Class 5 Environmental Studies Chapter 4: Our School — A Happy Place

A walk to school

Aasha and Mohit walk to school together every morning. "Do you like coming to school?" Aasha asks. Mohit grins at her. He likes his friends, the games and the new things he learns. Aasha nods. But she is thinking about something bigger. She wants her school to care for plants, birds and water too. "Could we make it a green school?" she asks.

What is a green school?

A green school is not a school painted green. It is a school that looks after its surroundings. It handles its waste with care. It saves water. It uses electricity only when needed. It grows trees and looks after them. Children, teachers and helpers all join in.

Where do we begin?

Aasha and Mohit share the idea with their class. Everyone becomes curious. Their teacher asks one good question. "How will you begin?" The children decide to look at their own school first. Nobody knows a school better than the children in it.

Explorer teams

The class forms small explorer teams. Each team takes one job. Before setting out, each team decides what to watch for. That one step matters. A team that knows what to look for will notice things that others walk past every day.

Five teams, five jobs

Water watchers hunt for leaking taps and open tanks. Electricity savers check lights and fans left on in empty rooms. Waste warriors look for litter and count the bins. Green guardians find trees, plants and visiting birds. Traffic trackers watch the road outside the gate. Each team writes down what it sees.

Start with less waste

The best way to handle waste is to make less of it. Take only what you need. Use a thing again instead of throwing it away. Mend a bag before buying a new one. Even then, some waste is left. Peels, leftovers and used paper still pile up.

Wet waste and dry waste

Waste is much easier to handle when it is sorted. Wet waste is food waste. Peels, leftover rice and tea leaves are wet waste. Dry waste does not rot quickly. Paper, plastic, glass and metal are dry waste. Sorting them takes only a moment.

Two bins, two colours

Many schools keep two bins side by side. The green bin is for wet waste. The blue bin is for dry waste. Wet waste can become compost for the garden. Dry waste can be used again. Mixed waste is hard to use. When everything lands in one bin, it all turns into rubbish.

Kept aside for the recycler

Old newspapers rarely go into a bin. Families keep them in a corner instead. A recycler comes and takes them away. Different recyclers collect different things. Some take paper. Some take bottles or metal. These things go on to become something new.

The people who keep us clean

Sanitation workers clean our classrooms, drains and toilets. Their work keeps all of us healthy. Mixed and sharp waste makes that work risky. We can make it safer. Sort the waste. Wrap broken glass in thick paper. Say thank you. Every kind of work deserves respect.

Clean India, clean schools

Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya is one part of a big national mission. It works for clean toilets in schools. It works for safe drinking water. It works for sorted waste and clean hands. Every child has a right to learn in a clean, safe place.

Scenario:

A class decides to find out whether its school is a green school. They split into four explorer teams. One counts dripping taps, one weighs a day of waste, one notes lights left on in empty rooms, and one counts trees. The numbers come back and some surprise them. There are six dripping taps and nine lights burning in empty rooms. Arjun had expected waste to be the biggest problem. It was not. The class ranks the four findings by how easily each could be fixed. The dripping taps come first, because one afternoon with a plumber would end all six.

Analysis:

Measuring beat guessing. Arjun expected waste to lead and the counts put dripping taps and lights ahead of it.

Activity:

Count dripping taps and lights left on in your school for one week. Write which is easier to fix and why.

Title:

The sorting game

Safety:

Use only paper chits, never real waste. Wash your hands after the game.

What You Notice:

Some chits start an argument, and those are the interesting ones. A milk packet is dry waste, but it has to be rinsed first. A tea bag is part wet and part dry. Sorting is a habit that gets faster with practice.

Mawlynnong in Meghalaya is known as the cleanest village in Asia.

In many villages, floors are cleaned with cow dung and mud. This keeps insects away and the house cool.

The order of the three waste steps — Less, Again, Apart — Use LESS, use it AGAIN, then keep the rest APART in the right bin.

Bin colours — Green for grub, blue for the rest — Grub means food, so the green bin takes wet food waste. The blue bin takes dry waste.

