Book Game Greening

-connect to Nature

-non- formal education

GREEN GAMING

LI

Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Team building ................................................................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 Building bug hotel ................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Eco’logics ................................................................................................................................................................. 6 1.3 Planting trees .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Presenting different environmental topics ............................................................................................................. 8 2. Energizers ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Crocodile and penguins........................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Song "Animals on the farm" .................................................................................................................................. 10 2.3 Pretending a tree .................................................................................................................................................. 11 2.4 Tree game ............................................................................................................................................................. 12 2.5 Sea and land .......................................................................................................................................................... 13 2.6 Land, Sea and Air................................................................................................................................................... 13 2.7 The blind animals .................................................................................................................................................. 14 2.8 Here comes the storm .......................................................................................................................................... 14 3. Ice breakers ................................................................................................................................................................. 15 3.1. Matching good and bad practices........................................................................................................................ 15 3.2 I am eco, yuhu!...................................................................................................................................................... 15 3.3 Bibidi bibidi bop: ecology version ......................................................................................................................... 16 4. Other activities ............................................................................................................................................................ 17 4.1 Flip chart of good and bad practices ..................................................................................................................... 17 4.2 Creative upcycling ................................................................................................................................................. 17 4.3. The sleeping bear ................................................................................................................................................. 20 4.4 Yoga by nature ...................................................................................................................................................... 21 4.5 Craft workshops-greenhouses .............................................................................................................................. 22 4.6 My life was better when the earth was colder (human library) ........................................................................... 23 Attachments.................................................................................................................................................................... 24 1. Matching good and bad practices ........................................................................................................................... 24 2. Flip chart of good and bad practices ....................................................................................................................... 25 3. Human library -stories + maps ................................................................................................................................ 29

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Introduction What will you find in this book?

As professionals of formal and non-formal education, we have the ethical commitment that our actions are connected to society. Aware of the changes that occur, we believe that environmental education is a fundamental part of the entire learning process. This guide of environmental activities is addressed to all educational contexts. Institutions like kindergartens and schools are a suitable climate where those games can be developed, since it is one of the children's first contacts with the outside world. It is through the social environment and in interaction with the people where we learn the most. That is why we believe that through leisure, play and good use of free time, we can connect with the personal interests of people and get them to have fun. We see importance in motivating them through environmental education, developing an awareness, acquiring information, developing habits and skills and promoting values like respect for nature and the importance of conserving it for the future, thus adopting a conscious attitude towards the environment that surrounds us and of which we are part together with other species. We wish that this small book can also inspire to create new activities.

What methods do we use for the activities?

This booklet describes games and activities from non formal education and focused on several methods of it, such as team building, energizers, ice-breakers, but also some, which cannot be clearly qualified as one methods. All of them give space to participants to become protagonists throughout the process of the workshops and environmental activities. All actions have been framed in a context of both personal and group development.

Therefore, one of its purposes, apart from promoting greater respect for nature and awareness of the proper use of the planet's resources, is the promotion of interrelation social, gender equality, enjoy a healthy leisure, fun, dialogue and participation.

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1. Team building Team building is the process of turning a group of individuals into a cohesive team, a group of people organized to work together interdependently and cooperatively to meet their purpose and goals.

In the non-formal education it’s very important that the group operate optimal. For that, team building activities are very useful to let the participants let knowing each other, and build a positive team dynamics.

Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. Many team-building exercises aim to expose and address interpersonal problems within the group.

Over time, these activities are intended to improve performance in a team-based environment. Team building is one of the foundations of organizational development that can be applied to groups such as sports teams, school classes, military units or flight crews.

The formal definition of team-building includes: 

aligning around goals

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building effective working relationships

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reducing team members' role ambiguity

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finding solutions to team problems

Team building is one of the most widely used group-development activities in organizations.

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1.1 Building bug hotel Age: from 6 years old.

Materials needed: 2 liter plastic drinks bottle or plant pot; use a piece of plastic pipe e.g. down pipe, bamboo canes or plastic straws at least 4mm in diameter or rolled newspaper, corrugated cardboard, scissors, waterproof tape or string.

