On 22 April 2020, Good Shepherd Student Care (GSSC), Singapore celebrated Earth Day. This year’s theme is ‘Climate Action’, hence Ms Eleana Tan Lay Peng planned a day of activities for the students of GSSC surrounding the theme. Before starting on the activities proper, Ms Tan touched briefly on how Earth Day came to be. She explained that we celebrate Earth Day to bring awareness to climate change, how our actions contribute to the detriment of our planet Earth and what we can do to make an impactful change. This year is especially significant, as it marks the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day.

Ms Tan: Action can make a difference!

The students actively participated, citing global warming as the major contributing factor to Earth’s declining health. They showed concern for the polar bears and penguins in the North and South Pole respectively. With the Earth heating up, these animals in particular will increasingly find it difficult to survive. Around the world, crops are drying up, making food hard to come by for grazing animals and humans alike. Ms Tan emphasised that our actions can make a difference and asked the students how they can play their part to make a change. Ways like switching off electrical appliances when not in use, recycling, using their own grocery bags, and planting more  trees were brought up as efforts to protect the environment were discussed.

The students then came together to do an Earth Day poster with the help of Ms Tan. They incorporated little details like the 4 seasons to demonstrate the climate. The trees surrounding the Earth express their hopes that the Earth will become greener and shows their love for the environment. The students also cut, pasted and outlines of their palms to pledge their participation in this year’s Earth Day.

In the evening, the students went gardening. This has been an ongoing project, and the students have been gardening since they were in Primary One. This effort to plant more trees like the papaya tree and other plants, emphasises the importance of creating a cleaner and greener environment and shows that each of us has a part to play in taking care of the environment.

Our students enjoyed learning more about Earth Day and what they can do to protect the Earth. Ms Tan also made the learning enriching, from conducting a craft session, to gardening with them. Hopefully, our little efforts at loving the environment will prove phenomenal. After all, “The Earth is a fine place worth fighting for.” – Ernest Hemingway.

Contributed by:

Ms Lian Xin Hui, Bathilda

Student Care Teacher

Good Shepherd Student Care

Singapore

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