The hot corner

It is two o'clock. Mohit's class is back from lunch. The row near the western window is so hot that nobody wants to sit there. The row near the door feels pleasant. Same room, same day, same fans. "Why is one corner hotter than the other?" Mohit asks. The class decides to find out.

Where the heat comes in

Heat comes mostly from the Sun. A room warms up when sunlight falls straight on its walls, roof or windows. It stays cooler when something blocks that sunlight. A wall in the shade never gets as hot as a wall in the open.

Shade and breeze

A tree outside the window is a free sunshade. Its leaves catch the sunlight before it reaches the wall. Open windows on two sides let air move right through. Moving air carries warmth away. Shade and breeze together make a big difference.

White throws it back

Colour matters too. A white roof throws back most of the Sun's heat. A dark surface takes that heat in and grows hot. Many families paint roofs white before summer. The room below stays cooler, and no electricity is used.

The tile test

Try it yourself. Take two tiles. Paint one black and one white. Leave both in the Sun for an hour. Now touch them. The black tile feels hot. The white tile feels much cooler. You have just felt the difference for yourself.

The tap that never stops

Now the water watchers report. A tap near the playground drips all day. Drip. Drip. Drip. It looks like nothing at all. Each drop is smaller than a pea. Yet the tap has been dripping for weeks. How much water is that?

Counting the drips

Nisha puts a 250 ml glass under the tap. She times it. The glass fills in 15 minutes. So four glasses fill in one hour. In 24 hours that is 96 glasses. Ninety-six glasses of 250 ml make 24,000 ml, which is 24 litres. One small drip, 24 litres a day.

Saving water at school

The class makes a short list. Report a leaking tap the same day. Close the tap tightly after washing hands. Use a mug instead of a running tap. Keep the tanks covered and clean. None of these cost money. They only need eyes and a habit.

Catching the rain

Rain that falls on a roof need not run into the drain. A pipe can carry it to a tank or a pit. The Jal Shakti Abhiyan asks everyone to save water this way. It asks people to plant trees, harvest rainwater and mend leaks.

Trees do many jobs

The green guardians report next. Trees give shade to the playground. They keep the air clean. They cool the ground around them. Birds nest in them and insects feed on their flowers. A tree is a home, a roof and a lunch box, all at once.

A garden for butterflies

The class plans a butterfly garden. They ask their teacher which flowers butterflies visit. They plant those along a sunny wall. Then they keep a diary. Which insects come? Which birds follow them? A small patch of flowers brings a whole crowd of visitors.

Scenario:

The water watchers of Class 5 find a tap behind the school kitchen. It has been dripping since the summer holidays. Nisha holds a 250 ml glass under it while Arjun watches the clock. The glass takes exactly 15 minutes to fill. The children work it out on the blackboard. Then they walk to the office with their numbers written neatly on a chart. The clerk reads the chart, looks surprised, and sends for a plumber the same afternoon. A new washer costs very little. The teacher says that a chart with numbers on it did what weeks of complaining had not done.

Analysis:

Measuring turns a small nuisance into a number. Numbers persuade people to act, so EVS work often needs a little maths.

Activity:

Find a tap at home or at school. Time how long it takes to fill one glass, then work out the loss for a day.

Title:

Black tile, white tile

Safety:

Touch the tiles with the back of your hand, and only for a moment. Ask an adult before using paint.

What You Notice:

The black tile feels much hotter than the white one. Both sat in the same sunshine, so the difference comes from the colour. A dark surface soaks up heat. That is why a white roof keeps the room below cooler.

In Ladakh, students help build ice stupas. These tall ice towers melt slowly in summer and water school gardens.

A clay matka keeps drinking water cool without using any electricity at all.

Keeping a room cool — Shade, Air, White — SHADE from trees, AIR through open windows, and a WHITE roof that throws the heat back.

What Thomas saw

The class is proud of its green school work. Then Thomas brings up something else. On his way home he saw a road accident near the crossing. He is still upset about it. Mohit says people often do not follow traffic rules. The class grows quiet. Making a school happy, they realise, also means making it safe.