Time needed: 25-35 minutes.

Description:  Divide participant into small (2-3 persons) groups in which they will work  Cut the end off a plastic drinks bottle or cut a plastic pipe to 20cm in length. Plastic plant pots can also be used.  Make newspaper tubes by cutting newspaper lengthways and rolling up. Ensure there is a hole in the centre of around 4mm. Rolled corrugated cardboard can also be used.  Cut the material to the length of the pot or bottle. The bamboo needs to be cut so that the solid node is at the closed end or the whole length is hollow.  Fit the materials tightly into the drinks bottle or pot, so they won’t fall out. Ensure the hollow ends are facing outwards, and will be protected from rain.  Hang almost horizontally in a warm spot with the open end slightly lower to prevent water logging.

Bug homes are best placed no higher than 1m above the ground.

The best season to make a bug home would be early autumn, so the insects have somewhere to hibernate for the winter.

Learning objectives: learn about hibernation, learn about native wildlife, care for the environment, learn to work in groups.

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1.2 Eco’logics Age: from 10 years old.

Materials needed: none.

Time needed: 20-30 minutes.

Description: Participants work in 2 teams: - 2 people would play a rubbish; their goal is to go thru points around spaced used for activity and come back to initial position. If they succeed, they won.

- rest of participant will be The Eco ’Logics - they must create points thru which rubbish has to go. For example: 1st point is Water Decontamination, 2nd- Water Filtering point, 3rd: Plastic selection, 4th: Plastic recycling etc. The Eco ‘Logics win if they destroy/recycle rubbish.

Each person from "Rubbish team" should be a different kind of waste, for example plastic bottle, can, chemical substances. They would go thru each point created by Eco'logics and if at one point there is no solution how to handle the waste, they move to another one. It is important that the leader of the game has a knowledge about waste- managing and is able to help and highlight how big problem is the waste production nowadays. This person should also be aware of danger of some of practices while handling rubbish, like burning them and releasing to atmosphere chemical substances.

1.3 Planting trees Age: from 6 years old.

Materials needed: semi-grown trees, shovels, buckets, gloves.

Time needed: 20-30 minutes.

Description: 

When? Plan to order trees in the fall or winter so they can be picked up in the spring. Ordering trees grown from seeds collected from the region where you will be planting is preferred as these trees are better adapted to local soil and weather conditions and will likely have a higher survival rate.

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Where? State forestry and wildlife agency nurseries, county conservation districts, and private nurseries are possible sources of tree seedlings.

Work should be done in couples to make sure every participant is involved. It is important to make sure leader of activity has knowledge about planting and is able to explain why it is important to plant trees and how to make sure that we choose good species and space.

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Activity should be followed by discussion on importance of trees and forests.

Some of the reasons to plant: improving wildlife, producing future timber, restoring a woodland, reintroducing a tree species, controlling erosion/ Improving water quality

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1.4 Presenting different environmental topics Age: from 12 years old.

Materials needed: papers, pens.

Time needed: 50-60 minutes.

Descriptions: Prepare papers with topics to present: 1. Recycling.

2. Food’s footprint.

3. Aware shopping.

4. Reasons of deforestation. How to prevent it?

5. Be kind to animals.

And the way of presenting it: 1. TV show 2. Sketch 3. Radio 4. Theater 5. Song You need to divide participants into 5 groups. Let them draw lots with one of the topics and way in which they need to prepare it. They should have no more than 15 minutes for preparation and presentation should not be longer than 5 minutes.

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2. Energizers Energizers are short games to bring up the level of energy and catch a focus of participants.

2.1 Crocodile and penguins Age: 7-12 years old.

Materials needed: none.

Time needed: +/- 5 minutes.

Description: You have to set down a space for activity, not too big though. One person will be a crocodile- making big, but slow steps and trying to catch penguins with hands, moving them as they would be a jaw. Rest of participants are penguins- moving with fast, but very small steps and trying to run from crocodiles.

