Eco-schools’ Day

Objetivo

We want to change the eating habits of our students, reduce consumption of meat and processed foods, with lots of salt, sugar and fats, encourage healthy living habits such as increasing consumption of vegetables, fruits, vegetables and herbs and increasing habits of sustainable mobility, such as walking or cycling.

Número de participantes

Descrição

On March 8th, at our school, we celebrated Eco-Schools’ Day with various initiatives to promote students body and mind health. We had a some laboratory experiences, conducted by teacher Vilma Mateus, in which students could measure the amount of sugar, salt, fat, chemical additives that certain food items, like gums, sodas and fast food, can contain. The exercise allowed the students to actually see the amounts of salt and sugar measured in sugar packets, test tubes with oil or gobelés with salt. We were alarmed by the results. Teacher Isabel Pinto had put together vegetarian hamburgers with red beans. They were delicious! There was also in the food bank very colorful fresh fruits, like oranges, apples, pears, kiwis and pineapples, alongside with orange juice. For those who liked tea, there was also a princess tea, because on this day we also celebrate Women’s Day! We had a displayer bench that indicated all kinds of materials that we recycled in our school. There was a demonstration of acrobatics that the bicycle club held and we also could read some messages on a bicycle, inviting the school community to ride their bike. Cycling is good for your health. Finally teacher Graça Pereira showed some work we did in the forest club: vermicomposting and aromatic plants gardening. We had the visit of our little students from kindergarten and some students from the primary school. It was a good morning and I hope it was very educational for the whole school community.

Teacher Graça Pereira

Avaliação/impacto

The students were engaged on the laboratory experiences and loved to eat the vegetarian hamburgers, drink fruit juices and eat fresh fruits. They were alarmed by the amount of sugar, salt and fat on potato chips, sodas, gums and processed foods. Students at the bicycle club performed their piroets on the school grounds, demonstrating how fun it is to ride a bike.