Whether you started off your year with an early fall campaign or are looking to plan your first one, we’ve got plenty of ideas to share – including a creative way to connect energy conservation to Halloween.
It wouldn’t be October without a Green Halloween celebration!
Here are three ideas to celebrate Halloween while staying true to your enviromental goals:
- Host an eco-superhero dress-up contest! Help students find creative costume ideas, like an Energy Light-saver, Super Commuter, or Energy Vampire, and show ‘em off during an assembly.
- Enjoy naturally sweet treats: Visit a nearby farm or orchard, crunch on locally grown apples, or carve pumpkins and toast the seeds for a healthy treat. For secondary students, host a soup cook-off using local goodies like sweet potatoes, squash, and beets.
- Nature-based autumn art: Organize a walk at a local park or trail and make Halloween-themed art using found materials like twigs, leaves, and pinecones. Connect this activity to writing, arts, or media classes by having students record what they found in a nature journal or taking photos to display on your EcoSchool bulletin boards.
Start something by buying nothing
Buy Nothing Day is on November 24! This is a popular environmental day for schools as it’s an opportunity to get creative and rethink the ways in which we acquire goods. Get a refresher on what Buy Nothing Day is all about and how you can take action, from delving into media messaging to reworking tired items into upcycled masterpieces. Organizing a field trip to a local business that uses salvaged materials or a tool library/sharing depot is an excellent way to showcase alternatives to a consumption-oriented lifestyle. Our Climate Change and Consumerism fact sheet provides essential facts on how a lifestyle of acquisition is linked to climate change and what you can do right now to reduce your impact.
Trade candy bars for power bars and scare away Phantom Power
Halloween is also a chance to become familiar with the spook of Energy Conservation – Phantom Power – also known as standby power, or the energy used from devices that are plugged in but not in use. Did you know that Phantom Power could account for up to 10 per cent of your home’s energy use? Scary! Visit the Ontario Ministry of Energy’s emPOWERme page for classroom resources on energy production and consumption. Over the next two weeks, check our Twitter feed for #OFFtober info and tips to banish Phantom Power while saving energy at home and at school.
Stay tuned for Green Holiday ideas in our November/December newsletter.
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