Whoever is caught by crocodile becomes one. The game finishes when all participants are crocodiles.

CROCODILE:

PENGUIN:

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2.2 Song "Animals on the farm" Age: 4-10 years old.

Materials needed: laptop/mp3 player and speaker or none if singing acapella.

Link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXEq-QO3xTg Time needed: +/- 10 minutes.

Description: Participants should make a circle. The person who leads activity sings the first part of each line so for example: "The ducks on the farm say:...", " The mice on the farm say", while the kids have to make a sounds of said animals. You may also ask kids to add movement characteristic for each animal.

Lyrics: The ducks on the farm say, "Quack, quack, quack."

The mice on the farm say, "Squeak, squeak, squeak."

The chickens on the farm say, "Cluck, cluck, cluck." "Quack. Squeak. Cluck."

The pigs on the farm say, "Oink, oink, oink."

The goats on the farm say "Meh, meh, meh."

The sheep on the farm say "Baa, baa, baa." "Oink. Meh. Baa." The horses on the farm say, "Neigh, neigh, neigh."

The cows on the farm say, "Moo, moo, moo."

The roosters on the farm say, "Cock-a-doodle-doo."

"Neigh. Moo. Cock-a-doodle-doo." "Neigh. Moo. Cock-a-doodle-doo."

Let's try it a little faster.

The ducks on the farm say, "Quack, quack, quack."

The mice on the farm say, "Squeak, squeak, squeak."

The chickens on the farm say, "Cluck, cluck, cluck."

"Quack. Squeak. Cluck."

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Okay, a little faster.

The pigs on the farm say, "Oink, oink, oink."

The goats on the farm say "Meh, meh, meh."

The sheep on the farm say "Baa, baa, baa."

"Oink. Meh. Baa." Okay, super fast!

The horses on the farm say, "Neigh, neigh, neigh."

The cows on the farm say, "Moo, moo, moo."

The roosters on the farm say, "Cock-a-doodle-doo" "Neigh. Moo. Cock-a-doodle-doo." "Neigh. Moo. Cock-a-doodle-doo."

2.3 Pretending a tree Age: from 5 years old.

Materials needed: none.

Time needed: +/- 5 minutes.

Description: Participants stand in a circle with enough space to put arms straight to the sides. The facilitator will show few movements (photos below/ on the next page) that later would be repeated by the rest.

If someone is too slow to repeat the movement- loses one branch, so has to show everything with one arm/hand only. If the same person is last one to show a movement again, then is out of game. The speed of game should keep on increasing.

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2.4 Tree game Age: from 8 years old.

Materials needed: newspapers/wastepaper to put on the floor.

Time needed: 5-7 minutes.

Description: This is a game to wake up mind and body before other activities. The goal of a game is to show kids that it is easy to cut trees and in real life trees also need protection.

You need to prepare the floor- put papers on it in a circle. Now you need to find one volunteer who wants to be the Tree. Ask him/ her to stand in the middle of the circle. Rest of group divide in two groups. One of them are Protectors- the task for them is to protect the tree. They need to stand around him/her, they can hold hands etc. Second group are Fighters- they need to „cut the Tree”, which means to remove the papers from under the feet of the Protectors and the Tree. They have 30 seconds to do it, if under the Tree’s feet there is still a paper- Protectors win. Warn the players that violence is forbidden and they cannot push or hit each other.

At the end you can ask kids about conclusions, discuss about goals of the game. For example: if it was easy to do cut/protect the tree? What we can do in daily life to protect trees and forests.

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2.5 Sea and land Age: All ages.

Materials needed: Chalk (to paint the line).

Time needed: 10 min.

Description: All participants should stand in front of a line, next to each other. This line separates the sea from the landwhere the players originally stand is a land and in front of them, on the other side of the line, is the sea.

The person leading the game should say "sea" or "land", to indicate to the players where they should jump and stay. The game can go faster and faster and participants should be careful not to make mistakes.

