
This was then followed by an adventurous hike through the Nature’s Valley forest to the Salt River mouth. Once they arrived at the mouth the learners went for a swim after which the NVT team put together some fun team building games. These games included broken telephone where one learner was given a long message which was then passed down the line and the last person had to write it down.
Babalwa giving one of the learners the message for the Broken telephone game.
They then took part in the human knot where they had to untangle themselves and form a circle. The last game was fill the bucket where the learners where divided into four groups. Each group had to then carry each member of their group from the water source to their bucket to fill it using a cup with holes in it. The games were a fun way to get them to work together as a team and were followed by another swim to cool down after all the hard work.
Learners playing the Human knot game.
Team work during the Fill the bucket activity.
The learners then hiked back to the NVT office where they said their goodbyes and headed back to Plettenberg Bay after an exciting day in the Valley. It was a fun-filled day for the victors of the bin competition and an enjoyable one for NVT as well!
