Little Steps, Big Impact!

A huge factor in our weekly set-up is that Little Gems makes a weekly shop of groceries and general supplies to provide for the children and adults within it each day. Making this weekly shop requires fuel, bags and time: all of which could be incorporated into our curriculum and therefore reducing our impact as a school.

To make the weekly shopping part of our goal was set to start in March 2020 but, while we were focusing on Goal 12 and exploring the importance of consumption with the children, we felt that this should happen sooner, so we implemented this from January.

Where does our food come from?

Has it traveled far?

What can we do instead?

What ingredients does each item contain?

What are bags made of?

How does a van or car run?

After measuring our carbon footprint, exploring and observing in the classroom, we decided that a small group of children would go each week, buy only local products and only packages (where possible) that also had recyclable packaging if we could not eliminate this. Once a week our Little Gems venture to our nearby supermarket (Metro in Larnaca, Sklavenitis in Nicosia) in order to do the schools weekly shopping. Lots of hands on learning going on here as we prepare our shopping list after checking our supplies and discussing what we need for the upcoming week. Equipped with our hats, vests and shopping trollies we look forward to our shopping!

Curriculum benefits:

Numeracy -- dealing with quantity, weight, money, division, addition, subtraction, mental arithmetic

Language & Literacy -- identifying labels, writing shopping lists, communication, problem solving language

Social Development -- asking and answering questions, working as a team, contributing as a leader, solving problems, grace and courtesy, politeness to strangers and people that can help

Physical Development -- carrying heavy objects, balancing, dexterity in hands and feet, moving with control, chain transferring

Emotional Development -- visiting unfamiliar places, taking responsibility, patience

‘’As Global citizens we must examine what our rights and responsibilities are on a National, European and Global scale and encourage everyone to look at the impacts our consumption habits have on other parts of the world’’.

If you too would like to make a change, join us in calculating your carbon footprint here: https://ww

w.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx