ESTEVAN - A couple of classrooms at Sacred Heart School/École Sacré Coeur won a Tertiary Award for the Queen's Jubilee Contest.
Jeannette Seemann's Grade 3/4 French immersion class and Michelle Adams' Grade 3 English class won several prizes of $150 each, which were awarded by completing the Queen's Jubilee Challenge hosted by Canadian Geographic.
Each classroom has been participating all year in environmental activities that conserve the local native plants and help understand their environment. These conscientious students have studied and practised composting with and without worms throughout the school year.
Activities included a tour of Shand Green House, a scavenger hunt at the park near the Shand Power Station, planting trees in the school's student gardens and cleaning areas of their playground.
In an email to the Mercury, the school noted that even winter activities are necessary to maintain these gardens. Pruning the grape vines and cutting rot out of the infected trees must be done before the thaw.
Following all this, the teachers have planned one last day that was filled with learning about plants, composting and using the vocabulary surrounding plants and their environment.
The Queen's Jubilee Challenge was a Canadian-wide competition to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years of service and her love of trees. She has planted a tree for each of her children and continues to plant trees all over the world.
The school also planted a tree on the same birthday as one of its students and that tree is now named after that student. By completing parts of the environmental challenges and submitting proof, the classrooms earned official ballots resulting in the awards.