2.6 Land, Sea and Air Age: All ages (to the youngest participants we have to first introduce animals, which can be done by drawings or cards with animals).

Materials needed: none.

Time needed: 10-15 min.

Description: The participants are placed in a circle. The person leading the game says the name of a student and then the word earth, sea or air. Chosen participant has to name an animal, who live in indicated part of environment.

For example: Sea (shark, whale, sea turtle) Earth (tiger, bear, dog) Air (sparrow, eagle, sparrow hawk)

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2.7 The blind animals Age: All ages.

Materials needed: Paper, scissors, marker, scarf.

Time needed: 10-15 min.

Description: We prepare cards with names of animals. Each animal is repeated twice in order to make pairs. A card is given to each participant and then their eyes are covered. On the sign of the facilitator each participant should find his partner imitating the sound made by his or her animal.

2.8 Here comes the storm Age: any age.

Materials needed: no materials required.

Time needed: 5-10 minutes maximum.

Description: The goal of this energiser is to reproduce different sounds of a storm using our bodies. Participants should be standing and will be divided by facilitator(s) into 4 groups. Once divided, the facilitator will show a different sound to each group for them to learn it. Group 1 will rub their hands; Group 2 will snap their fingers; Group 3 will clap their hands only with two fingers; Group 4 will hit their thighs fast with their hands. When all groups are familiar with their sound, facilitator will ask each group separately to reproduce them it. Then, it’s possible to combine them as they want: Group 1 and 3, Group 2 and 4 at the same time. It’s a way of listening how the different sounds combine.

The last step is to ask the participants to reproduce the sounds all together, but in order. First, only group 1; then 1 and 2; then 1, 2 and 3; then all together. Finally, facilitators will make a previously agreed sign (a clap, a face, putting their hands up) and both participants and facilitators jump at the same time to finish the energiser.

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3. Ice breakers An icebreaker is an activity, game, or event that is used to welcome and warm up the conversation among participants in a meeting, training class, team building session, or another event. Any event that requires people to comfortably interact with each other and a facilitator is an opportunity to use an icebreaker.

An effective icebreaker will warm up the conversation in your training class or meeting, reinforce the topic of the session, and ensure that participants enjoy their interaction and the session.

When participants don’t know each other, the icebreaker will help them introduce themselves to the other participants.

3.1. Matching good and bad practices Age: from 8 years old.

Materials needed: papers with good and bad practices (see Attachment 1; you can also create your own), box/bag or something to put papers in.

Time needed: 5-10 minutes.

Description: Put the papers with practices in a bag/box and let the kids to draw lots. Once all of participants hold one paper, they need to find the opposite practice to the one they have. Example: „buying plastic bag every time” vs. „using textile bag”. After the task is done ask to read out loud practices in couples and comment/make discussion why one is bad and the other one is good.

3.2 I am eco, yuhu!

Age: from 10 years old.

Materials needed: none.

Time needed: +/- one minute per participants.

Description: The purpose of that activity is to get to know each other name, but also to learn what people can do for environment in a daily life. Participants stand in a circle. Each of them, one by one, will say "My name is...." followed by one environmental friendly thing they do, after which they will show one short movement (e.g. jump, squat etc). The rest of people will repeat loud the name and a movement.

Example: My name is Sara, I am recycling and my movement is "standing on one leg"; rest of people repeat: Sara and make a movement of standing on one leg.

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3.3 Bibidi bibidi bop: ecology version Age: from 8 years old.

Materials needed: no materials required.

Time needed: 10-15 minutes.

Description: This is an icebreaker to focus and be active. The facilitators will form a circle of participants and one of them will be in the centre. Looking only at one person at the time, the facilitator will say either “bibidi bibidi bop” or just “bop”. If the facilitator says “bibidi bibidi bop”, the participant must reply “bop” before the facilitator finishes saying “bibidi bibidi bop”. But if the facilitator says only “bop” the participant must remain silent. If the participant doesn’t say “bop” in the first case or says something in the second case, he or she must go to the centre and the facilitator will take his/her place and so on. Nobody is eliminated. It is not necessary to point to someone in order. In fact, the element of surprise is much better to keep the game active.

