Growing Green Futures: SES Students Shine with Sustainable Paper Lantern Project (IPC in Action)

Growing Green Futures: SES Students Shine with Sustainable Paper Lantern Project (IPC in Action)

At Surabaya European School (SES), teaching our students to care for the planet is just as important as their academic learning. Through the International Primary Curriculum (IPC), we make learning about sustainability exciting and relevant for young minds. A fantastic example of this happened recently in Year 2: the students created their very own paper lanterns, starting with the amazing process of making the paper from scratch!

The IPC, which encourages students to connect different subjects and explore big ideas, provides a perfect way to learn about sustainability. This Year 2 project showed exactly how this works.

Year 2: A Hands-On Journey to Sustainable Light

Imagine the buzz in the Year 2 classroom as it transformed into a mini paper factory! This wasn’t about simply decorating shop-bought paper. Instead, the children embarked on a journey to understand how paper is made from basic resources. With their teachers guiding them, they followed these sustainable steps:

  • Where Does Paper Come From?

    The project began with a discussion about paper’s origins, often highlighting the impact of cutting down forests. This naturally led to talking about better alternatives and why recycling is so important. The school might have even used recycled paper or fast-growing plant materials to make the initial paper mixture, showing the students how we can reuse things.

  • Making Paper Magic

    The students then got their hands wet, experiencing the fascinating process of turning raw materials into paper pulp. They broke down the materials (recycled paper or plant fibers), mixed them with water, and used special screens to create new sheets of paper. This hands-on activity gave them a real understanding of the effort and resources needed to make even a single piece of paper.

  • Looking After Our Resources

    Throughout the paper-making, teachers emphasized using water wisely and avoiding any waste. This taught the young learners important lessons about managing resources and why we need to look after our planet’s supplies.

  • Creating Lanterns with Meaning

    Once their handmade paper was dry, the Year 2 students used their unique creations to build beautiful paper lanterns. This gave their hard work a lovely and meaningful outcome, connecting the sustainable process to celebrations that often involve light and hope.

  • Thinking About What We Learned

    The project ended with a class discussion. Students talked about how their handmade paper was different from the paper we usually use, considering the energy and materials involved in making paper on a large scale. This helped them think critically about what we buy and why sustainable choices are important.

How IPC Principles Support Sustainability Learning:

This Year 2 paper lantern project beautifully shows how the IPC helps students learn about sustainability:

  • Personal Learning: By being directly involved in the process, students developed a sense of responsibility towards the environment and understood the impact of their actions.
  • Enquiry: The project encouraged lots of “why?” questions about materials, how things are made, and the effect on our planet, fostering a natural curiosity about sustainability.
  • International Mindedness: Depending on the wider topic they were studying, they might have learned how different cultures celebrate with light and how different countries approach environmental issues.
  • Making Connections: Students saw the link between making paper and bigger environmental problems like deforestation and using up too many resources, giving them a better understanding of the whole picture.
  • Specific Learning Goals: The activity addressed specific IPC learning targets related to understanding materials, how things are made, and the importance of using resources responsibly.

Building a Greener Future at SES:

The Year 2 paper lantern project is just one example of how SES makes learning about sustainability a key part of its IPC curriculum. By providing fun, hands-on experiences that connect learning to real-world issues, SES is empowering its students to become informed, responsible, and proactive caretakers of our environment. Starting with something as simple as making paper sustainably, SES is helping to grow a generation that truly values our planet and is ready to create a brighter, greener future for all.