The weather has been very bad but we finally got out to plant our seed potatoes today, 16th April 2013

Oisín showing us  a seed potato 

 Aoibhín showing her classmates a seed potato

Saving Water

Water Conservation

By Niamh & Michelle

On the 10th of January 2013 a woman called Sandy McGroarty from the Green Schools Organisation visited our school.  She discussed water conservation with us.  

Firstly she introduced us to the water cycle and Eoin explained it to all of the school. 

Next she explained that water comes in 3 forms; gas (also known as steam), liquid and solid (ice).  After a while she explained why ice floats.  She said when water freezes it expands and weighs less than water, that is why ice floats on the surface of rivers and lakes.

Then she talked to us about how much water is in the world, “only 3% of the world’s water is fresh and only 1% of it is accessible.  It is either underground or frozen in ice caps.”

After that she asked us to estimate how much water an average Irish person uses in one day?  The answer was 140 litres.  Americans use 600 litres of water in one day, while a person living in the Sahara desert uses 4 litres.

Then she showed us a picture of an island near Hawaii, it is called Plastic Island. Rubbish in the sea gathers together due to strong currents in the Pacific Ocean.  A year ago it was the size of Texas and now it is the size of the USA!

Sandy explained to us that 85% of our brain is made up of water and 70% of our bodies are made up of water.  Also we learned that 70% of the earth is water, that means only 30% of the earth is land.

Finally she said we should have a 5 minute showers and recommended using a timer so we would know how long we spend in the shower and not waste water at the same time.  She also told us that a 5 minute shower uses 35 litres of water!  To flush the toilet uses 27 litres of water.  Old cisterns hold 12 litres and modern cisterns hold only 6 litres.  We really enjoyed Sandy’s visit to Clondulane N.S!

 Tips for Water Conservation at Home and in the Garden

Planting Bulbs

On October 19th 2012 we planted some hyacinth bulbs around the front of our school. We look forward to a colourful display next spring!

Sandy McGroarty visited our school on January 10th 2013 to talk about water conservation as we work towards our 3rd Green Flag.

Here are some photos we took during her visit ….