Meanwhile this is happening, apart from “bibidi bibidi bop” or “bop”, the facilitator can give some other instructions once the participants already learnt the first part. The only rule here is that the facilitator will point one person, like when saying “bibidi bibidi bop” or “bop” and the person to his/her right and left must do something as well, before the count of 5. Examples: the facilitator says “tree” and the chosen participant must adopt the position of a tree, and the two people on his/her right and left must move and do sounds like the wind; to the word “storm”, the chosen participant must adopt the shape of a cloud, and the other two must do sounds and movements like thunderbolts; to the word “elephant”, the person in the middle must adopt the shape of the elephant's trunk and the other two must be the ears… And so on. The options are unlimited and every facilitator can invent their own.

The game ends whenever the facilitator wants. A good way is “losing” when he/she is supposed to say “bibidi bibidi bop” or “bop” and go to the centre of the circle. Is a very good start for another activity in which focus is important or a circle is required.

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4. Other activities 4.1 Flip chart of good and bad practices Age: from 12 years old.

Materials needed: flipchart paper divided into two parts: one for good practices and one for bad ones; small papers with drawings of mentioned above practices to be attached to the flip charts [see attachment 2].

Time needed: 15-25 minutes.

Description: Participants have to draw lots with practices (one per each) and then place it on a good side of flipchart.

This should be followed with small discussion, questions "Why do you think it is good/bad thing to do?", "why do you think it is so important (not) to do it?".

4.2 Creative upcycling Age: from 5 years old.

Materials needed: depends on what is the goal of the activity- plastic bottles, plastic spoons, carton boxes, papers from candies etc, scissors, glue, tape etc.

Time needed: 40-50 minutes.

Description: First it is worth to explain that upcycling is also known as creative reuse, and is the process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value. You may do for example: -flower pot

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- various decoration

- bird feeders

-cat house

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- rubbish bin (bottles)

-lamp (cups or spoons)

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4.3. The sleeping bear Age: 3-8 years old.

Materials needed: A bunch of keys or a small bell- you need something that makes a sound when it is moved.

Time needed: +/- 10 minutes Description: This is a game of ‘’back to calm’’. When kids had some physical activities and you need them to be calm down and focused again, you may use this short, easy game.

You ask the kids to hold hands and make a circle. Then they can release their hands and sit down in a circle.

In the center of the circle there must be a person, who will perform the role of a sleeping bear. You can choose this person among the kids and then ask him or her to lay down on the floor upside down with his/her eyes closed.

Then the game starts officially. Everybody must remain in silence the whole round. You will give the keys/bell to a kid, and he/she must pass it to the kid next to him/her and so on. They must try to be as quiet as possible, because, even though the “bear” is sleeping, it can hear the sound of the keys moving if the kids are not careful.

If you want to make the game a bit more difficult and funnier, you can change the directions to confuse the bear. At some point you will tell the kids to stop (by mimics, because otherwise the bear will hear you) and the kid who has the key in that moment must hide it (in their pockets, hands, behind their back…..), but remaining seated. You will tell the bear to slowly wake up from hibernation and point the kid who has the key. The sleeping bear has 3 opportunities to guess. If it takes too long to decide, you can count from 5 to 0 to make the process faster. If the bear guesses who has the key, this kid will go to the center and become the sleeping bear and the previous sleeping bear will take this place. In the center there must always only be one kid. When you finish some rounds and you think it is enough and the kids are calm, you can talk to them about the importance of treating the animals gently and with silence. Also, if they go to the woods or natural parks they should not make noise because the animals live there and might be sleeping like the bear from the game.

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4.4 Yoga by nature Age: All ages (We need to adapt all the postures to the age).

Materials needed: mat, large space (preferably outdoor).

Time needed: 30-60 min.

Description: Many yoga postures have a name of animals- it is a good opportunity for children to learn about them and their habitats, endangered species and give them a chance to share their knowledge and experiences with their favourite animals.

