I'd like to suggest starting a Wildlife Awareness Programme where we visit our local schools to talk with the Head teacher to see if the school would allow a short presentation on what the kids could do to help the animals and birds and flora in their surroundings.
I've done it here in the rural area where I live in Colombia and the kids loved it. It has to start with the kids to get them interested. If the presentation is done right, it only has to be about 30 - 45 minutes long, the kids will love it and this in turn is transmitted to their parents, who will hopefully encourage a more active participation and usually the parents join in as well.
What I did afterwards was to carry out follow-up, giving the kids little projects to perform and them when all were completed they gave a presentation on what they achieved and discovered. It's great!
Let's face it, if they are interested when they're young this will stay with them all their lives and the schools I think would welcome this taking into account the state the world is in at the moment.
I have asked one of my brothers to do the same back home in our community in Scotland and I have sent him some pointers and tips for a successful presentation.
I hope we can do something to raise the awareness of the kids because in this day of computer technology and video games it would be good to get across the message that our environment needs all the help it can get.
I look forward to hearing from you all and get your opinions and feedback.
Have a nice day
Andy
Fly high and free.
Unknown said: Thanks for your reply Kat Tai. Could you tell me more about it, please? Best regards Andy
Thanks for your reply Kat Tai. Could you tell me more about it, please?
Best regards
Yeah sure, basically volunteers are recruited and have a full day training on what the programme covers plus get a load of kit (big A3 boards with photos of common garden birds on, a set of fluffy singing birds, cards with the birds on and a few other things). The volunteers also get a nestbox, feeder, seed and posters etc to give to the school on the first visit, which is only with the teacher, to explain to them what the programme involves, things that they need to do and provide advice on siting their feeder and nest box (if needed). The second visit to the schools is tied in with the Big Schools Birdwatch which takes part over the two weeks either side of the Big Garden Birdwatch. We go through ID of a few species common to gardens - the main ones are house sparrow, starling, blue tit, robin, blackbird and songthrush (but we've added a few others to our kit) and their feeding habits, feeding garden birds, nestboxes plus answering any questions that the children come up with. The third visit for us up here is about red kites - covering general things about birds of prey, red kites history, why they were almost wiped out and how they are now being reintroduced and the general things about red kites (nesting, feeding etc). For the nesting part we have a bag of items that represent things found in red kites nest and the bag is passed around either by myself or one of the pupils and they pick one thing out of the bag each - that bit is SO much fun! Especially the knickers! The fourth visit we do covers the Big Schools Birdwatch results and goes over bird adaptation - different beaks, feet etc. How in-depth this goes really depends on the group though but we have cut-out bits of birds to go over their different features and then the kids make their own bird out of various bird bits and they come up with a name for their bird, how and if it would survive in the wild. Plus in all the sessions there are the questions and sharing of stories etc
Millie & Fly the Border Collies
Hi- I've done talks at schools and taken in bird song tapes etc. Kids liked it, head teacher liked it :)
S
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