Winning Hearts And Minds
Inspiring Positive Change
One Song At A Time
Receiving a Green Apple award
Our Message On A Bottle Workshop
Schools can sign up via the website Click HERE
• Everything required to run the workshop is downloadable via the School Member's Page.
• It’s completely FREE!
• The workshop will take approximately 2 hours.
• The workshop has been specifically developed for Junior years but can be tailored to suit ANY year group. Please contact us for suggestions if you are a secondary school. (We encourage two years at a time to participate).
The aim of the workshop is:
• To educate children about plastic pollution and offer them a creative/active platform to voice their concerns and act on this issue. The workshop results in a specially-designed petition to the manufacturers of children's toys to cut out single-use wrapping. The children add their own voices to the petition and the petition is sent from within the school.
The learning points are:
-
To raise awareness and educate children about the effects of plastic in our oceans through our song, art, and discussion
-
Suggest a Take-Home Earth-Guardian Challenge
-
Give children an active voice by organising a Message On A Bottle BIG Petition to toy manufacturers asking them to cut out plastic wrapping
-
Inspire a sense of guardianship for our planet, encouraging a sense of active citizenship and hope for the future.
The subject feeds into the curriculum in the following ways:
-
Art, Science, Active Citizenship, Feeling Good, Life-Long Learning and will inspire in the children a sense of hope and empowerment.
-
There are 3 main elements to the workshop:
1) The Song
2) The Message On A Bottle Campaign
3) The Earth Guardian Challenge.
In Advance:
Schools will download all the documents. These include the petition, emails, parent mail, logos, backing track, lyrics, videos and classroom PowerPoint. Full instructions on how to conduct the workshop are given in the READ ME document. Teachers are asked to familiarise the children with the song, ask their IT person to set up a ‘We Are The Voice’ email address @ the school , and ask the children to bring an empty plastic bottle from home.
On the day:
Children will gather for a children's introductory video and an educational film about plastic pollution. They discuss what they have seen, how they felt, and why they are participating in the campaign. They sing ‘We Are The Voice’ as a whole group. They return to classrooms for further discussion, creating art-work, and constructing messages to toy producers. The children’s personal messages are written on the virtual ‘Message on a Bottle’ petition.
After the Workshop:
Schools are required to merge all the children messages and email their petition to a number of manufacturers (using the templates provided). Material is provided for the schools to explore and continue their own ‘Earth Guardian Challenge’, including posters in classrooms and take-home suggestions for families. Schools are asked to upload their ‘evidence of participation (i.e. pictures of art-work and the number of signatures on the petition.
Please watch this 2 minute video showing a workshop taking place:
Recommendation:
“I would definitely recommend the workshop to other schools and teachers. It’s something that is so important to the children and that came through with their discussion, the actions, and through the outcome of the workshop. But on top of that it showed the children that they are important, that their voice should be heard.” - Liz Searle, Head of Yr4, St Lawrence Junior School, 2019