YOGA WORKSHOPS

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Learn the postures: We can make short or long sequences, according to the age, in which we combine different Yoga postures.

It is important to make it dynamic, participatory and fun. Participants should feel connected to the environment (park, mountain, beach, as it is the best to make it outdoor).

Play with Yoga: Participants can start walking slowly, normally or quickly and meanwhile the facilitator can say the name of Yoga posture, which participants should do immediately. "Players" can be also placed in a row and walk behind facilitator with one of the posture of animal.

A walk- through nature and through stories Facilitator can create a story about animals (taking in consideration that it should have educational value).

While telling the story yoga postures should be used and those have to be repeated by all participants. It is an activity that mixes theatre and Yoga to encourage creativity.

4.5 Craft workshops-greenhouses Age: 10 years.

Materials needed: small pots, plastic bottles, soil, water, parsley/herbs seeds etc.

Time needed: 30 min.

Description: Preparing bottles. Cut bottles on 1/3 of height from the top, we will need the part with plastic cap.

Put soil into the pots, then seeds and again a little bit of soil.

Cover pots using top parts of the bottles.

Put your small greenhouses close to the window, do not forget to water them.

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4.6 My life was better when the earth was colder (human library) Age: from 12 years old.

Materials: stories annexed (or other prepared by facilitators), maps of the world with +5º [Attachment 3].

Time: 5 minutes for stories + 10 minutes for discussion.

Description: Human library is a non-formal method in which every person is a “book” that has a story to tell. In this case, every book is about a person who had a different life in the past but, due to the incredibly hot temperatures that caused floods and turned whole countries into desserts, they had to move somewhere else.

The facilitator will prepare and learn the stories in advance. And each of them will hold the map of the are that is represented in the story. The participants of the activity will remain close to the facilitators, either sitting or standing. The most important is that they can hear the stories. Every facilitator will present a food (that will disappear in this possible future) to the participants. They can choose which of them do they prefer to listen to first. The facilitators will tell the stories and afterwards it is a good idea to create some debate about possible solutions to climate change that each of us can apply in daily life.

Recycling, reusing, reducing plastic consumption, reducing (or even quitting) meat and dairy products, using public transportation or cycling instead of using private vehicles, eating local and seasonal, buy in bulk without plastic or any packaging… There are so many things that we can do about it.

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Attachments 1. Matching good and bad practices

Using Cotton bag

Buying platic bag everytime

Creative recycling

Throwing awayall rubbish

Use natural products to clean house

Use only chemical products

Buy a termo bottle

Buy platic bottles

Use public transport

Drive a car

Take short shower

Take a bath

Vegetarian food

Eat a lot of meat

Buy sevond-hand clothes

Buy all new fashion trends

Recycling

Throwing rubbish in the nature

Rycycling

Burn rubbish

Less heating at home

Heating at home and opening windows

Load fully washing machine

Wash separatly everything

Share food

Waste food

Consume locals products

Buy veggies in supermarkets

Water off during brushing teeth

Water onduring brushing teeth

Donate things you don’t use

Throw away things you don’t use

Turn off electronic devices

Let electronic devices turned on.

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2. Flip chart of good and bad practices

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3. Human library -stories + maps  Mădălina / Cătălin: Romania

My name is Mădălina / Cătălin. I used to live in Romania, in a village called Drăgășani. It was a beautiful and peaceful village. I lived there with my family, in a house with a garden and some land to grow vines. We also had some hens to get eggs. My husband / wife worked in a supermarket and we had two small kids: Vlad (5) and Sorina (3) and also some dogs and cats. I used to work in Piaţa Centrală selling the eggs and the wine. It was a peaceful life. But the summers started to get hotter, and the winters stopped existing.

That’s when we started to learn Russian, because even though we love our country and our life, we couldn’t stand so much heat. And… the vines stopped growing as well, because we didn’t have enough rain. So, we had to move to Kuratovo, in the North of Russia, to run away from the hot Romanian weather.