Why the rules matter

Many accidents happen because rules are broken. A driver hurries through a red light. A rider crosses on the wrong side. A child steps out between parked cars. Rules are not there to slow us down. They are there so that everyone knows what the other person will do next.

Outside the gate

The traffic trackers report what they saw at the gate. Vehicles speed past at home time. Parents park right across the footpath. There is a zebra crossing, but nobody waits for it. There is a traffic light and a school sign. Signs help only when people notice them.

Rules we can follow ourselves

Some rules are for drivers. Many are for us. Walk on the footpath. Cross only at the zebra crossing, and look both ways first. Get off a bus on the side of the footpath. Never run across the road. Wear a helmet when riding on a two-wheeler.

A signboard for our gate

The class makes a signboard for the school gate. First they decide the message. Then they make it short, clear and large. "Slow down. Children crossing." A picture of walking children goes below the words. A sign that can be read at one glance is the sign that works.

Being ready for fire

A few weeks later, the school holds a fire safety session. Fires are rare. That is exactly why people freeze when one happens. Being prepared is what keeps everybody calm. The class learns two things first: where the fire extinguisher is kept, and where the assembly point is.

The first moves

If there is fire or the smell of smoke, tell an adult at once. Then move to the nearest way out. Move quickly, but do not run. Do not panic and do not push. Leave the bags and the water bottles. Nothing in the bag is worth going back for.

Under the smoke

Smoke rises to the ceiling. Cleaner air stays low, near the floor. So if there is smoke, crawl low and cover your mouth with a cloth. Never hide in a bathroom or a cupboard. A rescuer must be able to see you and reach you quickly.

At the assembly point

Walk straight to the assembly point and wait there with your own class. Help someone who needs it, if it is safe to do so. Never go back into the building once you are outside. Tell a teacher at once if a classmate is missing or hurt.

What we do matters

Safety is one half of a happy school. The other half is how we treat each other. Two children push ahead in the water queue. Somebody scribbles on a bench. A wrapper is thrown on the field, and a younger child copies. Each small act shapes the place.

Speaking up kindly

So what can we do? We can take our turn in the queue. We can pick the wrapper up instead of pointing at it. If someone is being teased, we can stand beside them and tell a teacher. Doing nothing is also a choice, and it is rarely the kind one.

Respect is a habit

Respect and kindness are not just words in a poster. They show in small actions. Waiting your turn. Using a gentle voice. Leaving a bench and a park as clean as you found them. When people around us feel safe and cared for, the school becomes a happy place.

Scenario:

The traffic trackers stand inside the gate for three days. They carry a notebook and a watch. Each day they count the vehicles passing between 3:20 and 3:40. On Monday they count 48. On Tuesday they count 52. On Wednesday they count 50. They also see eleven cars parked across the footpath. Children step onto the road to get around them. The zebra crossing has faded almost away. The team draws a bar chart of the three days. Under it they write one line. The road is busiest when the smallest children come out. They show the chart to the head teacher. She calls the parents together. She also asks the ward office to paint the crossing again.

Analysis:

Counting and charting turns a worry into evidence. Data makes a problem easy to see and hard to argue with.

Activity:

Stand safely inside your own school gate for ten minutes and count the vehicles. Draw a bar chart of three days.

Title:

Know your way out

Safety:

Walk, never run, during the practice. Do this only with an adult present, and never near a real flame.

What You Notice:

The route you use every day is not always the nearest exit. Walking it once makes the second route easy to remember. Most groups get out much faster the second time they try.

A zebra crossing is the safest place to cross a road, because drivers expect people there.

Many schools paint or mark an assembly point on the open ground, so it can be found quickly.

What to do in a fire drill — Calm, Low, Out, Stay — Walk CALM to the exit, crawl LOW under smoke, get OUT, and STAY at the assembly point.

Being a good classmate — Turn, Words, Space — Take your TURN, use kind WORDS, and leave the SPACE as clean as you found it.