Trash puppets teach students about waste
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East Gippsland primary school students were recently treated to entertaining, hands-on workshops that helped the students learn about waste and sustainability.
Run by the ‘Trash Puppets’, a group of Melbourne artists, the students used their creativity to make animal puppets using rubbish that would otherwise go to landfill, be recycled or end up as litter.
The workshops were jointly-funded by families from the schools, East Gippsland Shire and ResourceSmart Schools Gippsland, which also received a Regional Arts Victoria subsidy.
Swan Reach Primary School hosted a performance of ‘Escape for Trash Mountain’, which was followed by workshops with students from Metung, Buchan, Nungurner, Bruthen, Nowa Nowa, Tambo Upper, Swan Reach and St Brendan’s primary schools.
ResourceSmart Schools Gippsland facilitator Rebecca Lamble said the workshops were very popular with both students and teachers.
“The performance and workshops were a great opportunity for East Gippsland students to learn about waste and sustainability in a different way. The students created some weird and wonderful puppets using the puppetry techniques they learned.
"The range of puppets included puppets on strings, glove puppets, finger puppets, or combinations of all three techniques. Nungurner Primary School took the lead to make the ‘Trash Puppets’ visit happen, and it was great to see so many schools embrace this program,” Ms Lamble said.
Trash Puppets believes fostering creativity is key to a happy, healthy planet. Through playful workshops, participants were encouraged to think and talk about waste reduction, recycling right, and imagining something new from discarded materials.