Kuratovo is nice, but we miss our friends and family, who had to move to other places. I wish we had done something in the past so these 4º of temperature didn’t turn our country into a dessert…

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 Takeshi / Nanami: Japan

I am Takeshi / Nanami. I used to live in Tokyo with my girlfriend/boyfriend. She/I studied Pharmaceutical Sciences in the University of Tokyo and she/I was working for a company after graduating. I/he was a fisherman. But when the temperature of the earth escalated 4º, our city basically disappeared under the water. But before that, I started having less and less work, because the fish also started to disappear as well, because we were fishing too much. The problem was, because the food resources were decreasing, that we were fishing so much worldwide. Even small fish, so they didn’t have time to reproduce… And, they disappeared as well… Nanami/I found a job in McCarthy, in the south east of Alaska. Because I lost my job, now I must specialise in geothermic energy to be able to have a living. It’s good that we both found a future in Alaska. But we wonder how our lives would be without all these changes…

 Motumbo: Ivory Coast

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Hello, I’m Motumbo, from Ivory Coast. It’s not a secret anymore that my country is a dessert because of the high temperatures. Before that I used live in Daloa and work in a chocolate plantation, but cocoa grains need a lot of water to be produced. So, I basically lost my job because chocolate doesn’t exist anymore.

After I lost my job I moved to Mali, because there is a big campaign to reforest this country and the countries close to the Ecuador in Africa. I work planting trees everyday to try to fight against deforestation.

I’m lucky because I moved close to my country of origin, but I miss chocolate…

 Claudia Patricia: Colombia

My name is Claudia Patricia and I used to live in Pilones, in the East of Colombia. I owned a small land and used to produce coffee. But all this is already in the past. Colombia is now a dessert and it’s impossible to produce coffee. Not here nor anywhere in the world, because of extreme rains or extreme hot weather.

I moved to the city of Estancia La Carlota, in Argentina some years ago already with my daughter Daniela.

She goes to a nice school and I work planting vegetables that we sell to supermarkets. South America became a very hostile place to live, so Argentina is full of people who escaped from extreme weather. I think we could have done it better for the temperature not to be so high…

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LIVING THE GREEN 2017-1-RO01-KA105-036558

The project, “Living the green”, is a follow up to another voluntary project ,“Go for green”, implemented between 01.10.2015-01.10.2016. At the end of this project, together with all the 6 EVS volunteers, we realized an impact study with the result that the project was appropriate for all 6 volunteers and for the local communities situated nearby Valcea’s County (where the activities of the project were implemented).

The success of this project and the positive feedback received from the local community determinate us to initiate a new voluntary project.

Through this new EVS project, we want to promote ecological education, environment protection and to form the volunteers and the local community in order to have a “Green Spirit”. We also want to determinate them to be actively involved in order to protect the environment and to have a healhy lifestyle.

The specific objectives of the project are: - Participation of 8 volunteers to an innovative EVS stage, on a 12 month period. The theme of the project will be environment protection and ecological education.

- Growing the number of the local volunteers up to 200. They will participate together with the EVS volunteers at ecological activities and forestation in Cozia and Buila-Vanturarita National parks.

- The access of 400 students from rural areas to ecological education.

- Involving the EVS volunteers, who are NEETs youngsters, in the activities of the project, fact that will help them on the future to overpass the reduced opportunities situation.

In this project will be involved 8 volunteers from NEETs youngsters category from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Lituania, Portugal and Turkey.

The results of the project are: - The EVS stage for 8 vounteers in environment’s protection and ecological education domain.

- The brochure with non-formal education methods that are specific to ecological education - The calendar of the ecological education days.

-The web page of the project.

- 4 debating seminaries and 2 conferences.

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Volunteers: Maresa Katherina Senker-Germany Serrano Boter Iciar-Spain Pedro Escribano Alberola-Spain Maxime Valleaux-France Brice Javaloyes-France Katharzyna Smolinska-Poland Monika Biel-Poland Recep Kahraman-Turkey Mariani Andreea-Italy

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