This half term, we are a team of eco- builders. We specialise in building things that support and enhance the natural world. This will cover areas of DT, Geography, Science, PSHE and RE.

"We build so that our planet has a future"

The Eco- Builders

1) The Eco- Builders have offices in 4 areas of the UK; London (City in England), Cardiff (City in Wales), Edinburgh (City in Scotland) and Redditch (Town in England.

The team labelled these on a map of the UK, as well as the surrounding bodies of water.

2) The Eco- Builders are experts in their field and have been called to do jobs all over Europe! The children created passports and created stamps for the countries they had visited so far. They really enjoyed looking through the atlases, identifying the countries and finding their flags. They also looked at which countries were furthest and which were closest to the UK. Hungary is the furthest they have travelled so far!

As part of this learning, they also looked at the habitats and animals that they have helped in these countries so far.

3) As part of our art unit, we looked at the work of Nicole White and Lorna Crane . They both use things found in the environment. The children collected things found on our school woodland and used them to create a design or picture. 

Look how brilliant they turned out!

4) The children were introduced to a tree of the Brunei Rainforest. This tree is taller than any of the other trees in the rainforest. It is nearly 30m tall and has a greyish bark. It has large buttress roots. Its crown stands proud above the rainforest canopy. High up in its crown hang bee hives – these belong to the giant honeybees. The tree is full of life. 

We learnt about the different layers of the rainforest and added animals to the correct layers.

5) We recieved some information from the rainforest rangers. They work to protect the rainforest habitat in Brunei.

The volume of visitors to the rainforest is damaging the plants and scaring the wildlife of the rainforest and they need our help!

We contacted the team, who gave us a description of the village of Brunei, we drew comparisons between there and Woodrow and created the photographs that were sent to the team.

6) We...

• Created fight tickets showing the route from Birmingham to Brunei
• Arrived at passport control, boarded the aeroplane, transported by mini buses and were dropped off at the boat hire sign- which didn't seem to be written in English!
• Translated the boat hire sign using key words and ordered the cheapest to most expensive boat using Brunei Dollars

7) Robyn the Rainforest Ranger took us out by helicopter to see the rainforest!

We...

- Explored adaptations of the plants and animals that live in the tropical climate.

- Grouped items into dead, living or never been alive and sent postcards home with our findings.

- Explored microhabitats and answered questions based on data from our school woods (tally charts).

8) Robyn explained that there is a community of people in the rainforest that protect it.

We found a way to communicate with them using symbols. We explained that we were not there to harm the habitat, but that we wanted to help build a boardwalk to protect it.

After building trust with the Penan, they wanted to show us something very sacred to them- the Mengarris tree. This tree holds the spirits of the rainforest which shield and protect the community from harm. We discovered 'Man of the Forest', an orangutan nest with a mother and baby.

9) Building the boardwalk

The team found different ways to decorate and show respect to the Mengarris tree. They made wax resist paintings of leaves, as well as gifts and lights to allow visitors to travel around the rainforest safely, without disturbing the wildlife.